Biography

Ian Gibson (born 21 April 1939) is an Irish author and Hispanist known for his biographies of the poet Antonio Machado, the artist Salvador Dalí, the bibliographer Henry Spencer Ashbee, the filmmaker Luis Buñuel. and particularly his work on the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, for which he won several awards, including the 1989 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography. His work, La represión nacionalista de Granada en 1936 y la muerte de Federico García Lorca (The Nationalist Repression of Granada in 1936 and the Death of Federico García Lorca) was banned in Spain under Franco.

Born in Dublin to a Methodist family, he was educated at Newtown School in Waterford and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. He taught modern Spanish literature at Queen's University Belfast and the University of London before moving to Spain. His first novel, Viento del Sur (Wind of the South, 2001), written in Spanish, examines class, religion, family life, and public schools in British society through the fictitious autobiography of a character named John Hill, an English linguist and academic. It won favourable reviews in Spain.

Gibson has also worked in television on projects centering on his scholarly work in Spanish history, having served as a historical consultant and even acting in one historical drama.

He was granted a Spanish passport (citizenship) 1984.

Gibson narrated a two-part documentary for BBC2 on the Great Famine of Ireland in 1995.

He appeared in a honorary position in the list proposed by Podemos, Alianza Verde and independents to the 2023 local elections in Granada.