Leif Borthen

Leif Borthen (25 January 1911, Trondheim – 9 June 1979, Ibiza) was a Norwegian journalist and author.

Borthen was a student of art history at the Royal Frederick University. In 1932 he gave up these studies and head for Spain for a year. This was in the time of the Second Spanish Republic, and he pent this time in Catalan region. He spent part of the year working as a fisherman in Mallorca, where he lived in a colony of artists which included Jacob Brinchmann and René Paul Gauguin, the grandson of the French artist Paul Gauguin. In 1933 he moved to Ibiza and settled in the remote village of Sant Vicent de sa Cala in the north east of Ibiza. During this time he began writing for the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Borthen went to London, England, later to Argentina, where he worked in the Norwegian embassy in Buenos Aires as press attaché from 1945 until 1950. He wrote his first book in 1952 about his experiences there. It was called Reise til Peróns rike ("Travel to Peron's Empire") which was published in 1952. In 1955 Borthen along with Jan Wihbourg took a year out to travel the Brazilian rainforest. During this time he made a film and also wrote I morgen drar vi til Bahia ("Tomorrow we're off to Bahia")

Between 1950 and 1952 Borthen reported for the newspaper Arbeiderbladet. He also made appearances on the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), and contributed to the leading Norwegian daily newspaper Verdens Gang, under the pseudonym Don Segundo, with articles on the cinema, cookery and current affairs. He also became a critical of film and theatre, chairing the Norwegian Film Critics between 1959 and 1960.

In 1960 Borthen returned to Sant Vicent de sa Cala. He purchased a house and Borthen continued to write from there. In 1967 he published Veien til San Vicente ("The Road to San Vicente"). Borthen continued to work and live on Ibiza until his death in 1979.