The Night Gihraitar Disappeared

Francisco Javier Oliva, has achieved a life's ambition and written his first fictional book.

Paco Oliva, the name you and I know him by has been a journalist for 25 years and is currently news editor at the Gibralfnr Chronicle. Though writing is an every day oc currence for him it doesn't natu rally follow it's easy to write a book. His previ ous book was a political analysis but this new work has taken two painstaking years of ideas,imagination, rewrites and rechecking. A self confessed perfectionist he says sometimes he would be up all night writing and at the end of the session he would find he had only written half a page.

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The book went on sale on 17th March and is available in any bookstore in Gibraltar.The title The Night Gihraitar Disappeared and Other Stories subtitled 'a fictional journey through the void'is a collection of 18 stories. Some are loosely autobiographical others are explora tions of human relationships through Paco's own thoughts and imaginations.Some of the stories have elements of historical events but all of the stories take place in Gibraltar, in the bars and streets we all know so well but perhaps with Paco's storytelling we'll look at in a different light.

"I want to be remembered as an author. I want to create characters and stories that will enthral people. It's my first attempt at fiction," he says. "I want to take the reader to places they haven't been before. As a journalist I have to explain where 1 am go ing with an article and ensure that when I'm reporting, what I write is factual, objective. Writing these stories has been a liberation for me,although at the same time I am assuming risks since all safety nets, for example the techniques and conventions of journalism etc, have been removed. I'm satisfied with the result and I invite everyone to read the book."

If you are wondering about the title The Night Gibraltar Disappeared and Other Stories he said it came about from a power cut we had on Good Friday in 2001 when the submarine HMS Tireless was in port."I was across the frontier in La Linea and looked back at Gibraltar during the power cut," said Paco."You couldn't see the Rock at all, just a big black hole and it seemed so surreal — and it does tie up with one of the stories in the book."

Judge for yourself, pick up a copy from any bookshop and support one of our own in a new venture. The Night Gibraltar Disap peared and Other Stories by Paco Oliva is available now.