Deià
Deià is a small coastal
village on the northern ridge of the Spanish
island of
Majorca
. It is located about ten miles north of
Valldemossa
, and it is known for its literary and musical
residents. Its idyllic landscape, orange and olive
groves on steep cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean
, served as a draw for German, English, and American
expatriates after the first World
War.
The English poet, novelist, and scholar,
Robert Graves, was one of the first foreigners
to settle in the village, where he collaborated with
Laura Riding in setting up the
Seizin Press. Graves returned after the war and
remained in Deià until his death. He used the town as the setting
for many of his stories, including the historical novel
Hercules my Shipmate. His house is now a museum.
Anaïs Nin visited the village in the
1920s, and she wrote a short story set on the village's beach. The
Spanish writer,
Carmen Naranjo,
recently wrote a short story about Nin's. The town is also the
unnamed setting of the Uruguayan novelist,
Cristina Peri Rossi's "
The Ship of Fools" (
La nave de los
locos). The Nicaraguan poet and novelist,
Claribel Alegría, lives in Deià today.
In recent decades, the stars of literature have been eclipsed by
the stars of rock and roll. The
Virgin
Records mogul,
Richard Branson,
has a luxury residence in the town, and his label's stars have
often visited the village and sometimes jammed at the local bar,
'Sa Fonda'. Deià was home to several
Canterbury-scene musicians over the years,
including
Kevin Ayers,
Robert Wyatt, and
Daevid Allen.
Mick
Jagger, guitarist
Mark Knopfler,
and European-music icon
Mike Oldfield
played there often in the late 1980s, as did
Caroline Corr.
The small village has around twenty restaurants and bars that are
popular with visitors from all over the world.
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