Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Arturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez (born in Cartagena in 1951) is a Spanish novelist, journalist and academic who writes in Spanish. He is best known for historical fiction and adventure novels, though he also worked for more than two decades as a war correspondent, an experience that shaped much of how he sees history and violence.

The son of a merchant seaman, he grew up in Cartagena with the sea close at hand. After attending the Instituto Isaac Peral, he earned a degree in journalism at the Complutense University of Madrid. He worked first for the newspaper Pueblo and then for Televisión Española, where he reported from conflicts in Cyprus, Lebanon, Angola, Bosnia and the Persian Gulf. During the Eritrean War of 1977 he went missing for several months, an episode he returns to in his articles and in Territorio comanche. In 1994 he left journalism to devote himself fully to writing.

His first novel, El húsar (1986), set during the Napoleonic Wars, found modest success. Wider recognition came with The Club Dumas and The Flanders Panel, and then with El capitán Alatriste (1996), which launched a series of adventure novels set in Spain's Golden Age and made him a bestselling author. His novels usually centre on one strongly defined protagonist, moving at a brisk pace and drawing on history, art or the sea. They often run two plots side by side and address subjects such as drug trafficking or the relationship between religion and power. His polemical weekly columns in XLSemanal have also earned him a reputation as a difficult, outspoken figure.

Since 2003 he has been a member of the Royal Spanish Academy. Several of his works have been adapted for film, among them The Club Dumas, directed by Roman Polanski as The Ninth Gate, and Alatriste (2006). His legacy combines popular success with a constant public presence in cultural and political debate, which has also brought controversy, including plagiarism accusations from Verónica Murguía and Antonio González-Vigil.