John Bull on the Guadalquivir

Young Englishman John Pomfret is making his way through Spain in order to propose to Marie Daguilar, the daughter of his father’s partner. En route, he encounters an elaborately dressed Spanish gentleman who he takes to be a bullfighter and assumes can speak no English. John’s rudeness and arrogance toward the Spaniard will come back to shame him during a later encounter. ‘John Bull on the Guadalquivir’ is an entertaining short story from much-loved author Anthony Trollope.

Anthony Trollope (1815 – 1882) was a Victorian writer and author of 47 novels. He also wrote an autobiography, short stories and plays, travel articles, reviews and lectures. A prolific writer, he made no secret of the fact that money was his motivation for writing – an admission which raised eyebrows among his literary contemporaries at the time. The amount of works Trollope authored are testament to his belief in hard work. His first successful novel was The Warden followed by its sequel, Barchester Towers. The Chronicles of Barsetshire are perhaps his most well-known series of novels, though many of his works have been adapted for TV and radio, starring many familiar faces such as Alan Rickman, David Tennant, Bill Nighy and Tom Hollander. Alongside his literary career, Trollope also worked for some time for the Post Office and is credited with the introduction of the iconic post box to Britain. A memorial to Anthony Trollope was unveiled in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey in 1993.