Instituto Cervantes in London is hosting a talk on the book “Los curiosos impertinentes. Hispanófilos británicos de los siglos XIX-XXI” by William Chislett. The author will discuss the writing process and the research behind the books cited in his work in conversation with journalist and writer Michael Portillo.
“Los curiosos impertinentes. Hispanófilos británicos de los siglos XIX-XXI” is the fourth volume in the Mina de Pasatiempos collection published by Instituto Cervantes. It brings together a series of monographic articles by the hispanist William Chislett, dedicated to nine distinguished British travelers, scholars, and promoters of Spain, who significantly contributed to shaping the country’s international image — through perspectives that are diverse and even contradictory.
The book, with a foreword by Julio Llamazares, features portraits of George Borrow, Richard Ford, Walter Starkie, John Brande Trend, Gerald Brenan, V.S. Pritchett, Norman Lewis, Laurie Lee, and Michael Jacobs. It also includes a final section with profiles of E. Allison Peers, H. V. Morton, Robert Graves, Sacheverell Sitwell, Penelope Chetwode, Jan Morris, Ted Walker, Simon Courtauld, Christopher Howse, Miranda France, and Giles Tremlett.
William Chislett (Oxford, 1951) is a British journalist, writer, and hispanist who has lived in Madrid since 1986. He was a correspondent for The Times in Madrid during Spain’s Transition to democracy (1975–1978), and later for the Financial Times in Mexico (1978–1984). Since returning to Spain, he has developed a prolific career as an analyst and author.
He is a distinguished senior research fellow at the Elcano Royal Institute, where he has published numerous studies and books on Spain and Latin America. His notable works include Microhistoria de España (2020), Spain: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2025), and The Internationalization of the Spanish Economy (2002).
Chislett has lectured at prestigious universities such as Oxford, Princeton, Harvard, Chicago, Georgetown, and the London School of Economics. He also curated the exhibition on Arturo Barea at Instituto Cervantes in 2018 and has actively worked to recover the legacy of the exiled writer.
Michael Portillo was born in North London in 1953. His father, Luis, came to Britain as a refugee at the end of the Spanish Civil War, and his mother, Cora, was raised in Fife. Cora met Luis while she was an undergraduate at Oxford University. Michael attended Harrow County Grammar School and later studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he earned a first-class degree in History.
He left Cambridge in 1975 and worked for a shipping company for a year. In 1976, he joined the Conservative Research Department, where he spent three years. During the 1979 General Election, he was responsible for briefing Margaret Thatcher before her press conferences. For the next two years, he served as special adviser to the Secretary of State for Energy. Between 1981 and 1983, he worked for Kerr McGee Oil (UK) Ltd. In the 1983 election, he ran as the Conservative candidate for the Birmingham Perry Bar constituency.
