Here in Tenerife, July 25th is a special day; this year, even more so, as it is the 225th anniversary of the defeat of Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Tenerife in 1797. Nelson not only lost the battle but his right arm which was shattered by a musket ball.

However, the dashing Rear Admiral, who thought that his career was over after this disaster, made an exceptionally quick recovery; enough to demolish Napoleon’s fleet the following year, 1798, on the 1st August at the Battle of the Nile.
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How many readers have no idea what this little chap represents? Not a lot.

It was in 1935, when Allen Lane (pictured), the sales director of Bodley Head, a book publishing company that had lost its way, came up with the idea of publishing cheap books for 6d with a paperback cover. The idea was not original as, in 1932, a German publishing house in Hamburg, Albatross Books, had done this and with great success.

By the time that war broke out, apart from the trade name, Penguin, Lane had adopted many of the Albatross ideas, including the standard size, covers using typography and logo but no illustrations, and the use of colour coding by type of content.
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Following our successful fund-raising lunches for La Palma our President recalled the article that he wrote for the Tenerife News in 2016 remembering the 45th Anniversary of the 1971 eruption. A very interesting read. This has been taken from the Tenerife News.

One fact that most people don’t know about volcanic eruptions is that they are not short-lasting affairs like earthquakes. They go on for weeks. In the beginning, they throw in a series of earth tremors to announce their intentions. Take La Palma for instance. On Thursday, 21st October 1971, around noon, earth tremors were felt all over the island. These were particularly strong in the southern municipality of Fuencaliente. La Palma shook intermittently for the rest of the day causing such alarm amongst the inhabitants in the south that most of them spent the night alfresco. With nowhere to run, their main aim was to escape any falling masonry.
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Jean Batten was New Zealand’s greatest aviator. Celebrated around the world for her heroic solo flights during the 1930s; she was also blessed with film star looks.

Jean held five world records for solo flying including England to Australia and the reverse trip. Her outward flight took 5 days 23 hrs, a record that had a long life.

Her last long distance flight from Australia to England was in 1937.

Fêted everywhere she went, she had many wealthy suitors who had financed her journeys, one even buying her a plane.

Then came the war which disrupted millions of lives and Jean’s life was no exception.
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I have written this article to bring to the attention of my fellow Spanish historians that they have overlooked one of the prime sources of the history of the Canary Islands, which well deserves further research.

Solomon Berliner, as the name suggests, was Jewish. He was also a native New Yorker. President Grover Cleveland, a fellow native New Yorker, and friendly towards the Jewish race, had appointed him as the consul to the Canary Islands in 1897. Unfortunately, Solomon had to wait until the end of the Spanish-American war of 1898 before taking up his position in November, 1899. He was 43 years old, single and his residence was in Tenerife. He was the first US Consul because the job description before his appointment was Consular Agent.
From the first days he was in office, Solomon took his work seriously and continually sent reports back to the United States Secretary of State. These early reports seemed to concentrate on the situation that the Canary Islands were in, respecting the various illnesses that were flying around.
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