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Giles Tremlett is a prize-winning biographer, narrative historian and journalist based in Madrid, Spain. He has lived in, and written extensively about, Spain almost continuously since graduating from Oxford University. He has been a Visiting Fellow of the Can~ada Blanch Centre at the London School of Economics, writes opinion and long-form reportage for the Guardian and is a former Madrid correspondent for the Economist.
Making Francisco Franco’s long life and 38 years of dictatorship enjoyable reading is a daunting challenge. With supple and elegant prose, Giles Tremlett nonetheless succeeds magnificently -- Paul Preston, author of THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR and THE SPANISH HOLOCAUST Mediocrities can rise to great power; just look at Vladimir Putin. But the classic example was Francisco Franco, who – as we learn from this excellent study of the generalísimo and the post-war Spain he forged – never saw an internal enemy he couldn’t crush in a style that was at once brutal and blundering * Telegraph, The Greatest Books of 2025 * A magisterial, ground-breaking new portrait of Francisco Franco as unique among the European dictators of the twentieth century. Tremlett charts Franco’s personal and political evolution from brilliant soldier to ruthless tyrant with unerring clarity, riveting anecdotes and chilling details. Comprehensive and complex, this book lays bare the paradoxical and eye-opening story of a cold, ruthless man in thrall to an ambition and ideology that crippled his country for 36 years. El Generalísimo sets a gold standard in Spanish Civil War history -- Elizabeth Drayson, author of CRUCIBLE OF LIGHT [In] this intriguing new biography… Tremlett has an intimate understanding of Spain’s recent history… [and] writes with great clarity about complex topics. Tremlett deserves praise for making him fascinating -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times * Given the new world disorder, the resurgence of autocrats in so many places; the crisis and fragility of democracy… it’s good to have a new [biography of Franco]. In El Generalísimo, Giles Tremlett delivers an excellent biography – compelling, authoritative, even entertaining – of this highly dislikable creature -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Daily Telegraph * Giles Tremlett gives a rounded portrait of Francisco Franco, whose rise to power was extraordinary by any standards—from the youngest general in Europe since Napoleon, at the age of 33, to victor of the Spanish Civil War, and then dictator for 36 years. Tremlett’s vivid book makes judicious use of reports, memoirs, and newspapers of the time for an engaging and penetrating biography -- William Chislett, author of SPAIN: WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW This new biography of Franco, marking the 50th anniversary of the Spanish dictator’s death, explains how an uncharismatic military officer, lacking ideology or even ideas, seized control of a western European democracy, outlived his fellow autocrats Hitler and Mussolini and ran the country with an iron fist for 36 years until he died from old age in a hospital bed * Financial Times, Best Books of 2025 *
