Michael Jacobs (art and travel writer)


Michael Jacobs was a writer of Irish/Italian ancestry, born in Genoa, with particular interest in Travel, History of Art, Spain, Latin America and Gastronomy. His most successful popular work in both English and Spanish has been The Factory of Light: Tales from my Andalucian Village, a true story but with a flavour of the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez.

Writing

Jacobs' writing initially specialised in introducing Fine Art to the general reader. He continued with these works but latterly produced books which capture the day-to-day life especially of Latin countries and relate that to an historical and political context.
To the new reader Jacobs may appear 'intellectual' or 'literary' but he had rare talent in being able to write recent works such as The Factory of Light which is close to the popular current genre of the English emigre setting up home in Southern Europe, but also books such as Between Hopes and Memories which is a snapshot of Spain in the post-transition economic boom of the 1990s and classic travel writing such as the semi-autobiographical Ghost Train Through the Andes and The Andes.

Publications