Jon Clarke is a Londoner who worked at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as an investigative journalist before moving to Spain in 2003 where he helped set up the Olive Press.
After studying Geography at Manchester University he fell in love with Spain during a two-year stint teaching English in Madrid.
On returning to London, he studied journalism and landed his first job at the weekly Informer newspaper in Teddington, covering hundreds of stories in areas including Hounslow, Richmond and Harrow.
This led on to work at the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Mirror, Standard and even the Sun, before he landed his first full time job at the Daily Mail.
After a year on the Newsdesk he worked as a Showbiz correspondent covering mostly music, including the rise of the Spice Girls, the rivalry between Oasis and Blur and interviewed many famous musicians such as Joe Strummer and Ray Manzarak, as well as Peter Gabriel and Bjorn from Abba on his own private island.
After a year as the News Editor at the UK’s largest-selling magazine Now, he returned to work as an investigative journalist in Features at the Mail on Sunday.
As well as tracking down Jimi Hendrix’ sole living heir in Sweden, while there he also helped lead the initial investigation into Prince Andrew’s seedy links to Jeffrey Epstein during three trips to America.
He had dozens of exclusive stories, while his travel writing took him to Jamaica, Brazil and Belarus.
He is the author of three books; Costa Killer, Dining Secrets of Andalucia and My Search for Madeleine.
Contact jon@theolivepress.es
Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)
Surely the bishop of Cordoba would not say something so unhistorical; the church that preceded the Mezquita was demolished to build the Mezquita just as the Pagan Temple that was originally on the site was demolished to build the church. The present building was built by the Moors on the site of the previous cathedral, the site is said to have been bought from the Church though one wonders if that was a completely voluntary sale. The only part of the Mezquita that was built as a church is the 16th Centaury implant in the centre of the main body of the Moorish building.
It would be better to remove the 16th Century church implant and reconstruct it elsewhere as Cordoba’s cathedral; restore the Mezquita to its original state and then either make it secular museum or come to an arrangement with Turkey whereby the Mezquita becomes a mosque/museum and St Sophia in Istanbul, the historic cathedral church of the Patriarch of Constantinople, becomes an Orthodox church/museum. This would promote better relations between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church and between Christianity and Islam.