Trivia

Laiglesia's earliest writing was for the satirical magazine La Ametralladora (= The Machine gun), which had been founded by Miguel Mihura. He was only 16 when he began contributing.

In 1976 Álvaro de Laiglesia married an English woman, Ann Heath. He died suddenly from a cerebral thrombosis while visiting his wife's family in Manchester, England.

His family felt that he needed a more secure career, and after the war ended he was sent to work with the Bank of Spain. However, he only lasted at the bank for a hundred days after which, keen to see something of the world, he jumped on board a steamer sailing to Havana. In Cuba his friend Pepín Rivero managed to get him a job with the Diario de la Marina (newspaper), with a weekly salary of ten pesos.

His most notable works include "Un náufrago en la sopa" ("A castaway in the soup", 1944), "Todos los ombligos son redondos" ("Navels are always round", 1956), "Yo soy Fulana de Tal" ("I am Mrs so-and-so", 1963), "Réquiem por una furcia" (1970) and "Una larga y cálida meada" ("A long warm leak", 1975).

He also composed a number of comedy screen plays for television, including "Consultorio" ("Consultation Room", 1961), "El tercer rombo" ("The Third diamond", 1966), "Historias Naturales" (1967-1968) and "Animales Racionales" ("Rational animals", 1972) with Antonio Casal and Manolo Gómez Bur.

Álvaro de Laiglesia was a Spanish writer and humorist.

Laiglesia was a prolific and, in his time, popular novelist.

Álvaro de Laiglesia collaborated with Miguel Mihura to write the stage play "El caso de la mujer asesinadita" ("The case of the slightly murdered woman", 1946).

He returned from Cuba in March 1941. In Spain he switched to the daily newspaper Informaciones and was then, in 1942, a co-founder of the weekly news magazine La Codorniz (= The Quail), committed, according to its motto, to producing "the boldest humour for the most intelligent reader". Starting in 1944, he would be the managing editor of this publication for 33 years.

The family into which he was born was a prosperous one, with a holiday home at Monte Igueldo. His grandfather had been among the founders of Spanish Credit Bank. However, during the build-up to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the family fortunes went into a sharp decline, with the result that Álvaro de Laiglesia's upbringing involved several house moves to ever smaller apartments and changes of school. The family's art collection was replaced by a series of bare nails sticking out of the wall where the paintings had once hung.