The Cauldron: The Metamorphosis of a Literary Festival

I have just about recovered from the Gibraltar Literary Festival, but my poor coffee table is heaving with a stack of new books. I’m currently half-way through States of Play by Miguel Delaney but more about that later.

The first Gibunco Gibraltar Literary Festival was held in 2013 and the area around the Garrison Library-The Convent-John Mack Hall was buzzing with bookish types and the odd literary celebrity. The line up featured prize-winning author Joanne ‘Chocolat’ Harris and Man Booker Prize winner Ben Okri. It was thrilling to witness and those of us who were long starved of literary culture in Gibraltar welcomed it with open arms. In 2014 I put my name down as a festival volunteer and was thrown in amongst the speakers and organisers. My role was ‘introducer’ and I was allocated a list of authors across the three days. I’d open each talk with the usual housekeeping rules, provide a short introduction and then field audience questions with the microphone. This meant having to meet with the author beforehand, read the blurb on their book, and find out what they wanted to get across with their presentation. It was a baptism of fire and thoroughly enjoyable, so much so that I did it again in 2015.

One of the first writers I introduced was Nicholas Rankin with his Telegram from Guernica: The Extraordinary Life of George Steer. A book I have since read twice and which led to me trailing around the Basque Country with a copy of Steer’s The Tree of Gernika: a Field Study of Modern War. The power of books indeed! Through my interaction with Nick, I also met his wife the novelist Maggie Gee and a friendship flourished. These were the only two writers I spoke to who took an interest in local Gibraltar writing and wanted to find out more. Nick was to go on to write the superb Defending the Rock: Gibraltar and the Second World War (daring to tell uncomfortable truths about how some local families behaved during the Spanish Civil War), and Maggie’s fascinating 2022 novel The Red Children was influenced by Gibraltar.

As a volunteer I got to use the Green Room and would eavesdrop on conversations. Visiting writers were taken aback by the lavishness of the Gibraltar festival; headline authors alongside local politicians were chauffeured from one venue to another. I witnessed an official car driving from the Garrison Library to the John Mackintosh Hall and even The Convent! It did not go unnoticed by our guests who soon started to call it ‘The Gibraltar Glitterary Festival’. Posh gala dinners at The Sunborn, trips to Tangier, politicians galore, beauty queens. Not really the sort of thing that nerdy wordsmiths enjoy; give them a decent glass of wine and a heritage building and they’re happy. This is where the Garrison Library and the Mayor’s Parlour at City Hall come into their own, beautiful venues redolent with Gibraltar history. Places that many local residents have never entered and via the annual Literary Festival they get ‘double bubble’ in terms of culture.

There is no need to spend large sums of money on bling and excess. When I questioned then Minister Daryanani on X (Twitter) as to the cost of this festival to the public purse he was unable to reply, yet the fake profile harpies soon screeched back that it was ‘all paid for by the sponsors!’ Is it all paid for by the sponsors I asked? (Silence). The Literary Festival is organised by the Ministry of Tourism & Culture and it’s those members of staff who run the whole thing, do their wages get paid by the sponsor? I very much doubt that.

In 2016 Gabriel Moreno and I organised one of our popular Music & Poetry soirées and by coincidence it fell on literary festival Friday. I sent our poster to the organisers asking them if they could disseminate it around the visiting authors and add it to the GLF calendar of events. I did not receive a reply, and the poster was not circulated to anyone. Maggie and Nick happened to be back for their second festival and when I told them about the soiree they were delighted and booked two seats. The question arising was: Why would the festival organisers ignore our local literary event? Visitors need things to do in the evening, visiting writers and creatives want to experience alternative local culture and we have it.

As the saying goes “once bitten twice shy”, so when a group of us decided to organise the Al Margen event in 2025 we didn’t ask the authorities to send round our poster, we instead did it ourselves. I contacted every overseas participant by email and all of them replied, even Jeremy Hunt’s PA! They each expressed great interest in our original show at the Rock Hotel, but none could attend as nearly all were arriving the day after (John Suchet wrote me a lovely message and asked how things had gone when I met him at his talk). What a shame as this also meant they missed the local aspect of the festival too, the Lightning Talks and the Poetry Panel. It should never be assumed that speakers at literary festivals want to be chauffeured around and forced to sit next to philistine politicians at dreary dinners. Writers and poets are usually interested in other writers and poets and would prefer a fun cabaret as opposed to having dinner alone with their agent.

Al Margen was a huge success and after speaking with Festival Director Seamus Byrne, it was agreed that in 2026 the now weeklong Literary Festival should include evening entertainment. These do not need to be organised or staffed by government, on the contrary, it should be encouraged that independent venues and artistes hold events which are then added to the official calendar, on the official website with the ticket sales function.

2025 was by far the best festival to date in terms of the number of activities on offer. The marketing campaign was excellent and very well organised considering it seemed to morph from a long weekend into a week at the very last minute. High praise must go to everyone at GCS and Tourism. Now, I love a good non-fiction read (especially if it involves dodgy practices in football) but it was noticeable how GLF2025 lacked novelists. Firstly, the Headline act was Sir Jeremy Hunt (!) There was a crime panel made up of three writers of an identical genre and the only person showcasing a new novel was Prof. Khalid Bekkaoui with his Necklace and Pomegranates. Professors Bekkaoui’s participation was only made possible with the support of the Gibraltar Moroccan Business Association in Tangier so what does that tell us? The word amongst Gibraltar bookworms is to cut back on the middle-class memoirs and Royal Family obsessives and bring over some top novelists and poets.

If Gibraltar really wants to put itself on the literary map, then why not host an international poetry prize offering decent prize money? It is not difficult to organise and the judging can be actioned via email (I have been a judge for the Portsmouth Short Story Competition so know how it works). The winner could be announced at our annual festival. It would most definitely attract worldwide literary interest and could be called, for example, The John Bassadone Poetry Prize. Food for thought…