Cockburn in Spain presents an excellent writer reporting on one of the momentous struggles of his time. Claud Cockburn was in Spain when the war broke out, and covered the conflict for the Daily Worker under the pen-name 'Frank Pitcairn'. No ordinary war correspondent, he enlisted in a Republican militia and fought in the defence of Madrid. His descriptions of these early battles are amongst the finest writing the war produced, as is his eye-witness account of the people's defeat of the military rising in Barcelona.

Cockburn's despatches from Spain cover all the most important aspect of the war —the International Brigade's first battles, the fighting on the southern front and the POUM rising in Barcelona, as well as exposures of the extent of German and Italian involvement in the war. Also included here are articles on Spain from his famous paper The Week, pieces on diplomatic aspects of the war written after he left the country, and extracts from the short, often caustic, book he wrote at the time, Reporter in Spain.

The Spanish Civil War was covered by some of the finest journalists of the time: Cockburn in Spain is the work of the very best of them —passionate, committed and from the front-line.