The Precarious Journalist who signs these lines (hereinafter KP; or, more pleasantly, Kepa) has recently had to return home from his parents, as he cannot pay on his own. One night she doesn't sleep, a title from the paternal library robs her attention: The Carthaginian strategist (Known World, 1999).

The novel is about what was the hannibal of Cartago, in very clean Spanish. Before falling asleep, it has been noted in the author's biography: Edward Rosset, born in Oñati (Gipuzkoa), soldier in Libya. From the bibliographical point of view, the Oñatian writer seems to be an expert in war history and in Basque sailors. Kepa gets baffled when that stone touches the investigative mind.

In view of the green light from ARGIA, it has been launched. As soon as you start researching, you have found the website www.edwardrosset.com, which has not been updated, and you have found that the last one is the one in 2013. He has written 21 novels, some of which, according to the network, Rosset started to adapt for film in the same year. In addition, on the website you can find some advice for writers, as well as a fairly extensive biography of the writer.

Born in Oñati, as a British citizen, in 1959 the young Edward Rosset was called to military service. He left his studies and entered the army as a RAF radiotelegraph (Royal Air Force). He was sent to the desert of Libya, where he spent a long season. When he finished his studies by mail, he also worked as a freelance journalist to spend time and dedicate himself to the trade, like our Kepa.

He later returned to Euskal Herria, specifically to Irun, where he founded the Stanley Publishing House, with the aim of publicizing the material he prepared for the English classes. He has also written literature neatly and, according to the website, continues this work. But because it's not up to date, to know where it is and what it's going now. A similar emotion has grabbed Kepa's spine, each vertebra one at a time, when he sees his phone number, apparently Irun's, in the contact section.

The late Stanley

A woman's voice responded to the journalist's call, across the line. Yes, Edward will get there right away. It looks like he's doing it seriously. Kepa sits on the doorstep of a discovery, as in the run-up to the meeting between Stanley and Livingstone. A man's voice speaks: it's her. The journalist and Mr Rosset agreed that they will meet that same afternoon in the house of the second. The wife of the writer, Mrs Elvira Gómez, was also present in the interview. It has helped to remember some specific names and data.

Kepa asks him where he feels. Rosset smiled. If it was for him, he says, he would go to Oñati every day, or, well, quite often. In the campas of Urbia there is a special corner with a riachuelo to refresh cider bottles. The heaven of heaven on earth. That is for him the environment, his hometown, which was born in Zubilwaukee. However, according to Rosset, it is increasingly difficult to climb to the top. Of course, Kepa realizes that, as he was born in 1938, Mr. Rosset has been living for eighty years, and that it is harder for him to walk, that he even has his hands moving when he does not want to.

Kepa comes up with a curious question: “If you had to save your three or four books from fire, what would the elect be?” The one from Oñati answered without thinking twice: first, The Navigators (Edhasa, 2006). “And not just because I like it, but because everyone has told me it. It has been 16 years since I published it, and it is still sold very well. I would say it’s my best seller.” Later, The Newfoundland Ice: Basque Whalers (Edhasa, 2016), which is the last, is also the favorite. “It’s not yet over. I published the first part and am preparing the second part, to see...”. According to his wife Elvira, the first is spreading very well.

Finally, Edward pointed his finger to Roncesvalles (Reyes Astures, 2007), which leads the trilogy to the head (next to Tierra quemada and invasion). “There are three volumes, 650 pages each, you can imagine what work… The truth is that it has been very well received; several readers have contacted me telling me that they liked it a lot, that they could not stop reading, etc. That has a lot of value to me.” The writer wanted to round off his answer with the drink of water that Elvira brought him: “These four or five books are, among all my works, how to say it… as children.”

Rosset's obsession

The journalist has asked the writer what he has to do with literature, what he has given him and what he has taken him. Rosset has let go of laughter. “It takes time! PRESIDENT. — The next item is the report (Doc. And give him, being satisfied with my head, self satisfaction… that has no price. I’ve always wanted to write, ever since I was young.” He then referred to the years of military service in Libya, two and a half years long, locked up in a tent. After reading all the books in the library, the young Rosset started writing and finished his journalism studies by mail. Mrs Gomez has pointed out that she wrote and published short novels in London, in good condition. “That’s right,” Rosset said, “quite well paid. But then’s money and now’s money have nothing to do with…”.

Drinking water, Kepa wants to know something about Stanley's editorial. Suddenly, Rosset remembered: “It was when I came to Irun. Stanley was the name of my father, Victor Stanley Rosset. It was English, from the town of Letchworth [50 km north of London]; on Getaria Street of Donostia-San Sebastian had a giant store and went to the river. All lost, we started to teach English at Irun Customs Street, and so we spent several years. After my father's death, I continued and began to publish, on my own, the material I created for classes in Stanley Publishing. Almost every month I got some new work: counting... more than twenty years, 210 books.”

Kepa cites the disclosure, which shows that Rosset attaches great importance to this, and also in literary works. “Of course,” the writer says. “I’ve always been a teacher and I’ve always loved teaching. In the back of my mind, at the bottom of my mind, I've had that idea: I have to teach people things. So, I've taken all the weird books that I've found along there, and I've taken new things out of them." The journalist then put the usual question: What, according to Rosset, is the best advice he has given to write. “Act and act, don’t give up… There are things.” Kepare must have laughed at him.

The conversation ends, by chance. Kepa knows that. Soon you expire the parking ticket and you don't want to pay a fine. As for the website, the journalist has pointed out that the last information is from 2013. He asks Rosset about the adaptations to film, if any project has arrived at a port. “Not yet. I started with The Navigators, and I've already had three or four adaptations. If someone were interested, they would sell him very low... Ajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajaha!”.

Kepa shuts down the recorder on her phone and takes some pictures, as best as she can, from the point of shame that a small intrusion is. Before leaving, despite the fact that the fine increases, the journalist has asked the writer, proud and reddened, to sign the number of The Carthaginian strategist, inherited from his parents. He has given their hands to both, Edward and Elvira. When he went out to Irun Street, galloping towards parking, he felt within himself a renewed feeling, to put it another way, of the navigator’s instinct, of the investigative journalist. For a long time, in his smallness, Kepa has felt great.