Alan Sillitoe settled in Sóller in the 1950s and, during his time in Mallorca, he wrote one of his most critically acclaimed works, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, as well as his memoirs Life without Armor.
The train toy-trumpeted between acres of almond trees in white Bloom, and soon the foothills drew us into a long tunnel under the island’s watershed. Elbowing down to Soller through cuttings and shorter tunnels, wide views revealed a large valley sheltered by mountains except for an opening to the sea on the north-west, the north-eastern side blocked by the main peak of Majorca rising to 4,739 feet. At lower levels, fragrant air from lemon and orange trees came through the open Windows till the train hooted between the backs of houses and drew into the little station. Waiting for a tram to take me two miles to the port, a woman came out of the pork butcher’s with a household chair for me to sit on. The Tarrs invited me to stay at the Villa Catalina, paying my share of food and general expenses.
Life without armour, 1995
(Nottingham, 1928 – London 2010). Alan Sillitoe was a British novelist and member of the so-called group of Angry Young Men. Born into a working-class family, he grew up during the post-war period, working first in a bicycle factory before joining the Royal Air Force, where he worked as a radio operator and was posted to Malaysia. His connection with Mallorca came about by chance, when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and forced to seek warmer climes than the north of England.
In the 1950s, he went to live in Sóller with his partner, the North-American writer Ruth Fainlighten. He contacted Robert Graves, who encouraged him to continue writing. His work includes books of verse, autobiographical works and critical reviews. Some of his main themes are childhood memories, his early career and the hardships of the working classes in 1950s England. During the period spent in Mallorca, he began to write one of his best-acclaimed novels, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, adapted to the cinema screen by Karel Reisz in 1960and starring Albert Finney, although the influence of the Tramuntana mountains are particularly evident in The Death of William Posters (1965). In Mallorca, he also wrote his memoirs, Life without Armour (1995). His best-known most translated novel is The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, also adapted to the cinema screen in a film directed by Tony Richardson, starring Tom Courtenay.
Work began on the construction of Sóller railway in 1907 and it was officially opened in 1912. Since then, the railway has crossed Alfabia mountains and passed through tunnels and over bridges, largely avoiding the traditional winding route through Sóller gorge. Until the railway’s existence, stagecoaches crossed the mountains, stopping several times along the way. One of the train stops is in Bunyola, half way along at the foot of Alfabia mountains. The railway was electrified in 1929, following in the footsteps of the first electric tram in Mallorca, inaugurated in 1913 between Sóller and its port. In the early 20th century, the route there and back ran through the valley from beginning to end, with wooden coaches that passed through orange and lemon groves, across bridges, and through charming scenery.
