Forfatteren var britisk guvernør i Gibraltar 1978-1982 og har her skrevet om den berømte halvøs og dens befolknings historie fra de tidligste tider til vore dage.

'Rock Black', M. G. Sanchez's critically acclaimed short story sequence, takes us back to the late 80s and early 90s - a time when large quantities of tobacco were being smuggled from Gibraltar into Spain, the British government was threatening the colony with direct rule, and the Spanish authorities were subjecting the Gibraltarians to a concerted campaign of political harassment. Within its pages we find an almost anthropological gallery of types' reluctant tobacco smugglers, drunken English squaddies, small-town hedonists, Costa del Sol prostitutes, passing hippie travellers, as well as the constantly resurfacing figure of the jobless Gibraltarian teenager Peter Rodriguez. Described by Dr Rob Stanton (South University, Savannah, Georgia) as a necessary corrective after a prolonged period of silence, ' 'Rock Black' remains a powerful and original piece of fiction.

Adolf Hitler's failure to take Gibraltar in 1940 lost him the Second World War. But in truth the formidable Rock, jutting between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, was extraordinarily vulnerable. Every day, ten thousand people crossed its frontier to work, spy, sabotage or escape. It was threatened by Spain, Vichy France, Italy and Germany. After the USA entered the war, Gibraltar became General Eisenhower's strategic headquarters for the invasion of North Africa and the battle for the Mediterranean.

He was owned by two friends, who just happened to be two of the most famous men in world sport - Sir Alex Ferguson, the toolmaker's apprentice from the tough streets of Glasgow who became Britain's greatest-ever football manager, and John Magnier, the publicity-shy former senator of Ireland and patrician owner of the world's most successful breeding operation, Coolmore Stud. Even his own trainer, the Maestro of Ballydoyle, Aidan O'Brien, did not rate him as the stable's best hope for glory, but Rock Of Gibraltar proved to be that 'one in a million' racehorse who went on to set a world record by winning seven Group 1 races in succession, including two Classics, beating the mark set by the legendary Mill Reef 30 years ago. The Rock's jockey, Michael Kinane, christened him the 'ultimate racehorse', while Kinane's French rivals gave the horse another nickname - 'The Monster'. Yet, after all his extraordinary feats on the racecourse, Rock Of Gibraltar gained even greater fame after his retirement to stud, as Ferguson and Magnier fought over the horse's most valuable asset - his very genes. In this definitive account of Rock Of Gibraltar's life, we learn how the ultimate racehorse became the 100 million prize in a supposedly private but very public contest over stud fees that engulfed the world's most famous football club, Manchester United.

A history of Gibraltar.

A rip-roaring account of the dramatic four-year siege of Britain’s Mediterranean garrison by Spain and France—an overlooked key to the British loss in the American Revolution For more than three and a half years, from 1779 to 1783, the tiny territory of Gibraltar was besieged and blockaded, on land and at sea, by the overwhelming forces of Spain and France. It became the longest siege in British history, and the obsession with saving Gibraltar was blamed for the loss of the American colonies in the War of Independence. Located between the Mediterranean and Atlantic, on the very edge of Europe, Gibraltar was a place of varied nationalities, languages, religions, and social classes. During the siege, thousands of soldiers, civilians, and their families withstood terrifying bombardments, starvation, and disease. Very ordinary people lived through extraordinary events, from shipwrecks and naval battles to an attempted invasion of England and a daring sortie out of Gibraltar into Spain. Deadly innovations included red-hot shot, shrapnel shells, and a barrage from immense floating batteries. This is military and social history at its best, a story of soldiers, sailors, and civilians, with royalty and rank and file, workmen and engineers, priests, prisoners of war, spies, and surgeons, all caught up in a struggle for a fortress located on little more than two square miles of awe-inspiring rock. Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History is an epic page-turner, rich in dramatic human detail—a tale of courage, endurance, intrigue, desperation, greed, and humanity. The everyday experiences of all those involved are brought vividly to life with eyewitness accounts and expert research.