"Spain: The Myths and Legacy of General Franco"

Paul Preston graduated at the Oriel College, Oxford where he also completed his PhD.  He lectured at Reading University before moving to Queen Mary College, London, and then in 1991 to the LSE as a Professor in International History.

Professor Preston was awarded the 2005 Premi Internacional Ramon Llull, the most prestigious international prize for academic achievement given in Catalonia ‘for a lifetime achievement of exceptionally valuable historical work centred on the study of the Second Republic, the Civil War, the Francoist Dictatorship and the transition to democracy in Spain.'

In 2006 Paul was awarded Spain's highest honour, the Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica.  At a ceremony presided over by the King of Spain, he was inaugurated into the Academia Europea de Yuste, where he was given the Marcel Proust Chair. (The Academy has thirty members, including the Italian philosopher Umberto Eco, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, and the English dramatist Peter Schaffer).