Name Sam Benady | Role Novelist | |
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Books Sherlock Holmes in Gibraltar, The Pearls of Tangier: Bresciano in Morocco, Civil Hospital and Epidemics in Gibraltar | ||
Samuel G. Benady MBE (Gibraltar, 11 September 1937) is a Gibraltarian historian, novelist and retired pediatrician of Sephardic Jewish descent. He has been a regular contributor to the Gibraltar Heritage Trust's Journal, and lecturer in the Gibraltar Museum, and author of several works related to the history of Gibraltar and also works of fiction. According to the Gibraltar Chronicle, Benady is "Gibraltar’s well known and prolific author".
Contents
Dr Benady was born in Gibraltar, where his family has lived since the 18th century, and received his Medicine degree in London. He worked as a paediatrician in Bristol, Jerusalem and Gibraltar, where he ran the Child Health service. Benady worked for the Gibraltar Health Authority from 1980 until his retirement in 2002. In 2007 he was appointed a MBE "for services to health care and voluntary work".
Work
In 1990, Benady published the two short stories in Sherlock Holmes in Gibraltar. The pastiches are set in the pre-Watson days. In the first one, The Abandoned Brigantine, Sherlock Holmes reveals the solution to the mystery of the Mary Celeste, while in the second, The Gibraltar Letter, the detective solves the case of the abduction of the Duke of Connaught while he was posted to Gibraltar. In 1992, after reading La compra de Gibraltar por los conversos andaluces, ("The purchase of Gibraltar by Andalusian conversos"), a monograph by Diego Lamelas about the story of the Cordova conversos who purchased Gibraltar in the 15th century, Benady translated and published it in English as The Sale of Gibraltar in 1474. Then, he approached the history of St. Bernard's Hospital, publishing Civil Hospital and Epidemics in Gibraltar. Diary of an Epidemic and Passing through the Fever (both co-authored with Prof. L A Sawchuk) were published in 2003 and 2005. In 2005, Benady approached the biography genre, publishing a work on Sir George Don, Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar from 1814 to 1831.The Keys of the City: An Episode in the History of Gibraltar, also published in 2005, is a historical novel based in his former translation of Lamelas' work. A Spanish translation by Cayetano Ramirez has been published in 2015 by Nagrela Editores of Madrid, with the title Las llaves de Gibraltar. His latest project is a detective mystery series set in 18th and 19th century Gibraltar featuring the amateur detective Giovanni Bresciano, co-authored with Mary Chiappe.