Email
April 10
You published an article about the village of Forna in your issue 31 March – 6 April. The article was a re-hash of an extract from a book written some 30 years ago, meshed with another old article about a wedding that took place here in the village over 20 years ago which bore no real relevance to the first piece.
The whole editorial portrayed ‘unspectacular’ Forna as an unwelcoming, unfriendly, unapproachable place, written from one person’s perspective a generation ago, yet there was no explanation or context given whatsoever to this text, inferring that it was a current ‘review’.
No, we are NOT a tourist destination as the mealy-mouthed author suggested, but Forna is a living, breathing, working village with a small number of permanent residents of various nationalities living daily alongside our Spanish neighbours.
Like many villages, our numbers swell in summer with visitors who have holiday homes here, or others who come to enjoy the peace and tranquility, walks and proximity to the coast.
Despite Forna’s ‘miserable size’, our local restaurant is still thriving, and the village presided over by our ‘gloomy’ Moorish castle, currently undergoing renovation so that future generations can come and enjoy tours. We are fiercely proud of it too, whatever strange view of that the visitor of 30 years ago took away with him.
We found the whole article to be misleading, misrepresentative and wholly offensive to Forna residents. If you are going to reprint such items, maybe you should put them in context as to when they were written.
Yours,
Jacqui Leppert
Resident of Forna
Dear reader,
We have been publishing extracts from Malcolm Smith’s book ‘Mañana and still No Problema’ about his early years in Spain, which includes trips and experiences he had around Alicante province. These have been appearing in the newspaper since 2022.
Although the short explanation about this was printed above the piece about Forna, stating it was an extract from Malcolm’s book, we apologise for any misunderstanding that may have occurred – that he may have been writing about a current visit.
As for the accusation that Malcolm is ‘mealy-mouthed’, I imagine that it is the first time that he has ever been accused of avoiding the use of direct and plain language.
At the same time, we hope that people reading this will take the time to go to Forna and enjoy its privileged position in the mountains of Alicante province.
The Editor
