Behind the Door Lurks a Monster ― Punk, Politics and the President; a Life Growing Up in the Falkland Islands

‘In the few weeks of Carlos and my mother’s meeting they had moved in together – only unlike my father’s home my mother’s busy and laughter filled, with Carlos’ way of doing things, the dinner table arranged with food and the radio playing as with friends he listened as my mother cooked. Then, with everyone having eaten and the football commentary finished he moved the table and chairs aside teaching me to caress the ball that lived permanently under the table, instead of trying to boot it, he said, the possibility of breaking something in the kitchen never considered. Of course your mother said it was the end, when the soldiers arrived. But the bloody Queen does not care about you! I joked. But of course they are going to come! she would shout!’There are few genuine unconventional tales from the island’s history that stray from traditional paths; neither is there many with such a unique viewpoint. The story of artist James Peck however differs from most. After his student days in London Peck returned home to paint, beginning a period of travel and exhibiting, before living in Argentina and accepting citizenship from President Cristina de Kirchner publicly on June 14th, 2011, the same day as the Argentine surrender in 1982. The controversy made news around the world much because his father had been a war hero on the British side and today the issue of the Falkland Islands - or Islas Malvinas as it is also known - remains divisive. The finer details of his story seldom got heard. For the first time in English - and in his own words like snapshots to some larger narrative that we can all perhaps relate to in our own private moments - is what happened, and why.