“When I was a child, at home I was the one who read the most, and I suppose that writing was related to this love of reading.” Sitting on the terrace, enjoying the momentary evening silence with a broad smile, Laura Manzanera savors a glass of Ribera del Duero. “I’m more of a listener and a reader than a speaker,” she reflects aloud. A fitting description of an unmistakably vocational journalist and writer.
As a child, she already wrote stories, weaving a fictional world that she never abandoned, but when it came time to choose what to study, she opted for Journalism. “And with that I put writing stories aside for a while, although never completely.” She immediately started working, collaborating with various magazines. But it was at the historical publication Clío that she established herself as an expert in exploring History from a female perspective. “When I joined, in 2001, the newsroom was essentially made up of men. And generally, there were few articles about great historical women, and they rarely went beyond more or less conventional biographies of very well-known figures, such as Joanna the Mad or Mata Hari.”
Laura realized that there was a lot to contribute and explain here. “And I started writing about less studied topics and women,” looking for lesser-known details and facets and establishing herself as one of the pioneers in highlighting women in historical journalism in this country. Thus, she produced articles, reports and journalistic books featuring figures such as Olympe de Gouges, the “cursed chronicler” of the French Revolution, and Jane Austen, as well as volumes such as Del corsé al tanga, a journey through a century of fashion in Spain; Insumisas, a study of women who adopted masculine aesthetics in search of freedom and equality; and the acclaimed Mujeres espías, which tells the stories and experiences of women who engaged in espionage, such as Josephine Baker, Virginia di Castiglione and Belle Boyd.
Over the years, she has gone through all the economic crises that have shaken (and dismembered) the world of journalism. "I believe I have been consistent with myself and have remained in the world of writing." Despite everything.
Answering the call of fiction
Four years ago, Laura Manzanera started working in a digital marketing agency, a fairly common symptom in the precarious environment of journalism. “It was a very big change for me.” New routines, new ways of communicating, new lexicons. And, even so, she has found time to work on her debut novel, ¿Quién ha matado a Agatha Christie? (Versátil).
“I have many stories written –she explains–, but except for a few that have won awards or been finalists, and that have been published in anthologies, the truth is that the others are unpublished.”
"History continues to be that warm refuge that allows Laura to be herself and love her work, no matter how hard and uncertain the times may be professionally"
– So, how did the idea for a novel come about?
The journalist and writer smiles. “A publisher commissioned me a biography about Agatha Christie for a collection that eventually ended. The biography as such never saw the light, but, investigating her life, I saw that, for ten days, in 1926, she disappeared and no one ever knew what happened to her. When she returned home, she claimed to have amnesia and remembered nothing.” That historical void was too tempting. “I created a fictional plot of murders linked to the mining strikes of that year, and I wove a story in which Scotland Yard asked Agatha Christie for help, and she absented herself those ten days to put her talent and perspicacity at the service of the investigation.” This is the plot of a novel that, she confesses, she greatly enjoyed writing, “mixing real elements with fictional, invented ones, although very plausible.”
Aside from presenting the volume here and there, the author has also had time to produce a series of videos for Instagram that, under the title ¿Y ellas?, investigates unpublished aspects of great women in History: from Cleopatra or Joan of Arc, to lesser-known ones like Alice Guy or Sofonisba Anguissola. It could be said that History continues to be that warm refuge that allows Laura to be herself and love her work, no matter how hard and uncertain the times may be professionally.
Memory of that Barceloneta
“Our father worked in a factory in Barceloneta, so, perhaps, what I love most about Barcelona is the memory of when my brothers and I would rush out of school and go to the neighborhood’s Swimming Club pool or to the beach, to swim and play with the children who lived nearby,” recalls the writer, who has lived her entire life in the city, passing through various neighborhoods, and does not rule out that real estate speculative voracity will end up driving her out, sooner or later, too.
“I’ve seen how everything has changed, and how everything ends up being a set piece at the service of tourists. Like these terraces where they tell you you can’t sit down if you’re not going to eat anything,” she laments, finishing her wine. “I hope this isn’t one of those!”
– Of course, here we don’t force anything. But it’s already dinner time and perhaps we can tempt you with another glass of red wine and something to snack on.
Laura Manzanera cannot suppress a smile (one of the many that have accompanied her during the conversation). She thinks about it for a few moments, and finally decrees:
– A potato omelet pintxo, and perhaps I’ll eat something for dessert, as I’m very fond of sweets.
And she clarifies that the omelet must be with onion. Obviously.
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