Between the death of Franco on November 20 1975 and a national referendum that on December 6 1975 overwhelmingly endorsed a Constitutional Monarchy, Spain underwent an unparalleled orderly transition from a longstanding dictatorship to a western-style parliamentary democracy. Tom Burns Marañón closely followed the process as a journalist who had a privileged access to its main participants and, as a student of Spain’s contemporary history, can offer insights into how and why it was a model for successful regime changes. In his lecture, “When Spain surprised the world”, he discusses who was doing what half a century ago.

Tom Burns Marañón read Modern History at Oxford, where he was a pupil of Raymond Carr and covered the death of General Franco, the succession of King Juan Carlos and Spain’s transition to democracy for Reuters. He subsequently wrote for The Washington Post, The Financial Times, and he has published a number of books in Spain, including Conversaciones sobre el Rey and La Monarquía necesaria. Tom has for a number of years written twice weekly columns for Expansión, Spain’s main business newspaper, and his latest book, El legado de Juan Carlos I , is due to be published in November.