Graham Greene: Travels with a priest in post-Franco Spain

The British author based the character Monsignor Quixote, in the book of the same name, on his friend Leopoldo Durán

Jennie Rhodes

Malaga

Friday, 3 January 2025, 14:41

Anyone who has wandered through the streets of Churriana may well have come across Calle Graham Green. Although the surname is misspelt, it is near to a series of other streets named after Spanish writers and travellers; an ideal location for the famous British writer.

Graham Greene is said to have visited Torremolinos in 1953 and is often mentioned along with other well-known names of the era who frequented the destination.

While there is no record of Greene visiting other parts of Malaga, his love affair with Spain is well documented, in particular though his book, Monsignor Quixote, the result of a number of summers spent travelling with his friend and confidant, the Catholic priest Leopoldo Durán.

The unlikely friendship started after Greene became aware of the priest and former lecturer in English Literature at the University of Madrid, who had previously written papers about the British author.

The first correspondence between Greene and Durán was in 1964, but the pair wouldn't meet until 1973, at the Ritz in London. They would go on to spend a number of summers travelling around Spain and Portugal, the first being in 1976, just months after Franco's death.

In fact, Durán would go on to be the inspiration for the character of Monsignor Quixote in Greene's novel of the same name. Their travels and conversations on Catholicism, communism and post-Franco Spain inspired the themes running through the book.

During the various trips the pair made, Greene struck up relations with a number of figures including the then mayor of Madrid, Don Enrique Galván, who bestowed the medal of the city of Madrid on him, as detailed in Durán's book about his friendship with Greene, Friend and Brother (1994).

In Greene's final years he and Durán kept up regular correspondence and in his book Durán details how he administered the last sacraments to Greene, who described himself as a "Catholic agnostic". Graham Greene died on 3 April 1991.

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