British writer risks death in the afternoon
"There is no winning. It's not a fight," he says of the bloody Spanish spectacle. "It's a tragic play in three acts."
Fiske-Harrison, an Old Etonion and Oxford graduate, is following a line of non-Spanish artists to have been captivated by the "corrida de toros" that includes film-maker Orson Welles, critic Kenneth Tynan and, of course, Ernest Hemingway.
His just-published book "Into the Arena" sets out to explain the world of the Spanish bullfight and to examine its moral dilemma --the killing of an animal for entertainment.
It comes out at a time when the corrida is under sustained attack from animal rights activists in Spain and abroad and is feeling the effects of the country's economic crisis.
To get to the heart of the matter, Fiske-Harrison, 34, spent a year living in Seville and training as a matador, learning the cape passes and the technique of killing with the sword.
He took part in more than a dozen "tentaderos" -- private fights at bull ranches aimed at testing young bulls -- and finished by killing a three-year-old Saltillo bull before an audience of 100 spectators last November.
"I had qualms. There was a real possibility it could go horribly wrong. It just seems to me that if you are going to write, let's try to describe it properly. So I went for going over the horns. The moment of truth," he told Reuters.
Along the way he befriended matadors such as Juan Jose Padilla, one of Spain's most fearless, and Cayetano Rivera Ordonez, whose father Paquirri was killed in the ring in 1984 and whose grandfather Antonio Ordonez is one of the all-time greats.
He also hung out with breeders on the ranches where the bulls roam free until their date in the ring, including the Miura family, whose feared bulls have killed more matadors than any other breed.
He also tried his luck running with the bulls at Pamplona's San Fermin festival and will be there again in a few weeks time.
Fiske-Harrison, who wrote and acted in "The Pendulum" in London's West End before embarking on his taurine adventure, agrees with Hemingway's dictum that bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death.
But, he says, the corrida is not about blood lust.
"The bull is not scared, it is fighting. It comes down to the elegance of the visual spectacle. The man standing rigid with this raging fury of blood and thunder going past him. And the danger, bringing it closer and closer.
Spanish Poet Garcia - News
Rex Features One of the great mysteries of Spain's recent history may have been solved by a local historian from the southern city of Granada, who claims to have found the real grave of the executed playwright and poet Federico García Lorca.
Fiske-Harrison believes reports of the demise of a spectacle that back in the 1930s poet Federico Garcia Lorca called "the last serious thing in the modern world" are premature. "In 2008 there were more fights than there have been in history.
Fiske-Harrison believes reports of the demise of a spectacle that back in the 1930s poet Federico Garcia Lorca called "the last serious thing in the modern world" are premature. "In 2008 there were more fights than there have been in history.
He collected his work in “Time and Again: Poems, 1940-1997,'' published in 2000. He also wrote plays and translated poetry, prose, and drama by writers including Pessoa, Cervantes, Calderon de la Barca, and the Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca.
Small wonder, we find later in the website poet-writer Pete Lacaba credited for Tagalog translation. Bravo Pete! And likewise Bravo John Sayles who auditioned the Filipino cast in Tagalog admitting to us he did this on the basis of emotion.
Final hours of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca revealed ...
One of the great mysteries of Spain’s recent history may have been solved by a local historian from the southern city of Granada, who claims to have found the real grave of the executed playwright and poet Federico García Lorca.
Miguel Caballero Pérez spent three years sifting through police and military archives to piece together the last 13 hours of the life of the author of Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba, who was shot by a right-wing firing squad early in the Spanish civil war.
He now claims to have identified the half-dozen career policemen and volunteers who formed the firing squad that shot Lorca and three other prisoners, as well as the burial site. And he blames Lorca’s death on the long-running political and business rivalry between some of Granada’s wealthiest families – including his father’s own García clan.
“I decided to research archive material rather than gather more oral testimony because that is where the existing confusion comes from – with so many supposed witnesses inventing things,” explained Caballero, who has published his results in a Spanish book called The Last 13 Hours of García Lorca.
Caballero said his original intention had been to verify information gathered in the 1960s by a Spanish journalist, Eduardo Molina Fajardo, who was also a member of the far-right Falange organisation that supported the dictator General Francisco Franco.
RT : Fascinating. Final hours of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca revealed via 
RT : Fascinating. Final hours of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca revealed via 
Fascinating. Final hours of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca revealed via 
Final hours of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca revealed. 
RT : Final hours of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca revealedSpanish Poet Garcia - Bookshelf
In the dark before dawn, new selected poems of Thomas Merton
1940-42 {1971} IN MEMORY OF THE SPANISH POET FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA Where the white bridge rears up its stamping arches Proud as a colt across the clatter of ...Twentieth-century literary criticism
INTRODUCTION One of the most important figures in modern Spanish literature, Garcia Lorca drew upon elements of Spanish life and culture to create works at ...Columbia dictionary of modern European literature
SMG Garcia Nieto, José (I914-), Spanish poet and critic, was born in Oviedo and has spent most of his life in Madrid. Although he is unlikely to be ...The wound and the dream, sixty years of American poems about the Spanish Civil War
Alberti reissued Garcia Lorca's Romancero gitano in 1943 in Argentina, ... while "My Mother with Purse the SummerThey Murdered the Spanish Poet" and "My ...The Cervantes Encyclopedia: A-K
Garcia Lorca, Federico (1898-1936). Spanish poet and dramatist. Garcia Lorca is generally recognized as the greatest poet of the twentieth century in Spain, ...Day-by-day Articles Directory
Federico Garcia Lorca - Wikipedia
Encyclopedia entry on Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, who was killed during the Spanish Civil War. Includes biography, bibliography, and links.
Federico Garcia Lorca: Biography from Answers.com
Federico Garcia Lorca was one of the most critically acclaimed Spanish poets of the 20th ... The Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote the poem El Crimen Fue en ...
Final hours of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca revealed ...
Final hours of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca revealed ... The celebrated writer Federico García Lorca was executed by a fascist firing squad in Granada during Spain's ...
Carlos Alberto Garcia - Spanish Poets - Spanish Love Poems
Spanish Love Poems - Spanish Poets - Carlos Alberto Garcia
Federico Garcia Lorca - Poets.org
Federico García Lorca is possibly the most important Spanish poet and dramatist of the twentieth century. García Lorca was born June 5, 1898, in Fuente ...