James A Michener

JAMES A MICHENER 

One of the most popular novels to be set in Spain is James A Michener's Drifters, part of which is set in Torremolinos. The bestseller is a powerful drama based on the lives of six young runaways adrift in a world of drugs, dreams and pleasure. The Alamo is a fictitious bar around which much of the Torremolinos action is set, and many visiting tourists at that time believed it to be a real establishment.

Harry Hubert's bar (Harry's Bar), a tiny tavern that was the epitome of the bullfighting sector in Torremolinos during the 1960s, is widely credited as being the inspiration for Michener's fictitious bar. Michener is said to have spent much time in Harry's while in Torremolinos researching the book.

Numerous Americans who settled in Spain, and many servicemen from the nearby American base at Rota, were influenced by the writings of Ernest Hemingway - another occasional visitor to Torremolinos - and they sought Harry Hubert's experiences of the yearly Bull Run in Pamplona. Harry's knowledge of bullfighting, like Hemingway's, was vast and he was considered an authority on the subject, counting among his friends many of Spain's most famous matadors.