as Vera-Cazorla’s essay demonstrates, [...] British views of foreigners depend upon mistaken or outdated understandings of their culture and politics. While General Franco’s family policies were admittedly pro-natalist and anti-feminist, even before his death Spain was seeing “transformations in the Spanish family in the opposite direction to the political, legal and religious guidelines of the regime.” British romances set in Spain persisted in hewing to stereotypes about Spain and the Spaniards and thus while those published in the closing years of his regime seem outdated, those written after his death can appear “shockingly anachronistic.” (4)
From the introduction: