The Last to Fall.: The Life and Letters of Ivor Hickman- an International Brigade

"I stand a moderately good chance of going back to England (that's quite honest) but somebody's got to be killed and this death business isn't dealt out fairly or honestly. Anyway, it's not really important. It's important to me because I have so many things to do yet..."
Ivor R. Hickman (Spain, June 1938)

Tucked away by the side door of a College in Winchester there is a modest oak bench with a small and rarely-noticed memorial plaque to the memory of 'I. R. Hickman, a boy at this school between 1924 and 1933'. But who was I. R. Hickman? As John Wainwright reveals, he was a student who went on to win a scholarship to Cambridge to study under Ludwig Wittgenstein, only then to lay down his life in the fight against fascism during the closing moments of the Spanish Civil War. With exclusive access to the letters that Ivor sent to his wife from the front, as well as a number of detailed interviews with International Brigade veterans and Ivor's own family, the author pieces together the lost life of Ivor Hickman, revealing the idealism, the conviction, and ultimately the tragedy of an International Brigader in Spain- a compelling story that has at last been rescued from the past.

This reprinted edition features new and exclusive material and is a fascimile from the original proof files of the previously unreleased Third Edition.