Ca N'Alluny, Robert Graves's House in Mallorca, opens as a Museum

July 1, 2006

Ca N'Alluny, 'La Casa de Robert Graves'.

In 1929, war poet Robert Graves wrote 'Good-bye to All That' and left England to live abroad with American poet Laura Riding. The pair first went to Paris to call on fellow writer Gertrude Stein, who told them: 'Mallorca is paradise, if you can stand that'. It was also less expensive there than in the South of France, where they had first thought of going to live.

On their arrival in Palma de Mallorca, Graves and Riding stayed for three weeks in the Gran Hotel, now a cultural and conference centre (where, appropriately, the successful 7th International Robert Graves Conference was held at the beginning of last month). It is said that Graves asked a barber if he knew a quiet and cheap place to live that had good fish. The man recommended Deià, possibly because it was already well known as a place where artists and other creative people lived. Graves and Riding moved there, initially renting a cottage.

One of Graves's first tasks after his arrival in Mallorca was to work on the proofs of 'Good-bye to All That'. The outstanding success of the book enabled the pair to acquire land in the village to build Ca N'Alluny, 'The house of the one far away' (it is about a kilometre from the centre of the village, which at the time the villagers considered far away from the village to live). It was completed in 1932 and Graves lived there for most of his life, except for a gap between August 1936 and May 1946, due to the Spanish Civil War and World War II.

On 2 July 2006 Ca N'Alluny was opened to the public by Sr Jaume Matas, President of the Government of the Balearic Islands, at a ceremony also attended by Hollywood stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas and other celebrities, including Irish singer Caroline Corr. The house is now open to the public, on a timed ticket basis, 6 days each week (closed Mondays).

Full details of the house and opening ceremony are available at the Robert Graves Society's website at www.gravesiana.org/fundacio/press.htm .