Leif Borthen

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

Early life 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 spent this time in the 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 Paul René 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. 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.