Francisco Umbral Prince of Asturias Award for Literature 1996

Francisco Umbral -Francisco Pérez Martínez (Madrid, Spain, 1935 - Madrid, Spain, 2007 ), even though Valladolid is a "central coordinate" in his work. Self-educated, he met Miguel Delibes and, under his influence, took what were to be his first steps in journalism in "El norte de Castilla". At the start of the sixties he moved to Madrid where he began to frequent the gatherings in the café Gijón and to collaborate in some magazines such as "La estafeta literaria" and "Mundo Hispánico", later going on to the newspaper "Ya".

Among the media in which he collaborated are the magazine "Interviú" and the newspapers "El País", "Diario 16" and "El Mundo". He published more than seventy books, outstanding among which are titles such as "Larra, anatomía de un dandy", "Lorca, poeta maldito", "Amar en Madrid", "Diccionario Cheli", "Las ninfas", "Madrid 1940. Memorias de un joven fascista" and "Las palabras de la tribu". Umbral was a writer who is difficult to classify although, according to many critics, he was outstanding because of his extraordinary capacity to create stunning images and startling metaphors, and also his agility in narration, his rich and biting baroque language and his sense of humour and irony.