Tim Parfitt's Blog, page 2
September 30, 2024
Letter from Spain #57
A documentary film about bullfighting won the top prize, the Golden Shell, at the 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival on Saturday night, beating strong feature film competition from directors such as Mike Leigh, Joshua Oppenheimer and Edward Berger.
‘Tardes de soledad’ (‘Afternoons of Solitude’), directed by Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra, is described simply as ‘the life of the bullfighter (Peruvian Andrés Roca Rey) during a day of bullfighting, from the moment he dresses up to the moment he undresses’.
Its subject matter and the graphic nature of its storytelling has triggered both admiration and disgust from viewers, with the animal rights group PACMA denouncing it as a romanticised vision of bullfighting that normalises violence towards animals.
I haven’t seen this award-winning documentary yet, but I can’t wait to do so. For those of you who have read The Barcelona Connection and/or know that we’re developing it for the screen, you’ll understand why. Bullfighting is only a sub-plot in the book, but it’s a subject matter that has fascinated me for many years - and especially the fact that it divides Spain.
In writing this crime-thriller (with black comedy), I mention a book in the acknowledgements page that helped me on my research about how bullfighters travel - Death and the Sun by Edward Levine. I also took a lot of video footage as part of my research on how bullfighters arrive and leave the bullrings, often being carried shoulder-high to their waiting mini-vans if they have ‘performed’ well.
Film critics have argued that Albert Serra’s ‘Afternoons of Solitude’ documentary has something for both fans of bullfighting and opponents of it, as it gives insight into the fear of death the bullfighter has before the corrida, but showcases the violence and cruelty against fighting bulls like no other film before it.
Guy Lodge in Variety said that the film’s ‘absurd beauty and obscene bloodshed’ was ‘a hard, hypnotic corrective to more noble cinematic depictions of the controversial blood sport’.
‘There’s certainly a fascination here with the contrived spectacle of bullfighting, with its intricate choreography and ornate, spangly costuming, but you’d be hard pressed to describe “Afternoons of Solitude” as celebratory of its subject,’ wrote Lodge. ‘The film’s gaze is arguably as mocking as it is dazzled - with the macho posturing and hero-worship of Roca Rey a tacit source of comedy - while Serra, living up to his reputation for challenging arthouse fare, doesn’t flinch in his presentation of animal abuse and suffering.’
While noting that the documentary’s graphic cruelty makes it a harrowing watch, The Hollywood Reporter’s chief film critic David Rooney called it ‘transfixing’ and a work of ‘barbaric beauty’.
‘Anyone with a low threshold for cruelty to animals will find this a harrowing watch, but for those with the stomach for it, the doc is a unique study of discipline, bravado, laser focus and showmanship,’ wrote Rooney.
The documentary film has been described as one of the most unflinching depictions of bullfighting ever made - and it must be good if it won the Golden Shell in San Sebastian.
It is apparently shot without commentary and interviews, with the 48-year-old Catalan filmmaker choosing an observational approach instead, with no title cards, captions, voiceover or special effects. Upon receiving his award, Serra said: ‘I would like to thank the protagonists for their open-mindedness in allowing people like us into their world. The film has a genuine side that cannot be found in many other films. Only this kind of daring experimental cinema dares to get to the bottom of an issue like this.’
The animal rights group PACMA had called for the film to be withdrawn from the festival - but I think they probably missed the point. We watch movies, series and documentaries about war, murder, drugs, rape, people trafficking, child abuse - but that doesn’t mean we ‘agree’ with what the ‘baddies’ are doing.
Just as a footnote, I wrote this in a chapter of A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid:
I’d never preach that the bullfight is right because I don’t think it is. I don’t think there’s any justification for it at all. Whatever they say, bullfighting is almost certainly wrong, but it is a fact of life. The Spanish hold bullfights and will do so until .. well, until the cows come home.
‘Until The Cows Come Home’ was then the first title of a film script that I wrote, which later became ‘The Barcelona Connection’ …
Books, Reviews, Research, News & EventsForthcoming EventsThe event at the Hotel Castell d’Empordà in La Bisbal d’Empordà (Catalonia), which is scheduled to be part of the hotel’s 25th anniversary, will take place in April next year. The hotel is part of a key plot element in The Barcelona Connection (mentioned in Letter from Spain #8) and which is based on true events. The event is planned to be about ‘The Dalí Connection’ to the hotel and, of course, the book! More details about this event will follow in due course …
The Barcelona Connection - ResearchIn my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & ReviewsA murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBNnumber: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & ReviewsEighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has been re-issued with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook worldwide, in both formats. You can also order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
As with previous posts showing images and locations that form part of the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection novel (above), I am also planning to publish an archive of photos here of Madrid that relate to many chapters in ‘A Load of Bull’ - although it will take time! In Letter from Spain #52, I cover Chapter 1 - the Centro Colón aparthotel (entrance) Watch this space for further images …
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in MadridThe hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish editionA Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact DetailsYou can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
September 23, 2024
Letter from Spain #56
I was half-expecting to be detained and questioned in Madrid, but I’m posting this short letter (if the WiFi holds) on the train back towards Barcelona - and so fortunately it didn’t happen.
Anyone who’s followed the links to previous posts below will know that I took my research very seriously in writing The Barcelona Connection - and it will be the same for the sequel I’m now working on, The Madrid Connection.
In between meetings in Madrid since I arrived there last Wednesday afternoon, and a wonderful book event on the Friday evening (see below), I also spent my free time clocking up an average of 20,000 steps a day just wandering the streets to research different barrios and key locations for the next book (OK, as well as enjoying many tapas and cañitas with a good friend).
In order to be able to write about somewhere, I feel you have to have been there - if you can. You have to have seen it, heard it, felt it and smelt it - at least that works for me. I’m hoping to get over to Madrid much more over the coming months to do more seeing, hearing, feeling and smelling. On this trip, I also got to see that Almodóvar exhibition I mentioned a couple of weeks ago (also see below).
Anyway - why was I half-expecting to be detained and questioned?
Many years ago, when I used to live in the Calle Lope de Vega opposite the Prado Museum (plug: A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid), I used to visit the museum regularly, not just to enjoy the art but to also plot how to rob the museum. For fictional reasons, not for real. I’m talking about the years 1988-1992 … so once again, that’s how long I’ve had the idea for a specific sub-plot for this next book.
Back in those days, Goya’s Tres de Mayo masterpiece was in Room 39 on the first floor, just above the Murillo Entrance and where there’s a large balcony facing the city’s Botanical Gardens. There were no metal bars or grills on the large windows looking out to the balcony, and it would have been easy enough to get the painting out that way - and I even videoed the room many years ago, before a guard told me off.
Fast forward to me now writing The Madrid Connection and no, it’s not Goya’s Tres de Mayo that interests me - they’ve moved it from Room 39, anyway - and it’s not actually Room 39 that interests me anymore, either - it’s Rooms 5 and 6, and sometimes it’s been Room 7A - and it’s a different painting altogether, but I can’t tell you which one.
I’ve now been to Rooms 5-7 three times, on three separate visits. Last year, with Juliane, I made detailed notes on the Floor Plan of the museum of where each CCTV camera is positioned (and other elements), and the blind spots on a specific staircase that leads to the galleries on the floor below, Rooms 51C & 51B - and 58 & 58A (the Medieval ‘stuff’).
I’m mad, I know. Juliane told me. Last year, she almost walked out of the museum as she was so embarrassed when I started shouting things excitedly, like, ‘Look! We can get the painting out via this window …’ She was seriously expecting a guard to ask what the hell I was doing. I had that same sensation when I did the same ‘casing the joint’ on Friday morning, this time alone. But so far I’ve got away with it …
To be honest, I’ve emailed the press and communications department of the museum several times asking for a meeting and, if possible, some time with the head of security for ‘research on a book’, but so far they’ve never replied. So I’ll just have to keep sneaking in and out myself, making notes and taking photos, until they tell me to stop.
If the Italian Embassy in Madrid check their CCTV cameras then they’ll also see images of an Englishman slowly walking several times around the perimeter of their ‘palace’ on Sunday, just after noon, making detailed notes and taking photos of the security camera positions on the railings along the streets of Velázquez, Juan Bravo, Lagasca and Padilla. It’s another sub-plot in the book.
And then I also turned up uninvited at the Consejo Superior de Deportes government building in the Ciudad Universitaria area of the city and asked for an appointment, only to be told (and which I expected) that I would need to apply for one ‘online’ - all because I wanted to know how Elena Carmona will feel when she makes her way over there and demands the same thing in The Madrid Connection …
Here are some images that I grabbed at the Prado on this latest visit. More soon …
Almodóvar ExhibitionThe ‘Madrid, chica Almodóvar’ (‘Madrid, Almodovar Girl’) exhibition that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago is well worth seeing, if you are an Almodóvar fan. There’s almost too much to take in, though - some 270 locations across Madrid from all his films, on a map that you can purchase at the Ocho y Media cinema bookshop just off the Plaza de España. There’s also a shorter map/version online that you can download, I think.
Very near the exhibition venue of the Conde Duque cultural centre, I then came across the Café Moderna in Plaza de las Comendadores (see images below) The plaza has a significant history from the Franco era and so it was apt for Almodóvar to use it for several scenes in Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers) which deals with people searching for family members who disappeared under Franco’s dictatorship.
And by chance, on another day I found myself on the steps between the Calle de Segovia to the Calle de Cañon Viejos - as seen in the film Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces), as well as the taberna ‘Rayuela’ in the Calle de la Morería near the top of the steps.
My pictures are those on the right in the images below. On the left are snaps I took from the Almodovar exhibition.
Books, Reviews, Research, News & EventsIt was a sell out and a wonderful event on Friday 20 September at the brilliant Secret Kingdoms Bookshop in Madrid to celebrate the re-issue of ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ (see details of book below), and to also chat about The Barcelona Connection. With many, many thanks to David Price and Ann Louise Bateson and for all who made it along!
Forthcoming EventsThe event at the Hotel Castell d’Empordà in La Bisbal d’Empordà (Catalonia), which is scheduled to be part of the hotel’s 25th anniversary, will now take place in April next year. The hotel is part of a key plot element in The Barcelona Connection (mentioned in Letter from Spain #8) and which is based on true events. The event is planned to be about ‘The Dalí Connection’ to the hotel and, of course, the book! More details about this event will follow in due course …
The Barcelona Connection - ResearchIn my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & ReviewsA murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBNnumber: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & ReviewsEighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has been re-issued with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook worldwide, in both formats. You can also order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
As with previous posts showing images and locations that form part of the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection novel (above), I am also planning to publish an archive of photos here of Madrid that relate to many chapters in ‘A Load of Bull’ - although it will take time! In Letter from Spain #52, I cover Chapter 1 - the Centro Colón aparthotel (entrance) Watch this space for further images …
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in MadridThe hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish editionA Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact DetailsYou can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
September 9, 2024
Letter from Spain #55
So … many congratulations to the 74-year-old Pedro Almodóvar for winning the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival for The Room Next Door - his 23rd feature film and, most importantly, his very first in English.
Despite having won two Oscars, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs, five Goyas and no end of other awards, I never realised he was missing the top award from one of the ‘big three’ European festivals: Venice (Golden Lion), Cannes (Palme d’Or) or Berlin (Golden Bear). It’s about time.
The Room Next Door had been widely tipped to win after receiving a record 17-minute standing ovation last week. I’m sure it is brilliant, it must be, although it sounds a bit heavy, to be honest. But then a film about euthanasia and the climate crisis is hardly going to be light watching.
‘The film’s very fragility is what makes it so gorgeous,’ said one critic about this ‘death-struck new melodrama’. But I’ve also read that the first third of the film is ‘a bit of a mess … with too many unnecessary flashbacks’.
I’m a big fan of Almodóvar and his films have had a huge influence on me in many different ways, coinciding with my time living in Madrid from the late eighties for a decade (more on that below) - but I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed every single one of his 23 films to date.
My favourite films have been Talk to Her, Matador, Bad Education and, of course, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - probably in that order. I have watched them many times. I also enjoyed Parallel Mothers.
There are several, however, that I couldn’t even finish (The Skin I Live In, Pain & Glory, I’m So Excited …) and at times I wondered if he’d lost his touch (in the same way Woody Allen had, many years ago).
I have no right to criticise, however, and I fully acknowledge that a director’s vision and style adapts as they age. His more recent films have clearly been marked by a preoccupation with death. I’m sure that’s also age-related, but they’re too morbid for me - perhaps because I was such a fan of his earlier fun and more quirky work.
The Room Next Door is another film about death. I will still go to a cinema to watch it. A new Almodóvar film has always been an event for me.
When I travel to Madrid next week, there’s an exhibition that I also can’t wait to take in during my visit: ‘Madrid, chica Almodóvar’ (‘Madrid, Almodovar Girl’). It is an exhibition that could have been curated specifically for me in mind - and I mean it.
Anyone who has followed my research notes below on locations in Barcelona, Cadaqués and Figueres for The Barcelona Connection will also know that I’m fascinated by film locations - real and completed films or still in development!
‘Madrid, chica Almodóvar’ runs until 20 October at the Conde Duque cultural centre, featuring 200 photos from his 23 movies, as well as notebooks, movie props and the first camera he ever bought, a hand-held Super-8. It coincides with the 50th anniversary since he began his film career in Madrid in 1974 with the release of his first short film.
It also includes a map to head off and match the locations to the films, and which I will try to do if I have time. At least those that I don’t already know.
I got to know and appreciate many areas and landmarks of Madrid thanks to his earlier films … the Plaza de Santa Ana, the Circulo de Bella Artes, Taberna Alhambra, Museo Chicote, the Viaducto de Segovia, the Calle Almirante and even the Villa Rosa, the tablao-style nightclub where I almost struck up a conversation with him, back in 1990 …
It’s a true anecdote and it appears in Chapter 23 of ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ …
Near the bar, talking to friends and minding his own business, was the film director, Pedro Almodóvar. I was very drunk but he also looked as if he’d had a few. He was a chubby, funny-looking chap. I was about to go up to him to recount my idea for a movie about a kidnapped matador, but he caught my eye and looked like he was silently pleading with me not to.
Re-reading this now, it shows that I had the idea for one of the sub-plots behind The Barcelona Connection some 20 years before I wrote it as a screenplay, and 30 years since the novel was finally published. That’s weird.
What’s also weird is that Almodóvar has a copy of the Spanish edition of ‘A Load of Bull’ (‘Mucho Toro’) somewhere on his shelves, because a dedicated, signed edition was sent to him with a professional note from an agent to see if he’d be interested in adapting it for the screen and directing it. He never replied (of course). I now wonder whether he might have tossed the book in the bin after Chapter 23.
Books, Reviews, Research, News & EventsForthcoming EventsI’m coming to Madrid! On Friday 20 September, I’m doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop in the Calle Moratín 7, to celebrate the re-issue of ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ (see details of book below). Please come along if you can, it would be great to see you there!
It starts at 8pm and while the event is free, places will be limited. You can reserve a place by buying a €3 voucher redeemable in the store on the night. You can reserve your place here via this link - or click on image below.
I have also been invited to do two events at the Hotel Castell d’Empordà in La Bisbal d’Empordà (Catalonia) on Friday 8 November and Friday 13 December alongside the hotel’s owner, Albert Diks, as part of the hotel’s 25th anniversary. The hotel is part of a key plot element in The Barcelona Connection (mentioned in Letter from Spain #8) and which is based on true events. The event is planned to be about ‘The Dalí Connection’ to the hotel and, of course, the book! More details about these events will follow in due course …
The Barcelona Connection - ResearchIn my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & ReviewsA murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBNnumber: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & ReviewsEighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has been re-issued with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook worldwide, in both formats. You can also order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
As with previous posts showing images and locations that form part of the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection novel (above), I am also planning to publish an archive of photos here of Madrid that relate to many chapters in ‘A Load of Bull’ - although it will take time! In Letter from Spain #52, I cover Chapter 1 - the Centro Colón aparthotel (entrance) Watch this space for further images …
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in MadridThe hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish editionA Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact DetailsYou can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
September 1, 2024
Letter from Spain #54
I’m back. I hope you have had and/or are still having a great summer. I haven’t posted here since 14 July, and prior to that was on 3 June, when I’d explained that I wouldn’t be posting much during the summer months as I was entrenched with writing ‘The Madrid Connection’ - the sequel to The Barcelona Connection. I’m delighted to say that I’ve now completed a first full draft of the book, which was a target I’d set myself by 31 August.
Despite temptation, my method was to not go back and re-write anything at all. I just ploughed on, ‘getting words down on paper’, an average of four pages a day (however bad) since the start of June - some written on this MacBook, some in pencil on a beach - but with the idea of having 360 pages of ‘something’, and which I now have, more or less.
It’s not a great draft but it’s a good starting point to now start the real writing (and re-writing) process. Along the way, I was researching, too (and reading a lot about Caravaggio), and the plot was developing all the time, and so although I knew that many earlier passages I’d written would need to change, or become irrelevant, or that a character would be a good guy instead of an evil female, or not even exist at all, I just ploughed on, resisting all temptation to start again.
Now I’m going to spend September until early December writing what I hope will be a first ‘polished’ draft of the book, before re-writing and re-writing and then re-writing even more, once I’ve got some feedback and comments from early readers and my editor. But I can envisage the book clearly now and I’m excited about it. Very.
I’m again going to try and post a weekly letter here, though - so thanks for reading. I will also share news about forthcoming events (I’m coming to Madrid this month, see below).
During this past week I’ve been fortunate enough to watch some of the America’s Cup in Barcelona, although mainly on big screens in the ‘race village’, ‘fan zones’ and media centre, not on a luxury gin-tub floating on the Med. It all goes on until the end of October, so there are plenty of opportunities to see more of it if you are here and ‘into it’. I put it like that as many people, it seems, aren’t ‘into it’. At least many locals in Barcelona.
Billed as the ‘ultimate sporting competition’ (for the super-rich), the America’s Cup has been ‘sold’ as bringing in €1bn to the city (and/or Catalonia), creating 19,000 jobs and attracting (from late August until the end of October) an extra 2.5 million visitors to the city … and a city already stretched and protesting about tourism saturation and gentrification.
I’ve written about Spain’s double-edged sword regarding tourism in a previous post, but with the country set to break records of visitors this year (last year it was 85.1 million international tourists), there have already been many protests on the mainland and in the Balearic and Canary Islands against tourism.
No one has really explained where the so-called €1bn of income to the city is going to be distributed or end up - and I’m also unsure about the 19,000 jobs created. I’ve spoken to many volunteers at the America’s Cup race village and fan zones. They seem happy enough, these volunteers, but that’s what they are: volunteers. There are 2,000 of them.
The new director of the public-private body Barcelona Tourism, with its new ‘This is Barcelona’ campaign, recently said: ‘We need to improve the quality of those who visit.’ He also said: ‘The people who follow the America’s Cup are people who love the sea and have plenty of disposable income.’ And: ‘What we want is people who come here to do something, whether it’s to visit museums or enjoy the architecture and the gastronomy.’
Unfortunately, however, one of the more ‘apt’ stories of Barcelona during this America’s Cup has been that the skipper of the British yacht’s team, Sir Ben Ainslie, was mugged at knifepoint only last weekend and had his €20,000 Rolex stolen.
Barcelona is Barcelona. It’s not Aspen. It’s not Saint-Tropez. It’s not Cannes.
What these tourism big-wigs always forget - when they set out to seek ‘quality [tourists] and not quantity [of tourists]’ - is that Barcelona, whilst not Magaluf or Benidorm, will always also be a mass tourism destination city, a hen and stag-party city, a cruise ship drop-in, a football oasis, etc etc’ - and the Louis Vuittoners who love the sea and have disposable income will always have to visit and enjoy the city side-by-side with ‘them’ - the rest of us.
Talking about ‘them and us’, I also attended the America’s Cup ‘Institutional Welcome’ on Thursday evening, at the Maritime Museum in Barcelona - and which King Felipe VI attended. He managed to do so without any protests from the Catalan pro-independence camp, or anyone burning posters of him in the streets outside, so things have clearly moved on a bit in the last few years. Maybe it’s apathy; I’ve written before about this, too.
To be honest, I’m not a fan of Felipe, especially since his 3 October 2017 speech, so I didn’t approach him for a chat or a selfie (although many did). I simply took one from a distance for … well, for a laugh.
I did speak to the new President of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, though. I told him I thought he’d done a great job as the former health minister in Madrid during the Covid pandemic, and we chatted about other things, including Sitges, where I live - and he genuinely seemed to be a nice guy. Whether he’ll do a great job leading the Catalan government remains to be seen, however …
More next week. Thanks for reading - and I hope to see you in Madrid (see below)!
Books, Reviews, Research, News & EventsForthcoming EventsI am coming to Madrid! I’m actually going to be there for a week, with various meetings - but on Friday 20 September, I’m doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop at Moratín 7 in Madrid. Please come along if you can - I hope to see you there!
Whilst the event is free, places will be limited. You can reserve a place by buying a €3 voucher redeemable in the store on the night. You can reserve your place here via this link - or click on image below.
I have also been invited to do two events at the Hotel Castell d’Empordà in La Bisbal d’Empordà (Catalonia) on Friday 8 November and Friday 13 December alongside the hotel’s owner, Albert Diks (pictured with me below), as part of the hotel’s 25th anniversary. The hotel is part of a key plot element in The Barcelona Connection (mentioned in Letter from Spain #8) and which is based on true events. Following a very enjoyable meeting with Albert at the hotel at the end of July, the event is planned to be about ‘The Dalí Connection’ to the hotel and, of course, the book! More details about these events will follow in due course …
The Barcelona Connection - ResearchIn my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & ReviewsA murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBNnumber: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & ReviewsEighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has been re-issued with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook worldwide, in both formats. You can also order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
As with previous posts showing images and locations that form part of the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection novel (above), I am also planning to publish an archive of photos here of Madrid that relate to many chapters in ‘A Load of Bull’ - although it will take time! In Letter from Spain #52, I cover Chapter 1 - the Centro Colón aparthotel (entrance) Watch this space for further images …
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in MadridThe hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish editionA Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact DetailsYou can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
July 14, 2024
Letter from Spain #53
Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana celebrated his 17th birthday yesterday (Saturday). On Tuesday evening, at the age of 16 years, 11 months and 26 days, the Spanish winger became the Euro Championship’s youngest ever goalscorer as Spain beat France 2-1 to reach the final to be played this evening against England in Berlin.
Born on 13 July 2007, Barça player Yamal was born in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona) to a mother from Equatorial Guinea and a father from Morocco. His grandmother first moved to Spain from Morrocco in 1988, making Lamine of Equatoguinean and Moroccan descent.
When Yamal celebrates his goals, he crosses his hands across his chest and uses his fingers to spell out the numbers ‘3-0-4’ - the last three digits of the 08304 postcode of his working-class home neighbourhood of Rocafonda, in the Catalan city of Mataró.
Spain’s other lightning-fast winger, Athletic Bilbao’s Nicholas ‘Nico’ Williams Arthuer (pictured right, below, alongside Yamal), celebrated his 22nd birthday on Friday.
Born in Pamplona (Navarra) to Ghanaian parents who first entered Spain by climbing the border fence into its north African enclave of Melilla – Nico Williams once said in a post-match interview that his parents had to cross the Sahara desert barefoot to reach Spain. His older brother Iñaki is a Ghana international player.
Both Yamal and Williams had offers from their parents’ countries to represent their national sides at football, but they chose Spain - their country of birth, mother tongue and upbringing. I’m delighted that they did.
Spain’s national team manager, Luis de la Fuente, has made reference to the players as ‘the reality’ of 21st century Spain - an increasingly multicultural society due to global migration trends. Both Yamal and Williams are the sons of African migrants who settled in Spain - a country that is rapidly changing its demographics as well as relying on migration to keep afloat, off-setting the country’s declining birth-rate. Spain is set to gain another five million people by 2039, and foreigners account for almost 100% of this population growth.
Yamal and Williams are not the first mixed-race or black players to represent Spain’s national team; in the last five years a few others have donned the La Roja’s jersey. Yamal and Williams, however, are certainly the first to be hailed as the team’s two main stars.
Spain reaching the final of the Euro Championships has coincided with a nasty debate over taking in hundreds of children who have arrived in the Canary Islands as migrants and refugees.
Just on Thursday, the far-right Vox party said it was abandoning its five regional coalition governments with the right-wing People’s Party (PP) over the latter’s refusal to oppose the socialist-led central government’s plans to move about 400 unaccompanied minors from the Canaries to mainland Spain.
And just as a sideline: Yamal’s father once had to pay a €600 fine for chucking eggs at far-right Vox supporters …
While these two players, Yamal and Williams, are being praised as the future ‘reality’ of Spain (at least on the football pitch), there are hundreds, if not thousands more migrants’ kids dying on the perilous journey they take trying to reach Spain every year.
Even if this Euro football tournament doesn’t change how these poor kids are viewed in the short, medium or long term, I hope that the achievements of Yamal and Williams might at least help tackle another major issue in Spanish football more than any awareness-raising campaign has done up to now: racism.
This is just a short post this week, to say that I’m still here! My last post was on 3 June, when I explained I wouldn’t be posting here weekly during this summer as I’m entrenched with writing ‘The Madrid Connection’. That’s all on-going, so bear with me! More soon …
Books, Reviews, Research, News & EventsForthcoming EventsOn Friday 20 September, I am doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop at Moratín 7 in Madrid. Whilst the event is free, places will be limited. You can reserve a place by buying a €3 voucher redeemable in the store on the night. Hope to see you there! You can reserve your place here via this link - or click on image below.
The Barcelona Connection - ResearchIn my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & ReviewsA murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & ReviewsEighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has just been re-issued, with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook, and this time worldwide, in both formats. Bookshop distribution is underway but in the meantime you can order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in MadridThe hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish editionA Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact DetailsYou can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
June 3, 2024
Letter from Spain #52
I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I am now entrenched with writing ‘The Madrid Connection’ and I’m very excited about it. The bad news is that this means that between my day job(s), I’m going to have even less time than I already have to keep up this blog, at least on a weekly basis, and at least for the next three months (until the end of August).
That’s not to say I’m stopping this ‘Letter from Spain’ - far from it - so please don’t ‘unsubscribe’. I will still post a ‘letter’, as and when I can, but it won’t always be on a weekly basis until I’ve completed the first full, good draft of TMC (it will almost be my second draft).
When I write, I have to have a deadline. I can’t write unless there’s a deadline. That’s easy with magazine and newspaper work, but sitting down and writing a book takes huge self-discipline - and I’m also still researching everything while writing. I don’t have an agent at the moment telling me there’s a deadline, and so I’ve set one myself: a specific number of pages (even if bad) to complete every single day, every week, during three months. It’s four pages a day, if you’re curious (about 1,400 words) - whether on my laptop and/or handwritten.
Once I’ve finished that first/second draft, I intend to spend a further three months (September to November) rewriting it - which is easier to do once you have something to rewrite - and then for a final draft (at least my final draft), I will do so again during December to February, yet hopefully with an editor’s notes. There will probably be another draft after that, but I can’t think about that right now.
As and when I can post a ‘Letter from Spain’ during the next three months, it will be to share news of events (there’s one coming up in Madrid on 20 September - see below!) and any developments on the audiovisual side of things - or because there’s a topic that I just can’t not write about.
For those of you who have read ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ (see below) or for those of who are yet to read it - I’m also going to start posting some photos and other notes in this blog that relate to each chapter - more ‘scenes from Madrid’ than anything else, for those of you who are interested in the locations described in the book. I did this for The Barcelona Connection in ‘Letter from Spain’ #7 right up to #42, as well as notes on all the research I carried out for the book (see below). With ‘A Load of Bull’, in addition to more recent photos of the locations in Madrid, I’m also going to dig into my archive of photos to post shots from the late 80s and 90s, of people and ‘incidents’ that appear in the book … at least where I’m allowed. So do not unsubscribe!
Thanks for reading … and please bear with me whilst I work on ‘The Madrid Connection’.
‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ - photos and notes (1).
Chapter 1 - the Centro Colón aparthotel (entrance).
Books, Reviews, Research, News & EventsForthcoming Events
On the Plaza de Colón, the Centro Colón was a plain-faced concrete block of dull grey, with its name set out in gigantic letters on the roof, lit up to neon-red at night. If you had a room overlooking the floodlit fountains of the Plaza de Colón itself, you’d be able to see the Christopher Columbus monument and several giant sculptures depicting his voyage and discoveries. If you had a room on the top floor, you’d be able to see the chic shopping street, Calle de Serrano, beyond the frenetic main arteries of the city, the Paseos of Castellana and Recoletos. But I didn’t have such a room.
I’d convinced myself that the Centro Colón would be a luxury hotel. But the lobby reception was classic late sixties: beige and brown furniture, rubber plants in huge tubs, white PVC sofas, chrome sculptures and ornate, fake crystal chandeliers. It looked like a set from a Pink Panther movie. The lift smelt of Ambre Solaire inside as if the previous occupant had just come in off the beach. But I was six hundred kilometres from the nearest beach.
On Friday 20 September, I am doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop at Moratín 7 in Madrid. Whilst the event is free, places will be limited. You can reserve a place by buying a €3 voucher redeemable in the store on the night. Hope to see you there! You can reserve your place here via this link - or click on image below.
The Barcelona Connection - ResearchIn my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & ReviewsA murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & ReviewsEighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has just been re-issued, with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook, and this time worldwide, in both formats. Bookshop distribution is underway but in the meantime you can order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in MadridThe hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish editionA Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact DetailsYou can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
May 26, 2024
Letter from Spain #51
Before the telephone, email or Zoom, recalling an ambassador to their home nation was a way of briefing them on specific matters so that they could return to their post with new instructions which were otherwise too sensitive to entrust to postal services. Nowadays, recalling an ambassador is a political statement to show the discontent of a government with a foreign government.
68-year-old María Jesús Alonso Jiménez, a career diplomat, has previously been the Spanish ambassador in Cameroon, Ghana, the Netherlands, and she had been in Buenos Aires since January 2022, as ambassador in Argentina. I say ‘had’ because since last Monday she’s been back in Madrid, after being recalled by Spain’s Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares. He has since said that she will remain in Madrid ‘definitively’ (or ‘indefinitely’, depending on how you want to interpert his words), and that ‘Argentina will be left without an ambassador’.
Why?
Well, it all kicked off just over a fortnight ago, when Spain’s socialist Transport Minister Oscar Puente suggested in a speech that Javier Milei, president of Argentina and a populist ally of Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, had ‘consumed substances’ during last year’s Argentine elections.
‘I saw Milei on television’ during the campaign, Puente told a socialist party conference. ‘I don’t know if it was before or after the consumption … of substances.’ He also listed Milei among some ‘very bad people’ who have reached high office.
I don’t know about you, but every time I see Milei on TV, I also assume that he’s out of his skull on something, and so I thought Puente’s comments were very true … but I guess he should have kept them to himself, being a Spanish cabinet minister. You can’t say everything out loud … I mean, not like Milei himself.
Within hours, Milei’s office issued an official statement to berate the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, saying that he had ‘bigger problems to deal with’, mentioning the corruption allegations against his wife, and that ‘illegal immigration’ in Spain had put women in danger.
‘Sánchez puts the middle class in danger with his socialist policies that bring only poverty and death,’ said the statement. The Spanish government had also ‘endangered the unity of its kingdom’ by making a deal with a [Catalan] separatist party to be able to stay in power, it added.
Then last Sunday, Milei went a step further - a step too far for Sánchez’s liking - when he turned up at the Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid to speak at Europa Viva 24, a far-right ‘festival’ organised by Spain’s Vox party, and where he insinuated that Begoña Gómez, the wife of the Spanish PM, was ‘corrupt’.
‘The global elites don’t realise how destructive it can be to implement the ideas of socialism,’ Milei said, looking like he was on something again. ‘They don’t know the type of society and country that can produce, the type of people clinging to power and the level of abuse that generates.’ He paused, ‘theatrically’, then added: ‘When you have a corrupt wife, let’s say, it gets dirty, and you take five days to think about it.’
He was, of course, referring to Sánchez recently taking a few days to consider resigning after Spanish prosecutors opened a preliminary corruption investigation against his wife, which has since been quickly closed.
Foreign minister Albares denounced Milei’s ‘frontal attack’ on Spain’s democracy and demanded a full public apology, saying that the country would take measures to defend its ‘sovereignty and dignity’. But Milei doubled down on Monday, declaring that he had no intention of retracting his comments and that he was himself ‘the victim’ - presumably for Puente’s ‘substances’ comments.
So … Spain recalled its ambassador from Argentina. In response, the Argentine government has slammed what it calls Spain’s ‘flashy and impulsive threats’ and continues to insist that Sánchez’s government should apologise.
Spain’s opposition groups have taken advantage of the diplomatic row to also lay into the government, criticising them for not recalling the Spanish ambassador in Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine, yet doing so in Buenos Aires just because Sánchez feels insulted by the words of Milei spoken at a rally. They probably have a point there, to be honest.
Whilst the Spain-Argentina spat looks quite childish, Sánchez now also has left-wing politicians from his own coalition partner, Sumar, demanding more concrete measures against Israel in order to end the war in Gaza, including the withdrawal of the Spanish ambassador to Tel Aviv. But Israel has already jumped the gun on that, recalling their own ambassador from Spain - as well as from Ireland and Norway - after the three countries announced they would recognise a Palestinian state.
Israel has since said that it will even block the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
‘We're talking about occupied territories recognised by the United Nations,’ Spain’s foreign minister Albares has said in response. ‘We are analysing with Norway and Ireland what actions we can take.’
Meanwhile, back in Buenos Aires, the allegedly substance-consuming Milei presented his new book midweek before an ecstatic crowd at some stadium, then performed a rock song on stage with everyone chanting: ‘Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, your wife is corrupt and so are you.’
The world’s going mad, at least the political world. With Rishi Sunak announcing a general election in torrential rain this week to ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ blaring in the background - a song that’s synonymous with the Labour Party’s 1997 election landslide - here in Spain, the diplomatic bust-ups are just going to get worse and worse, especially in the build-up to the EU elections … and possibly beyond.
Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events
Forthcoming EventsOn Friday 20 September, I will be doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshopat C/ Moratín 7 in Madrid. More details will follow in due course.
The Barcelona Connection - ResearchIn my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & ReviewsA murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & ReviewsEighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has just been re-issued, with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook, and this time worldwide, in both formats. Bookshop distribution is underway but in the meantime you can order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in MadridThe hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish editionA Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact DetailsYou can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
May 20, 2024
Letter from Spain #50
I’m back! I’m writing this hidden away in my little writing den, with just a few hours left of my Rishi Sunak Monday fasting (yes, I’m still doing it, when I can), away from the aroma of any cooking or the sound of bottles being uncorked … so there’s no excuse not to write at least a short post.
I’d wanted to post something over the weekend but it was impossible. Far too many bottles being uncorked, as well as the aroma of two magnificent paellas being cooked by 15 of us in two ‘teams’ at a good friend’s house. It was a wonderful weekend, coming at the end of a great week spent in the UK, with more over-eating and over-drinking over there, and which is why another ‘Rishi Sunak detox’ is long overdue. (PS: Juliane asked me earlier if I was doing my ‘sushi thing’ again today. I said: ‘It’s not a sushi thing, it’s Rishi Sunak.’)
In my last post before travelling, I said that by the time I returned they would still be arguing about how to form a new government in Catalonia following the 12 May elections, and I was right - although it’s probably more clear-cut than anyone fully expected.
For the first time, the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) secured a victory both in terms of votes (28%) and seats (42 in the 135-seat parliament). Collectively, the Catalan pro-independence parties also lost their majority - something they’d held since the ‘procès’ movement surged over a decade ago. Personally, I think they only have themselves to blame. I used to have sympathy for their cause (I still do, at times), but with the main two pro-indy parties (out of a total of four now) - Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) and Esquerra Republicana (ERC) - failing to ever agree on how to achieve anything, they hardly look capable of running a ‘country’ anyway. Many voters in Catalonia had clearly had enough, and the majority decided that it’s time for a change.
As I have written before in this blog, despite the fierce attacks from the right-wing and far-right opposition parties, Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has totally defused the Catalan ‘political conflict’ that had been fuelled by former PM Mariano Rajoy’s dire management of the crisis. Sánchez did so by first pardoning the imprisoned Catalan leaders and activists, and more recently with the amnesty agreement in exchange for parliamentary support to continue in government - something that polarised Spain, but clearly worked in his favour here in Catalonia.
The PSC’s Salvador Illa - who I always admired as the former health minister during the pandemic - said in his victory speech that Catalonia is ‘opening a new era’ that will be one ‘for all Catalans, whatever they think, whatever language they speak and wherever they come from’.
I hope he’s right but he’s still got his work cut out trying to form a majority of 68 required seats in the 135-member chamber. The party that won the second-highest number of MPs (35) is JxCat, led by Carles Puigdemont, who headed the failed 2017 independence attempt and later fled to Belgium to avoid prosecution.
A joint PSC-JxCat Catalan government won’t happen - at least I’m 99% sure it won’t.
Illa will certainly have the support from the Comuns/Sumar left-wing group, who have 6 seats, and who are already the PSOE socialists’ junior coalition partner in Spain’s national parliament. But then he has to secure the support of the ERC (down to 20 seats from 33) - or at least their abstention and/or their support on a policy-by-policy basis.
If everything fails (as it often does in Spanish politics), then the Catalans will face another election in October. We could do without that.
It waits to be seen whether there really will be a ‘new era’ led by the PSC socialists or not in Catalonia, but what is also evident from the election results is the political shift to the right seen elsewhere in Europe being reflected in Catalonia, too. The right-wing People’s Party (PP) had much stronger results than the previous election (up to 15 seats from the 3 they won in 2021), and the far-right Vox party also held its own (11 seats).
Perhaps more curious, a new far-right, pro-independence party called Aliança Catalana won two seats for the first time in the Catalan parliament - one of the now four pro-indy parties I mentioned earlier (including the far-left CUP). And as I can’t see those four parties ever agreeing on any common strategy for any roadmap to independence, it certainly ‘feels’ like a new era, or rather that the ‘procès’ is at least dead and buried for now.
I’ll be back again on Sunday 26 May.
Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events
Forthcoming EventsOn Friday 20 September, I will be doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop at C/ Moratín 7 in Madrid. More details will follow in due course.
The Barcelona Connection - ResearchIn my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & ReviewsA murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & ReviewsEighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has just been re-issued, with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook, and this time worldwide, in both formats. Bookshop distribution is underway but in the meantime you can order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in MadridThe hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish editionA Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact DetailsYou can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
May 5, 2024
Letter from Spain #49
It was an odd week this week. In Catalonia, Tuesday felt like a Friday and then Thursday felt like a Monday, because 1 May (‘El Día del Trabajador’) is celebrated as a bank holiday across the whole of Spain whatever day it falls on.
In Madrid, Asturias, Cantabria and Navarra, Thursday would have felt like another Saturday - as ‘Dos de Mayo’ was also a holiday in Madrid - and the Thursday and Friday had been declared as school holidays in the other regions, so for many it was just a two-day week. But no complaints … and I’ve written about these ‘puentes’ and ‘viaductos’ in a previous post.
In what could be a passage from The Barcelona Connection, the Spanish government said on Friday that it is scrapping a national prize for bullfighting. The annual prize, which was created in 2011 and was first awarded in 2013, normally grants €30,000 to winners - €10,000 more than the state’s prize for literature.
Spain’s Culture Ministry said that it had based its decision to abolish the award on the ‘new social and cultural reality in Spain’, where worries about animal welfare have risen while attendance at most bullrings has declined.
Only 1.9% of the Spanish population attended a bullfight during the 2021-22 season, down from 8% in 2018-19, according to a survey of leisure habits carried out by the ministry. As for the number of bullfights that take place in the country, there were 3,651 in 2007, but the figure had fallen to 1,546 by 2022.
‘We did not believe it is appropriate to maintain an award that rewards a form of animal abuse’, said the left-wing Culture Minister, Ernest Urtasun.
‘I think [the public] understand even less that these forms of animal torture are rewarded with medals that come with monetary prizes using public money,’ he added, during an interview with La Sexta TV.
The news topped the headlines on Spain’s state-run TV channel, RTVE - as it often does when there’s any attempt to tamper with ‘the cultural heritage of all Spaniards’. What I mean by this is that whilst the culture minister seems to have made this one-off decision about scrapping the prize, the Culture Ministry’s website still states very clearly that bullfighting in Spain has been declared ‘worthy of protection’ and much more:
Bullfighting, understood as the set of knowledge and artistic, creative and productive activities, including the breeding and selection of the fighting bull, which come together in the modern bullfight and the art of fighting, has been declared Spanish cultural heritage, worthy of protection throughout the national territory (Law 18/2013 of November 12).
In accordance with the obligation of public powers to promote and protect access to culture (art. 44 CE) and to guarantee the conservation and promote the enrichment of the historical, cultural and artistic heritage of the people of Spain (art. 46 CE) , Law 18/2013 establishes the competence of the General Administration of the State to guarantee the conservation and promotion of Bullfighting as the cultural heritage of all Spaniards, as well as to protect the right of everyone to know, access and freely exercise it in their different manifestations and, specifically, to develop measures for identification, documentation, investigation, valuation and transmission of this heritage in its different aspects (art. 5 of Law 18/2013).
The decision to scrap the prize was welcomed by animal rights groups, but it angered the right-wing and far-right parties, as well as other supporters of bullfighting, who also argue that it is an integral part of Spain’s identity and ‘tradition’ - which is the recurring argument they use to try and defend it. Tradition.
The spokesman of the right-wing People’s Party (PP) - that swiftly promised to reinstate the prize if it returns to power - accused the government of being ‘obsessed with sticking its finger in the eye of those who do not think’ as it does, while the party’s spokesman in parliament said bullfighting was ‘part of our culture, of our traditions’.
The PP leader of the Aragón region, Jorge Azcón, said they would create their own bullfighting prize to replace the national one being scrapped. ‘Tradition should be something that unites us rather than divides us,’ he said. Other regional governments, including one run by the socialists in Castilla-La Mancha where bullfighting is popular, also said they would create their own bullfighting prize.
Tradition. It used to be a tradition to dunk witches headfirst in water or burn them at the stake, didn’t it? Stoning people to death. Forcing women to marry their rapists. Blasphemy punishments. I think these were all ‘traditions’, too - and, yes, some still exist in countries that are stuck in medieval times.
Whenever the bullfighting ‘debate’ hits the headlines in Spain, however, it fascinates me - it always has - and if you’ve read either of my books, you’ll probably know why.
I fully acknowledge that I used to go to some bullfights in Madrid when I lived there, and I don’t apologise for it. As I write in A Load of Bull:
Look, I’d never preach that the bullfight is right because I don’t think it is. I don’t think there’s any justification for it at all. Whatever they say, bullfighting is almost certainly wrong, but it is a fact of life. The Spanish hold bullfights and will do so until … well, until the cows some home.
Two things here: (1) ‘Until The Cows Come Home’ was the title of my very first screenplay, handwritten in pencil (I still have it) of a story that was to years later develop into ‘The Barcelona Connection’. (2) I guess in the same way that I write in the introduction of the new edition of ‘A Load of Bull’, that ‘today, I am conscious about some of the “laddish” text and passages objectifying women’ - I realise that saying bullfighting is a ‘fact of life’ isn’t a defence for it at all. But I also believe that it will never be banned in Spain, which is a key theme and sub-plot of The Barcelona Connection.
Spain’s Canary Islands banned bullfighting in 1991. Catalonia followed suit in 2010 but this ban was officially overturned by Spain’s Constitutional Court six years later - although no bullfights take place here.
What really fascinates me about bullfighting is the debate about bullfighting. What fascinates me is that it is allowed to continue. What fascinates me is how passionate people get about defending or condemning it, and how it divides specific strands of Spanish society and highlights the contrasts of old Spain v new Spain; right-wing v left-wing; pijos v non-pijos; and, yes, dare I say it … Madrid (& Andalusia) v Catalonia.
I researched the bullfight community extensively as part of my research for ‘The Barcelona Connection’ - but more than anything on how they travel from bullfight to bullfight. Years ago, I took a film producer and a double-Oscar and double-BAFTA winning director-screenwriter to a bullfight in Madrid and we sat in the front row. They will remain anonymous. I haven’t been to a bullfight for many years now and I have no desire to go again. But the debate about it will always fascinate me.
I’m an observer (and writer), not an activist. I believe my characters in ‘The Barcelona Connection’ do the talking for me, and especially Elena Carmona shouting that just because Goya, Dalí, Miró, Picasso and van Gogh all painted the bullfight, it doesn’t mean it should be allowed to continue. Simply put, you can’t defend something just because it’s a tradition.
In ‘A Load of Bull’ you’ll also read about the past ritual of a village in Spain throwing a goat from a church belfry. The mayor used to defend it by saying ‘A fiesta without throwing a goat is like Christmas without a Christmas tree.’ Traditions, eh?
The Catalan elections are being held next Sunday 12 May - and which I think will be very interesting. I’m afraid I won’t be posting a ‘Letter from Spain’ that day, however, because I will be in the UK, visiting friends and family. I’ll be back on Sunday 19 May, when they will probably still be arguing about how to form a new government in Catalonia. Until then!
Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events
Forthcoming EventsOn Friday 20 September, I will be doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop at C/ Moratín 7 in Madrid. More details will follow in due course.
The Barcelona Connection - ResearchIn my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I also included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & ReviewsA murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & ReviewsEighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has just been re-issued, with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook, and this time worldwide, in both formats. Bookshop distribution is underway but in the meantime you can order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in MadridThe hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish editionA Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact DetailsYou can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
April 28, 2024
Letter from Spain #48
Politicians are just human beings. Most of them, anyway. Some are ruthless, tyrannical animals, but that’s certainly not the case with Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. He’s shrewd, he’s astute and he’s a power-hungry risk-taker, but he’s still just a human being.
We tend to forget this about public figures. Only recently we were reminded by Kate Middleton that behind all the criticism and loony conspiracy theories about why she was taking too much time off work and avoiding her ‘public duties’, she was in fact undergoing preventive chemotherapy. That shut the trolls up.
Sánchez, 52, is married to Begoña Gómez, 49, with whom he stated this week he is ‘deeply in love’, and they have two teenage daughters, Ainhoa, 19, and Carlota, 17, who I’m sure are also deeply loved by both their parents. We don’t know what’s going on within their private family life and nor should we - although we do know that the two teenage daughters have often been subjected to abuse on social media by fascists leaving vile messages on their Instagram accounts.
If you’re unaware of the big news story behind what I’m writing about here (and it’s the only story, or ‘drama’, dominating the headlines in Spain this week), then here’s a summary:
Sánchez issued an open, three-page letter on Wednesday, stating that he needed to ‘stop and reflect’ on whether ‘it is worth continuing … at the helm of the government or to renounce the highest of honours … due to the mud pit that the right-wing and far-right have made out of our politics’. Since Wednesday, he has cancelled his public agenda, has not been seen, and will announce on Monday (tomorrow) whether he will continue as PM or step down.
It follows a Madrid court opening a preliminary investigation into his wife Gómez for alleged influence peddling and corruption, simply in response to a dubious complaint by anti-corruption pressure group Manos Limpias (‘Clean Hands’). The group, which has presented a litany of unsuccessful lawsuits against politicians in the past, said on Wednesday that its complaint was based on media reports and could not vouch for their veracity. Even the deputy editor of the media outlet, El Confidencial, that first published the reports, has said ‘we never said there was a crime’ and that ‘all we did was publish stories describing the links Gómez has with various businessmen that we thought was interesting’.
Spain’s public prosecutors office has also requested ‘the annulment of the proceedings’ of the corruption investigation opened by the Madrid court and ‘the closure of the case’.
The Manos Limpias platform is headed by lawyer Miguel Bernad, the former leader of a small far-right group called Frente Nacional. In 2021 he was initially sentenced to four years behind bars over a scheme to extort major firms, but last month was acquitted by the Supreme Court for lack of evidence.
Sánchez said in his open letter that the allegations against his wife were based on ‘non-existent’ facts and were part of a campaign of ‘harassment’ against her led by ‘ultra-conservative’ media and supported by the right-wing and far-right opposition.
‘I am not naïve. I am aware that they are bringing charges against Begoña, not because she’s done anything illegal, because they know full well that’s not true, but because she’s my wife,’ he wrote.
So … will he stay or will he go?
Taking five days to reflect on his position is pure ‘theatre’, according to his critics and the opposition parties. It’s been called ‘irresponsible’, a ‘publicity stunt’, a ‘Venezuelan soap opera’ and a cynical ploy to bolster his popularity. They claim that Sánchez is just ‘melodramatic’, ‘playing the victim’ and ‘appealing for sympathy’.
‘The prime minister of Spain can’t throw a teenage fit so that people line up to tell him not to be upset and to carry on,’ Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the main opposition group, the right-wing People’s Party (PP), said on Thursday. ‘Being prime minister is more serious than that.’
In contrast, thousands of Sánchez’s supporters gathered on Saturday outside the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) headquarters in Madrid, waving red flags and imploring him to carry on. They held up placards in Spanish saying ‘Spain needs you’ and ‘Pedro don’t abandon us’. His supporters on social media have been using the hashtags #PedroQuèdate (‘Pedro stay’), #PedroNoTeRindas (‘Pedro, don’t give up’) and #MereceLaPenaPedro (‘It’s worth it, Pedro’).
Sánchez has been Spanish prime minister since 2018 and is one of Europe’s longest serving socialist leaders.
He was able to form a new left-wing coalition government in November to start another four-year term, despite losing the general election last July. He is governing with a tiny majority with the help of Basque nationalists and Catalan pro-independence parties. The Catalan parties agreed to back him in exchange for a controversial amnesty deal for pro-independence leaders and activists - something that has incensed the right-wing PP and far-right Vox parties.
Spain is currently seeing one of the most polarised and poisonous political periods of its recent history. Politicians clearly need to be thick-skinned and it’s true that Sánchez has survived a great deal of abuse in the past.
The former PP leader Pablo Casado regularly called him a ‘traitor’, a ‘felon’ and a ‘compulsive liar’. Vox’s leader, Santiago Abascal, has spoken about the day when Spaniards would want to see him ‘strung up by his feet’ - and a hanging effigy of Sánchez was thrashed with sticks by protesters during a New Year’s Eve rally in the capital. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the populist PP president of the Madrid region also accused him of launching a ‘totalitarian’ project and ushering in ‘a dictatorship through the back door’. She was even caught on camera calling him a ‘hijo de puta’ (‘son of a bitch’) during last November’s investiture debate, when Sánchez himself made a dig about her brother’s alleged business dealings during the Covid pandemic.
So, yes, he’s suffered abuse in the past and he’s often gambled and won. But this time, I don’t think it’s a matter of his survival skills. This time - because the attacks and focus are on his wife, who he ‘deeply loves’ - I think he genuinely might have had enough.
In the recent past, the right-wing and far-right groups have tried to spread rumours about Begoña Gómez being a transwoman, that she is involved in drug trafficking in Morocco and that her family runs a prostitution ring.
On Friday, two Spanish papers published audio and transcripts of a 2014 meeting between a senior PP minister and José Manuel Villarejo, a former police inspector accused of spying on (and discrediting) some of Spain’s most high-profile politicians. In the recordings, the two men discuss plans to spy on Gómez’s father in order to ‘politically kill’ Sánchez.
Wednesday’s letter from the prime minister was reportedly written without consulting any of his advisers – a deeply personal one showing an uncharacteristic fragile side. Some Spanish media even reported that he was ready to resign on that same Wednesday, but was finally persuaded to ‘reflect’ on it for a few days.
The fact that he has since refused to meet any of his ministers and spoken only to his immediate family makes me think that he will announce his resignation on Monday, althought I very much hope that he won’t.
If he decides to remain in office, he could choose to file a confidence motion in parliament to show that he and his minority government are still supported by a majority of MPs. If he does resign, an early election could be called from July – a year after the last one – with or without Sánchez at the helm of the PSOE party.
By this time tomorrow, we’ll know.
When I started this blog-newsletter on Substack last April, a year ago, I did so to coincide it with the publication of The Barcelona Connection. I wanted to make it a sort of weekly diary about living and working in Spain, and I said that it will ‘mix observations and news about Spain, notes on The Barcelona Connection while writing the sequel, plus a behind-the-scenes look into developing it for the screen’. And it will.
For those of you who have read the book and specifically the acknowledgements page, I explain how it started life as a film script, and I also thank several people in the film and TV world. In a previous blog post (‘Never, ever give up’), I also wrote about the journey that I have so far undertaken in trying to get TBC made into a film or a series - and despite that blog post being six years ago now, it is on-going.
Although in these ‘Letters from Spain’ I have so far not written much about what’s going on behind the scenes on the audiovisual side of things, I’m delighted to share some professional news that is directly related to the development of TBC, in addition to other exciting projects. I am going to be running Nevision Films & TV, SL - the Spanish office for the Nevision group, that has its headquarters in London, Nevision Inc in LA and New York, and its sister company Nevis Productions in Scandinavia. You can read about the news here in English, or here in Spanish, if you prefer.
I will write when I can (and when I am allowed) about what’s happening with my activity with Nevision, but all I can say for now is that there are very exciting times ahead!
Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events
I had great fun on Sant Jordi in both Barcelona and Sitges … thanks to everyone who came along and bought a book!
On Friday 20 September, I will be doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop at the C/ Moratín 7 in Madrid. More details will follow in due course …
The Barcelona Connection - ResearchIn my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I also included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & ReviewsA murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & ReviewsEighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has just been re-issued, with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook, and this time worldwide, in both formats. Bookshop distribution is underway but in the meantime you can order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in MadridThe hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish editionA Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact DetailsYou can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk
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