Miguel's grandfather was the brother of the French composer Léo Delibes, and had moved to Spain to participate in the construction of the railway in Cantabria.

In 1947 he began writing his first novel, La sombra del ciprés es alargada (The cypress casts a long shadow), which won the Premio Nadal the following year, marking his emergence on the Spanish literary scene.

[12] In 1952, he was appointed deputy director of the newspaper El Norte de Castilla, and his battles with censorship became increasingly direct and frequent.

The writer entered a new phase in his life in which he would publish a new work virtually every year, namely: Mi idolatrado hijo Sisí (My adored son Sissi) 1953, La partida (The departure) 1954, Diario de un cazador (Diary of a hunter) 1955 –Premio Nacional de Narrativa–, Un novelista descubre América (A novelist discovers America) 1956, Siestas con viento sur (Siestas with southern wind) 1957 –Fastenrath Award–, Diario de un emigrante (Diary of an emigrant) 1958, and La hoja roja (The red leaf), 1959.

1963 was a turbulent year: Delibes resigned on June 8 as director of El Norte de Castilla after several disagreements with Manuel Fraga, Minister of Information and Tourism.

[15] In 1964, he spent six months in the United States as a visiting professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature of the University of Maryland.

In the following years he visited Czechoslovakia and published Parábola del náufrago (literally: The Parable of the Castaway, translated into English as The Hedge by Frances M.

On 1 February 1973, Miguel Delibes was elected to the Royal Spanish Academy, occupying chair "e", which was left vacant after the death of Julio Guillén.

Damaso Alonso, one of the leading members of the Generation of '27 and then president of the Royal Spanish Academy handed the academic medal to Miguel Delibes[2][19] His induction speech, which dealt with The meaning of progress from my work, which he later edited into a book entitled Un mundo que agoniza (A world that is agonizing).

In the following years he was named a favorite son of Valladolid, he published Castilla habla (Castile Speaks), got an honorary doctorate of the Complutense University of Madrid and attended the theatrical adaptation of works like The Red Leaf and The Wars of our Ancestors.

[26] His 1987 book Madera de héroe (The Stuff of Heroes[27]) deals with the notion of heroism during the Spanish Civil War.

[28] The University of Málaga paid homage to him at the V Contemporary Spanish Literature Congress, under the title Miguel Delibes: the writer, his work and readers.

That year, he published Señora de rojo sobre fondo gris (Lady in red on a grey background), a clear evocation of his wife.

It was organized on the occasion of the National Prize for Spanish Literature and included a total of seven conferences and four round tables that dealt with the works of Miguel Delibes.

[26] His last major work, El hereje (The Heretic),[29] a tribute to Valladolid, was published in 1998 and was awarded the National Literature Prize for Narrative.

His last book, La tierra herida (The wounded earth) published in 2005, takes the form of a dialogue between him and his eldest son, Miguel Delibes, former head of Doñana National Park.

Since he was disabled, Juan Carlos I and Sofia of Greece, the king and queen of Spain, personally visited the writer at his home in Valladolid after he was awarded the Vocento Prize for Human Values.

[35] He was recognized by his city with the creation of the Route of the Heretic based on his novel and the construction of the Centro Cultural Miguel Delibes, which is both a conservatory and auditorium as well as a convention center.

[38] Although Delibes fought with the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War, he was appalled by the level of repression, turned against Franco, and worked to restore democracy to Spain.

[3] In 1963, he was forced to resign from his position as director of the newspaper El Norte de Castilla for refusing to follow official instructions limiting the freedom of the press.

[40] He held the opinion that the Spanish Civil War could've been avoided if the Church had a reformist pope like John XXIII who reconciled with modernity at the time.

[43] Miguel Delibes finally died at his home in Valladolid early in the morning of March 12, 2010, at the age of 89 years as a result of the colon cancer that was first diagnosed in 1998.

His remains were cremated and buried in the Pantheon of Illustrious Men of Valladolid among personalities such as José Zorrilla and Rosa Chacel.

Valladolid City Council granted the privilege of moving the cremated remains of Ángeles, his wife, to that cemetery to bury with Delibes, thus honouring his long-expressed wish.