Mervyn Samuel

I was born at Bristol in the West of England and attended the Bristol Cathedral School before reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St. Peter's College, Oxford. Then I joined Bank of London & South America, working in Argentina (Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata) and Peru (Lima), before moving to Spain (Seville and Madrid). When BOLSA was taken over by a British domestic bank I left its employ but remained in Spain.

Based in Madrid I pursued interests in heritage conservation with the Hispania Nostra Association, part of the Europa Nostra federation, and became a professional translator/interpreter. Among other works I translated books on Spanish royal palaces for Patrimonio Nacional, and others on folk art for San Antonio Museum of Art (Texas). I also have a long-term link to the Xavier de Salas Foundation at Trujillo (Extremadura, Spain), where a collection of folk art including items from Ayacucho is being built up.

Travel has been a constant pleasure since childhood, and I have returned on several occasions to Peru to keep in touch with a country for which I retain a special affection. My guidebook to Ayacucho (2009) is the fruit of an unplanned visit to that singular city which retains much of the built heritage from its 17th-century heyday while also being celebrated for its popular festivities (especially during Holy Week) and the creation of present-day folk art: ceramics, fabulous fabrics and carvings in the local white alabaster known as 'piedra de Huamanga'.

I translated (into English) Sonaly Tuesta's book 'The Coca has Sweetened..!: On water, earth and dust' (2016), a well-documented ethnographic study of popular customs in five Peruvian towns, so that it can reach the wider audience it deserves.

In February 2016 my book 'Cuentos de los Reales Alcázares de Sevilla' was published in Spain, an evocation of a thousand years of history, people and ideas in that most lovely of Spanish royal palaces. In July of the same year the English-language edition was published in Spain: 'Tales of the Royal Alcázar of Seville'.

My book 'Reflections of Peru' has been available in paperback since April 2019. It is a collection of texts written at different moments but all shedding light on aspects of Peruvian history and culture often linked to Spain, and accompanied by numerous photographs many of them my own.

In September 2019, Sial Pigmalión (Madrid) published a complete edition of Washington Irving's 'Tales of the Alhambra' with my prologue and photos.

Nowadays I split my time mainly between Spain and England, with occasional excursions to France and other countries.