It was a British academic, Hugh Thomas, who produced the first serious history of the Spanish Civil War. He has been followed most recently by the British war historian Anthony Beevor and, more importantly, by Sir Paul Preston. The latter two are significant contributors in the superb German-made Netflix documentary series Franco, which could never have been made in a contemporary Spain still scarred by the Civil War or – indeed in Britain which has turned its back on serious documentary making, but which once produced The Spanish Civil War, an excellent series by the Granada team behind The World at War.

And none of this is to mention the works of Laurie Lee, George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway or Giles Tremlett! Now a new gringo, Australian writer Luke Stegemann, has joined this pantheon of literary hispanophiles with his new book and first serious history of Madrid in English, Madrid: A New Biography.

Stegemann’s timing is good. Madrid, long one of the great cities of Europe, has nonetheless languished in the shadows. Until quite recently it was not really rated as a top visitor destination. Following its loss of empire, Spain was in the grip of a sclerotic aristocracy and repressive church which saw it avoided as a Grand Tour destination by the European upper classes who created modern tourism with trips primarily to Italy and France from the late 17th century to the mid-19th century. 

The calamity of the Spanish Civil War and the iron rule of Franco’s corrupt dictatorship made the country even less attractive and fierce repression turned Madrid into the ‘City of a Million Zombies’ – see Preston’s excellent The Spanish Holocaust. Franco neither liked or trusted Madrid, a Republican stronghold, and for a time favoured establishing the country’s capital in Toledo.

Toledo, like Valladolid, had indeed served as Spain’s capital but Phillip II made Madrid his permanent residence in 1561 – favouring its central location to build the House of Habsburg but ignoring the city’s absence of a university, bishopric or navigable river.

Now Madrid is overtaking Barcelona as a city break destination in Spain. Thankfully, the treasures of the Prado were saved from Franco’s bombardment of the city by the Republican Government and are at the heart of the city’s formidable artistic offering. Swish Salamanca’s shady avenues and upscale shopping can give London’s Mayfair and the Grandes Boulevards of Paris a run for their money, while the city’s restaurants have undergone a culinary revolution.

Stegemann’s passion for his adopted hometown is never in doubt as he expertly weaves an engaging tapestry packed with anecdote and the trials, tribulations and triumphs of princes and paupers reaching back to Madrid’s earliest days. 

If you find yourself in one of Madrid’s ubiquitous pavement cafés after a visit to the Prado, Reina Sofia or Thyssen galleries and wondering how it all came about, Stegemann has the answers.

Madrid: A New Biography by Luke Stegemann. Published by Yale University Press, 462pp, £25.