Felipe Fernández Armesto

Pseudonym: Augusto Assía
Category: Journalist and writer
Birth Date: 20th April 1906 (†2nd February 2002)
Birth Place: A Mezquita (Ourense)
 Curriculum

Felipe Fernández Armesto started his literary career in Santiago de Compostela, where he studied Philosophy and Arts. His first publication (in Galician) was the short novel Xelo, o salvaxe (1925) but he soon gave up literature to devote himself to journalism. He edited the university page in the newspaper El Pueblo Gallego in Santiago de Compostela. Shortly after, he travelled to Paris to attend a course on History at Sorbona University and then to Berlin where he worked as a conversation assistant of Spanish Literature. He started to work as a correspondent of the newspaper La Vanguardia in 1929 under the pseudonym 'Augusto Assía'. In 1933, he was expelled from Germany once Hitler was in power and was appointed to London as a correspondent of La Vanguardia, where he stayed until he returned to Spain as the Civil War broke out.

 Work & Activities

These are some of the most important books he wrote: La traición como arte, Cuando yunque, yunque y cuando martillo, martillo, Vidas inglesas, Los ingleses en su isla and Mi vuelta al mundo de los yanquis.

 Other Interesting Aspects

He was awarded several prizes and decorations such as Knight of the Order of the British Empire, Castelao's medal and Galicia Communication Prize (2000). In 1950, he married the journalist María Victoria Fernández España, whose grandfather was the founder of the newspaper La Voz de Galicia.