Tim Parfitt's Blog, page 5

Letter from Spain #28

Instead of writing about things in Spain this week, I’m taking a break and turning my attention briefly to Vogue House in Hanover Square, London.

Thanks to a great friend and ex-Condé Nast colleague, I discovered yesterday that the November issue of British Vogue features the Vogue House building on its cover - and, I believe, on three different versions of the cover. Why? Because the magazine’s publishers, Condé Nast, are finally vacating the building …

‘Supermodels, celebrities and even royalty have swept though its revolving doors, but after six decades, Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue, is moving out of its historic London offices on Hanover Square,’ wrote The Guardian at the start of this year. And the time has finally arrived.

45 years ago (45 years!), I walked into Vogue House in London and asked for a job. And I got a job (I learned years later) because I reminded the Personnel Manager (Angela Simons or Simmons) of her nephew.

I started working at Vogue House on Monday, 13 November 1978. I was 18. My starting salary was £2,500 a year – plus luncheon vouchers.

I wasn’t only the youngest male employee at the time, I was the youngest employee overall. I first worked in the production department (they called it the ‘make-up’ department) of Vogue, House & Garden and Brides magazines, actually doing the ‘flat-plan’, and being the link between the editorial and advertising departments. I was in heaven. I learnt everything there was to know about magazines and publishing, thanks to Condé Nast. When they acquired Tatler magazine (I think it was in 1983), I ended up writing a monthly column for the magazine, as well as doing the production and trying to sell some advertising.

I have nothing but happy, wild, surreal and outrageous memories (many of them) working at Vogue House - and one day I am going to write about them in full.

I worked at Vogue House in London for 10 years … from 1978 to 1988. I was then sent to Madrid (initially for 6 weeks) to help with the launch of Spanish Vogue, but stayed in Madrid for 10 years and ended up running the Spanish company (all related in A Load of Bull). From 1999-2000, I also worked at Vogue House in London again, setting up the company’s ‘customer publishing’ division.

So, all in all, I worked for Condé Nast for 22 years, and ran the Spanish company … all because I walked in and asked for a job.

The photos below were taken in May 2013 (Vogue House) and October 2016 (‘Sir Rhino Twes’ - the original ‘Serrano Tres’ offices of Vogue in Madrid - if you read A Load of Bull then you’ll understand - and an equally important building in my life).

Subscribe now

The Barcelona Connection - Research

This week I said I’d mention my notes and research behind the journey from Nîmes to Barcelona, which forms part of the investigation in Chapter 29 (and elsewhere in the book).

I did that whole journey, specifically from Nîmes in the south of France to Barcelona just once (although I’ve done Cannes to Barcelona several times) - and I timed it all and collected the toll tickets, times, distances and prices along the way. I’ve also done the journey from the Girona airport service station to Barcelona many times, as well as to the fictional masia of the Marquès de Guíxols (see Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain #8). I researched all the toll gates and tickets on those journeys, too. I even called the company that operates the toll gates across Spain, asking politely for details of what the sensors and cameras can pick up about each vehicle that passes through. I’ve admitted it before: I’m mad … I know …

Anyway, what happens? After researching toll tickets on the AP-7 autopista between Girona and Barcelona in minute detail, the Spanish government finally removes most, if not all of the tollgates! They still exist in the south of France, though, and they exist on certain other roads in Catalonia … and I’ve heard that they might even be put back in operation on the AP-7 north of Barcelona eventually. The toll tickets aren’t the most important element of the book, besides …

At the end of my acknowledgements at the back, I write: ‘One final note: the novel takes place over a few days in June in a pre-pandemic year, and before the authorities removed some of the tollgates.’

Next week, we’ll take a look at Chapter 36 - the Port Olímpic and the Hotel Arts …

Previous links to my research notes are here:

Chapters 28 and 32 in Letter from Spain #27 (Pedralbes and Jaume, the Marquès de Guíxols)

Chapter 26 in Letter from Spain #26 (pijos and Beltrán Gómez de Longoria).

Chapter 25 (again) in Letter from Spain #25 (Benjamin’s thoughts on Púbol, Figueres and Port Lligat-Cadaqués).

Chapter 25 in Letter from Spain #23 (Benjamin and Elena on the Passeig Marítim).

Chapter 22 & Chapter 24 in Letter from Spain #22 (Plaça Sant Jaume & Nîmes).

Chapter 21 in Letter from Spain #21 (the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - MNAC).

Chapter 18 in Letter from Spain #20 (Nîmes).

Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia).

Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia).

Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

It was great fun to participate in yesterday’s discussion - ‘How to enjoy and rediscover Barcelona through literature’ at Barcelona City Council’s International Community Day, with Cristina Belenguer and Annebeth Vis.

Thanks to everyone who came along - and even more to those who asked to purchase the book! Met some great people, shared some fantastic ideas - and who knows, there might be Guided Tours of Barcelona and/or Dalí-country available in the future, with a copy of The Barcelona Connection to hand …

Here are some images snatched from Instagram stories:

Links to reviews & articles

A review of The Barcelona Connection by Michael Eaude has been published in the October 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.’

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection by Dominic Begg that came out 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.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Letter from Spain #27

In Spain, the Israel-Hamas war has shown that Pedro Sánchez’s fragile coalition government (and an ‘acting’ one at the moment) is as split as ever on foreign affairs, and always was.

Sánchez, leader of the PSOE socialists and in office as Spanish prime minister since 2018, has had to govern in a coalition with the left-wing (many say ‘hard left’) Podemos group since 2020, and the two parties have often clashed on foreign policy. Podemos, for example, is against sending any military aid to Ukraine.

Since the terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel on 7 October and the rapid retaliation by Israel in Gaza, Ione Belarra, the current head of Podemos and the acting minister of social rights in Sánchez’s government, accused Israel’s treatment of Gaza as ‘apartheid’ and a ‘planned genocide of the Palestine people’. She also called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Whatever your stance on events in the Middle East, Belarra’s comments certainly put Sánchez’s government in the spotlight of the incensed Israeli Ambassador in Spain, Rodica Radian-Gordon, with the Embassy issuing a fierce statement to ‘strongly condemn the recent statements by some members of the Spanish government’, and calling on Sánchez to ‘denounce and condemn unequivocally these shameful statements’.

‘It is deeply worrying that ... certain elements within the Spanish government have chosen to align themselves with this ISIS-type terrorism,’ the Embassy said. ‘These statements are not only absolutely immoral, but they also endanger the safety of Jewish communities in Spain, exposing them to the risk of a greater number of incidents and anti-Semitic attacks.’

Sánchez himself has condemned ‘completely and without any hesitation, the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel’, but at the same time he’s said that ‘Israel has the legitimate right to defend itself within international law and humanitarian law’.

‘The protection of civilians is essential, as is access to international aid for those in need, especially in the Gaza Strip,’ said Sánchez. ‘The only way to definitively resolve the conflict is the recognition of the two States, so that they can co-exist in peace and security.’

Following Belarra’s comments and the Israeli Embassy’s statement, Spain’s Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, had to quickly intervene to avoid a diplomatic row - although I’m not sure to what extent he’s managed to avoid it.

Albares called the Embassy’s statement an ‘unfriendly gesture’ and that he ‘categorically rejected the falsehoods expressed … about some of [the Spanish government’s] members’ and ‘did not accept unfounded insinuations about them’. However, he also acknowledged that ‘in every government there are different opinions, much more so in a coalition government’.

After speaking with the Israeli ambassador, he said that ‘the final conclusion is that we are going to work together so the friendship between Spain and Israel, between the people of Spain and Israel, is maintained, as it has been until now’. He also said that only he and Sánchez could speak for Spain’s foreign policies, and that the issue was now ‘settled’.

But is it? The Israeli Embassy’s statement remains on Twitter, and Spain’s acting minister of social rights has stepped up her criticism of Israel, stating that ‘history will not forgive Europe for being complicit in the genocide that Israel is carrying out against the Palestinian people. We must act now, with urgency. Economic sanctions and arms embargo, time is running out.’

It’s a political dilemma for Sánchez and it will further complicate his talks to try and officially form a new government before 27 November. Despite having the general backing of ‘Sumar’, the new alliance led by Yolanda Díaz of left-wing (and ‘hard left’) parties which includes Podemos, it seems to me that the previously sidelined Podemos has become more determined than ever to stand out and show that it is still a force to be reckoned with.

Its former leader Pablo Iglesias - one of the founders of the party and who remains highly influential - warned midweek that Sánchez must also negotiate the main points of his foreign policy with the political groups he depends upon, if he hopes to be officially reinstated.

He has until 27 November to secure a parliamentary majority to govern, otherwise new elections will be triggered for mid-January. With everything still in the air regarding amnesty and the other demands from the Catalan pro-independence parties that I have covered in previous weeks, at the moment I’d put my bet on elections in January …

I spoke about some of this on the radio this week, in my fortnightly chat with Giles Brown on Talk Radio Europe - as well as about the tragic death of the teenager Alvaro Prieto in Sevilla. Here’s the chat from Wednesday 18 October if you’re interested:

Subscribe now

The Barcelona Connection - Research

When I first moved to Catalonia in June 2007 to work for a magazine group jointly owned by Grupo Godó and Grupo Planeta, I lived in an aparthotel for six months, in the Pedralbes area of Barcelona, before the whole family came over from the UK and we moved to Sitges.

I mention this because I got to know the zona alta and Pedralbes very well - and it’s where the fictional Jaume, the Marquès de Guíxols, has a home, in addition to his masia in La Bisbal d’Empordà (described in Chapter 2 below).

Chapters 28 and 32 delve further into the character of Jaume, and pinpoint the location of his home in the city:

What could still be termed the Guíxols home in Barcelona, before any imminent visit from the bailiffs, was in the Carrer de Monestir, in the heart of of Pedralbes. Jaume always quipped that it was a white stone’s throw from Pedralbes monastery itself. White, because Pedralbes stemmed from the Latin pedras albas - white stones.

Hurl another white stone and you’d hit the nearby Royal Tennis Club, where Jaume’s father had been a former president in the good old days. Even nearer was the United States Consulate, where helicopters were landing and taking off from its lawns, with dignitaries toing and froing from the US HQ in the Port Olímpic.

We used to entertain clients of our magazines and of La Vanguardia newspaper at the Godó tennis tournament in Pedralbes every April, and I was fortunate enough to be invited along to a few of the verbena parties hosted by the paper’s proprietor over the years, held in his garden next door to the US Consulate. So I know exactly where, and how Jaume once lived, before he was hit by the financial crisis and a subsequent scandal.

I’ve met one or two Marqueses in Spain over the years, too, and the physical description of Jaume is based on a combination of two specific gentlemen I encountered. One of them was somewhat cantankerous, and the other showed me a Dalí painting he owned. So now you know …

Next week, we’ll take a look at Chapter 29 - and the journey from Nîmes to Barcelona.

Previous links to my research notes are here:

Chapter 26 in Letter from Spain #26 (pijos and Beltrán Gómez de Longoria).

Chapter 25 (again) in Letter from Spain #25 (Benjamin’s thoughts on Púbol, Figueres and Port Lligat-Cadaqués).

Chapter 25 in Letter from Spain #23 (Benjamin and Elena on the Passeig Marítim).

Chapter 22 & Chapter 24 in Letter from Spain #22 (Plaça Sant Jaume & Nîmes).

Chapter 21 in Letter from Spain #21 (the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - MNAC).

Chapter 18 in Letter from Spain #20 (Nîmes).

Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia).

Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia).

Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

Next Saturday 28 October at 2.30pm, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion hosted by Barcelona City Council for their annual International Community Day, with the topic being ‘How to enjoy and rediscover Barcelona through literature’. The event takes place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. It is free to attend the International Community Day, but prior registration is required via this link: https://inscripcions.barcelona.cat/barcelona_international_community_day_2023-en/

Hope to see you there!

Links to reviews & articles

A review of The Barcelona Connection by Michael Eaude has been published in the October 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.’

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection by Dominic Begg that came out 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.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Letter from Spain #26

In this weekly blog, I normally include some observations about the week’s news in Spain, before writing about my research and other notes regarding The Barcelona Connection below. This week, however, the two coincide on the subject of pijos …

I felt prompted about this when reading this week’s excellent Tapa Newsletter on the public holiday for Spain’s National Day. It correctly mentioned that the military parade that takes place each year in Madrid borders the pijo (posh) barrio of Salamanca, and that ‘military + pijo = not PSOE voters’. This meant that Pedro Sánchez was inevitably jeered by the right-wing and far-right contingent again (for the fifth year running, I think) when he arrived for the event on 12 October - and who this year even chanted the controversial slogan of ¡Que te vote Txapote! …

But this week I don’t want to write about Sánchez, ‘Txapote’ or Spain’s National Day … I want to write about pijos. The reason is that it also coincides with planning to write about Chapter 26 of TBC, which introduces the pijo character of Beltrán Gómez de Longoria. It also coincides with having recently spent five days in Madrid, where I realised that pijos are more present than ever …

The Tapa Newsletter is right about pijos not being PSOE (socialist) voters. Unless it’s a bohemian, Ibiza-style, hippie-pijo, most pijos are right-wing (many even far-right). I’m not saying they all are, but there’s certainly a high percentage.

I should briefly explain my interest in the subject of pijos. Years ago, back in the surreal days of working at Vogue House in London for Condé Nast, I contributed to the very successful Sloane Ranger Handbook, published by Ebury Press in the early 1980s. It was edited by Peter York and Ann Barr - and modelled on a similarly successful publication, the ‘Official Preppy Handbook’ in the USA.

The best way for me to describe pijos is to publish below what I wrote about them in A Load of Bull, after I became great friends with one in Madrid - ‘an English public-school-educated hooray-Spaniard with slightly floppy blond hair, a long thin face and just that chinless hint of an upper-class twit about him’.

In a wonderful review of the Spanish edition (‘Mucho Toro’) by Enrique Murillo in La Vanguardia newspaper, this following section was described as ‘brilliant, hilarious’ and ‘spot on’ - and so I’m personally proud of my pijo-pinpointing! Bear in mind the book was first published in 2006, and relates to a period of time living in Madrid from 1988-1996 … but more about Madrid below …

Pijos were (and still are) essential to the workings of Spanish society and once I’d had them identified to me, it was impossible to avoid them. A pijo, or pija, was a bit like a Spanish ‘Sloane’, desperately imitating a British aristocrat, with extra weird twists as a result of the Spanish upper classes’ close association with Franco’s regime.

In my humble opinion, Franco still had an influence over the Spanish consciousness, and whilst modern Spain was certainly no longer just a land of conservative religious beliefs, rigid moral conventions, vast social divisions and violent political conflicts, the memory of Franco’s fascist party was still there. Some people described pijos as ‘rich posh kids’ who wore Lacoste or Benetton, but it was much deeper than that, and pijos were certainly not all young. True, if you listened carefully, you could hear some teenagers in Madrid saying stuff like, ‘This country must have been great under Franco,’ but they were just imitating their parents – that older, richer, landed set who were still there after everything Spain had been through. They hardly had a bad word to say about the past. Franco was OK as far as they were concerned. Franco paved the way back to a monarchy and reinstated their status. Franco was (whisper it) a jolly decent chap.

So my interpretation of the whole pijo phenomenon was that pijos were actually Spaniards who were frustrated. Frustrated that someone like Franco was not still around, yet also frustrated and embarrassed that he once was. Frustrated that no-one really recognised them – in the sense that they felt they should be recognised as being above everyone else. Frustrated that they weren’t as aristocratic, royal, rich, or landed as they liked to pretend they were. But worst of all, frustrated that they weren’t born British aristocrats. You see, accuse a pijo of being a pijo and they’d deny it. They could be wonderful, charming people, these pijos – but their real problem was that they didn’t want to be pijos. No, they wanted to be the Duke of Norfolk.

And pijos felt that they’d only really arrived if they had all the gear on. Their lives evolved around trying to look British or royal, or talking about horses, shooting, hunting, or Sotogrande, the tailor-made playground for the pijo Madrileño set who moved their homes and Filipino staff down there each summer and then name-dropped all autumn about their latest íntimos amigos. It was essential to not only know the right people, but to talk openly about them. And if you couldn’t keep up with those conversations, then forget it. If you scratched beneath the surface of the pijos, there wasn’t much else there at all, and the higher you went up in Spanish society, the higher the pijo, and the more frustrated they became.

A number of my new Spanish friends were pijos, but I didn’t loathe them. I found them hysterical. I found it funny that they never got their confused aristocratic look quite right. A studied carelessness could take generations to perfect – so I often wondered whether pijos knew how silly they looked in brand new tweeds, for example, in that heavy bullet-proof quality with shiny leather elbows and trimming on the cuffs. I’d see them shopping in brand new Barbours, with the Barbour badge still pinned on the collar and which would still be worn like capes. They wore little bottle-green smock-cardigan felt jackets and navy-blue anoraks with corduroy collars, as if they’d just come in from the estate. Even Hackett had just opened a shop in the heart of the pijo area of Salamanca. All this over a decade after the Sloane Ranger had first been identified in London.

The dress code of the female pijas was pretty predictable, too. They looked as if they’d just dismounted. They wore imitation jodhpurs, tweed jackets with velvet collars, flat pumps, and roll-neck cashmere jumpers – and anything else that looked as if it was from Gucci or Hermès. An equestrian motif also went down well – like a silk scarf with stirrups all over it, which they could then knot around the handle of their imitation ‘Kelly’ handbags. And to crown it all, years after Princess Diana had worn one, the ‘Big Velvet Hairband’ had finally hit Spain – in 1992! If you popped into the Loewe shop in Serrano, you’d see giant horsey assistants in giant velvet hairbands, greeting you with giant haughty voices and eyeing you up and down to see if you belonged. They spoke not with plums in their mouths, but with lisps. They scared the crap out of me, to be honest. They always slipped an ‘f’ in after the ‘s’, as in ‘buenasf diasf’. It was very hard to shop there with a straight face.

In fact, the entire pijo shopping experience was bizarre. In the decoration shops of Salamanca, I’d see Spaniards snap up English-embossed ‘wine cellar record’ and ‘visitors’ books or foxhunting coasters and tablemats while Brideshead music was piped gently in the background. And now that Marks & Spencer had also finally arrived, I’d see armies of pijos in the food department each Saturday, stocking up on such delights as tartan boxes of shortbread and Olde English marmalade, all pretending not to be Spanish in their sleeveless Puffa jackets and bullet-proof tweeds.

The tweeds may have been new, but they signified o-l-d: old Spain, old friends, old houses, old furniture, old wine, old family, old money, old blood. And old blood and pedigree didn’t exclude bullfighters. Bullfighting was to pijos what foxhunting was to most Sloanes: it simply had to be defended even if they didn’t necessarily admit to personally participating in it. Bullfighters may have seemed cruel and naff to the average package tourist, but they were often from ‘good families’, ‘buenas familias’. Bulls and bullfighting meant farms, fincas, horses, estates, land, olives, sherry, money. The obsession with buenas familias was an echo of the old Spanish obsession with the ‘thoroughbred’ pure race, ‘pura raza’, and pure blood, ‘pura sangre’, an obsession that was about as pijo as you could get. The family of the Duke of Alba, for example, famous in the sixteenth century for terrorising Dutch protestants, still exists today. And the eighteenth Duchess of Alba, the young daughter in that most titled of aristocratic European families, is married to … a bullfighter.

Okay … so the reason I go on about the subject of pijos this week is twofold:

It’s because Chapter 26 of The Barcelona Connection introduces Beltrán Gómez de Longoria … who could have equally been called Borja or Cayetano, I guess. In the book, Beltrán is described via Detective Inspector Vizcaya’s impression and opinion of him:

‘Vizcaya took an instant dislike to the young man just hearing his pretentious surname. The name reminded him of an old Francoist henchman, but he couldn’t recall which one …’

‘With his plastered-down hair … he’d obviously landed his job thanks to his surname and Spanish nepotism … the chinless wonder was the son of a diplomat, judge or state prosecutor, Vizcaya reckoned, and the grandson of some old fascist.’

The idea of having Beltrán being sent over from Madrid to Barcelona to ‘help’ oversee the investigation (the plot of the book), was to create a sort of parallel universe between Barcelona and Madrid (and even the Basque-born Vizcaya and Madrid), with all that it entails, without getting into the political conflicts that currently exist between Spain’s central government and the Catalan and Basque administrations. Those who have reviewed the book to date (see below), have definitely picked up on this - and which I am very happy about.

The second reason that pijos are topical for me right now, at least, is that I wasn’t aware that the Beltráns, Borjas and Cayetanos of this world were still present - indeed omnipresent - as they are. Having recently spent five days in Madrid, however (where I admit that I hung out only in the barrio of Salamanca), I realised that there are more pijos than ever. I think it is also since living here in Sitges-Barcelona, that I noticed the contrast even more. But Spain is a country of contrasts, which is why I love it - and I guess that’s my message for this week.

Subscribe now

The Barcelona Connection - Research

Next week, I’ll write some notes about Chapter 28, and the background to the character of Jaume, Marquès de Guíxols …

Previous links to my research notes are here:

Chapter 25 (again) in Letter from Spain #25 (Benjamin’s thoughts on Púbol, Figueres and Port Lligat-Cadaqués)

Chapter 25 in Letter from Spain #23 (Benjamin and Elena on the Passeig Marítim).

Chapter 22 & Chapter 24 in Letter from Spain #22 (Plaça Sant Jaume & Nîmes).

Chapter 21 in Letter from Spain #21 (the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - MNAC).

Chapter 18 in Letter from Spain #20 (Nîmes)

Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia)

Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia)

Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

On Saturday 28 October at 2.30pm, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion hosted by Barcelona City Council for their annual International Community Day, with the topic being ‘How to enjoy and rediscover Barcelona through literature’. The event takes place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. It is free to attend the International Community Day, but prior registration is required via this link: https://inscripcions.barcelona.cat/barcelona_international_community_day_2023-en/

Hope to see you there!

Links to reviews & articles

A review of The Barcelona Connection by Michael Eaude has been published in the October 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.’

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection by Dominic Begg that came out 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.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Letter from Spain #25

They came to Barcelona on coaches, trains and planes today for another rally against the possibility of amnesty being granted by Pedro Sánchez to Catalan pro-independence activists and politicians.

According to reports, the rally was officially organised by the Societat Civil Catalana (SCC) - but thousands turned up from Madrid and Andalusia, especially the right-wing and far-right politicians, all to tell the Catalans what’s best for them.

They did all this in Madrid, just two Sundays ago, before Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s doomed investiture bid, so I can’t really see the point of repeating the exercise today.

50,000-plus people gathering outside Gaudí’s Casa Milà building, and then chanting ‘Puigdemont to prison’, ‘Catalonia is Spain’, and ‘Viva España’ as they strolled down Passeig de Gràcia in the beautiful sunshine, stopping in time for lunch, all to protest against amnesty for Catalan politicians still being pursued by the courts for holding an illegal referendum six years ago …

Let’s just put the world’s issues in context, shall we? Think Israel, Hamas and the Gaza Strip - Russia and Ukraine - child poverty - human trafficking and the migrant issues. Give me a break. It seems that Spain’s right-wing bloc has no other agenda than to moan about Sánchez being able to work with the Catalans.

I gave my view about the issue of granting amnesty or not in Letter from Spain #21, and I don’t intend to repeat it all here. I will just say that granting amnesty is not going to break up Spain. Sánchez has stated clearly that a Catalan referendum will never be on the agenda. Even if there was, I don’t even believe the Catalans would vote to leave Spain - not while there’s a left-leaning central government in charge. They would probably only do so if there was a PP-Vox coalition running the shop, and they’d never grant a referendum anyway - so it’s never going to happen.

Sure, there could be a few more ‘illegal’ referendums, but I’m sure Sánchez will handle that far better than Rajoy ever did, and Spanish politics always goes around in circles, as I’ve said before.

I spoke about this on the radio this week, in my fortnightly chat with Giles Brown on Talk Radio Europe - as well as about the fire in Murcia. Here’s the chat from Wednesday 4 October if you’re interested:

Subscribe now

The Barcelona Connection - Research

For those of you following this blog’s research and the locations behind The Barcelona Connection, I had previously meant to mention Benjamin’s thoughts (and my notes) about Púbol, Port Lligat (Cadaqués) and Figueres in Chapter 25 - ‘Dalí’s Country’ or ‘the Empordà Triangle’, as the three locations are often referred to.

At the front of the book, I include a map (from Nîmes to Barcelona), that also pinpoints the three locations - all key to the overall story.

The first and only time I’ve been inside the Púbol Castle (also referred to as the Castell Gala-Dalí) was back in 2009, but I also drove to and from the area many times as part of my research. I’ve been in the Figueres Theatre-Museum and Dali’s House-Museum in Port Lligat (Cadaqués) many times, and both these locations will feature a great deal in this blog (with photos and videos) when I give more details about some of the later chapters.

Chapter 25 falls into the section of the book which is ‘Part Two - Time’, and that also fits with Benjamin mulling over the dates of when The Hallucinogenic Toreador was painted, and the dates that Dalí and Gala were looking for a castle to purchase and eventually renovate. I researched all this in great detail, and the fact that the painting was returned to Port Lligat in order for Dalí to finish it. I was also helped with this research by Joan Kropf, the former Chief Curator at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St.Petersburg, Florida. The dates are all true facts …

Next week, I’ll write about Chapter 26, ‘pijos’, and specifically Beltrán Gómez de Longoria …

Previous links to my research notes are here:

Chapter 25 in Letter from Spain #23 (Benjamin and Elena on the Passeig Marítim).

Chapter 22 & Chapter 24 in Letter from Spain #22 (Plaça Sant Jaume & Nîmes).

Chapter 21 in Letter from Spain #21 (the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - MNAC).

Chapter 18 in Letter from Spain #20 (Nîmes)

Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia)

Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia)

Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

A date for the diary, this time in Barcelona. On Saturday 28 October from 2.30pm - 3.15pm, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion with two other authors and hosted by Barcelona City Council for their annual International Community Day, with the topic being ‘How to enjoy and rediscover Barcelona through literature’. The event takes place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. It is free to attend the International Community Day, but prior registration is required via this link: https://inscripcions.barcelona.cat/barcelona_international_community_day_2023-en/

Hope to see you there!

Links to reviews & articles

A review of The Barcelona Connection by Michael Eaude has been published in the October 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.’

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection by Dominic Begg that came out 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.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Letter from Spain #24

Just a short post this week, with more photos than words …

We arrived in Madrid on Wednesday and, as I wrote last week, it coincided - as expected - with Alberto Núñez Feijóo failing in the first investiture vote on that same day, and then on a second attempt on the Friday, too. Pedro Sánchez will now have a go at trying to form a government. But if he doesn’t manage it by 27 November (and he’s got his work cut out with the increasing demands of the Catalan pro-independence groups), then another general election will be held on 14 January.

Time in Madrid has been spent visiting the Thyssen, Prado and Reina Sofia museums (researching the sequel, ‘The Madrid Connection’), meeting up with old (and new) friends, walking, eating and drinking, spending time with one of my sons who is now working here, and just enjoying this great city with Juliane.

On Thursday I had what I consider to be a very positive meeting on the audiovisual side of things with The Barcelona Connection, for which James C from Nevision in London, my partners in this project, joined me. That same evening, I had an event at the brilliant Secret Kingdoms bookstore, chatting about TBC and A Load of Bull with Ann Louise Bateson, radio producer and presenter of the English language programme, ‘Madrid Live’. There are some photos below …

As we chatted about A Load of Bull this week, I also took it upon myself to revisit some of the key locations in the early chapters of the book, including the Centro Colon, Serrano Tres (‘Sir Rhino Twes’), and Lope de Vega 47. Those of you who have read the book might appreciate some of these photos, and those of you who have yet to read it … well, you have a treat in store ;)

I’m signing off early to enjoy my last night (for now) in Madrid. More next week, and in the meantime I will be back chatting with Giles Brown on Talk Radio Europe on Wednesday 4 October about the weekly news in Spain …

Subscribe now

The Barcelona Connection - Research

For those of you following this blog’s research and the locations behind The Barcelona Connection, I will resume with Chapter 25 and Benjamin’s thoughts (and my notes) on Púbol, Port Lligat and Figueres next week …

Previous links to my research notes are here:

Chapter 25 in Letter from Spain #23 (Benjamin and Elena on the Passeig Marítim).

Chapter 22 & Chapter 24 in Letter from Spain #22 (Plaça Sant Jaume & Nîmes).

Chapter 21 in Letter from Spain #21 (the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - MNAC).

Chapter 18 in Letter from Spain #20 (Nîmes)

Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia)

Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia)

Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

Here are some photos from Thursday’s event at The Secret Kingdoms bookstore in Madrid …

Another date for the diary, this time in Barcelona. On Saturday 28 October from 2.30pm - 3.15pm, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion with two other authors and hosted by Barcelona City Council for their annual International Community Day, with the topic being ‘How to enjoy and rediscover Barcelona through literature’. The event takes place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. It is free to attend the International Community Day, but prior registration is required via this link: https://inscripcions.barcelona.cat/barcelona_international_community_day_2023-en/

Hope to see you there!

Links to reviews & articles

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection that came out in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.

Here’s a link to a review of the book published by the Spain in English online newspaper.

Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Letter from Spain #23

I’m off to Madrid on Wednesday for five days, with a book event there, too (see below), and I can’t wait. Madrid has to be (I’m really sorry, Barcelona) my favourite city in the world, as readers of A Load of Bull will appreciate.

My trip there next week will also coincide with the failed investiture vote of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, barring any unexpected surprises. His investiture debate begins on Tuesday 26 September, followed by a first vote on Wednesday, when he will need to secure 176 votes in favour (which he won’t) in the 350-seat Spanish parliament. If he fails (which he will), he’ll then face a second vote on Friday when he will need a simple majority of more votes in favour than against. That’s when something unexpected might happen … but I don’t think it will.

Pedro Sánchez will then have a turn of trying to form a government, and he’ll have two months from Wednesday’s vote to do so. If he fails, Spain will face new elections, most likely held in January 2024, and then it will all go round in circles again.

In the meantime, Sánchez has started to put in place some of the measures demanded by the Catalan parties in order to win their support in a possible vote for him to continue as PM.

This week, for example, MPs in the Spanish Congress can speak in Catalan, Euskera (Basque) or Gallego (Galician), if they want to, whilst the EU Commission is still pondering whether these three languages will be accepted as official languages in Brussels, too.

The EU already has 24 official languages, and the inclusion of Catalan, Basque and Galician could lead to pushes by others to be recognised from other parts of Europe.

I actually didn’t realise this, but all legal EU documents — treaties, laws and international agreements — must already be translated into the 24 languages and there must be translation available in them at leaders’ summits and ministerial meetings.

According to the Spanish Statistical Office, 9.1 million people speak Catalan, while 2.6 million and 1.1 million speak Galician and Basque respectively.

I spoke about this on the radio this week, in my fortnightly chat with Giles Brown on Talk Radio Europe about the weekly news in Spain. We talked about Luis Rubiales, too. Here’s the link if you’re interested:

The fact that Catalan, Basque and Galician can now be spoken in the Spanish Congress provoked the far-right Vox MPs to all walk out … and in my opinion, that can only be a good thing.

Sánchez still has a mountain to climb if he wants to be voted back in as PM, however, and that mountain is called Amnesty. I wrote about this in Letter from Spain #21. It already kicked off today, with around 60,000 of Feijóo’s supporters rallying in Madrid against any possible amnesty for the pro-independence Catalan politicians and activists, and Sánchez hasn’t even spoken publicly about the matter yet. This is going to become THE key issue in the Spanish political arena over the coming months, so watch this space …

Subscribe now

The Barcelona Connection - Research

For those of you following this blog’s research and the locations behind The Barcelona Connection …

Chapter 25 deals with Benjamin and Elena on the Passeig Marítim …

Amid the morning sunbathers, council workers were cleaning weekend debris off the beach along the Passeig Marítim in the Barceloneta neighbourhood, as skateboarders and joggers in headphones whisked along the promenade, mostly drenched in sweat. Old men played dominoes in the shade near the boardwalks, while nearby groups of African immigrants laid out rows of Chanel handbags and Nike trainers for sale on blankets spread out across the pavement, easily transformed into sacks if they suddenly had to run from the local police.

I imagined them exactly in this area of the Passeig - as per the photos below (mainly courtesy of Barcelona Ajuntament) - where Elena could still have her taxi parked nearby, while Benjamin visited a pharmacy and grabbed a coffee, and then the contrasting views in all directions that he can take in …

Benjamin’s thoughts (and my notes) on Púbol, Port Lligat and Figueres in this same chapter will have to wait for another time.

Previous links to my research notes are here:

Chapter 22 & Chapter 24 in Letter from Spain #22 (Plaça Sant Jaume & Nîmes).

Chapter 21 in Letter from Spain #21 (the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - MNAC).

Chapter 18 in Letter from Spain #20 (Nîmes)

Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia)

Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia)

Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

This coming Thursday 28 September, I’m doing an event at The Secret Kingdoms bookstore in Madrid, chatting about The Barcelona Connection and A Load of Bull with Ann Louise Bateson, radio producer, former BBC contributor and presenter of the English language programme, ‘Madrid Live’.

Drinks and snacks will also be served, and although the event is free, places will be limited - so if you’re interested in coming along, then it would be wise to reserve your place by clicking on this Eventbrite link. It will be a fun evening and I hope to see you there!

Another date for the diary, this time in Barcelona. On Saturday 28 October from 2.30pm - 3.15pm, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion with two other authors and hosted by Barcelona City Council for their annual International Community Day, with the topic being ‘How to enjoy and rediscover Barcelona through literature’. The event takes place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. It is free to attend the International Community Day, but prior registration is required via this link: https://inscripcions.barcelona.cat/barcelona_international_community_day_2023-en/

Hope to see you there!

Links to reviews & articles

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection that came out in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.

Here’s a link to a review of the book published by the Spain in English online newspaper.

Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Letter from Spain #22

Just a short post this week, because it’s not every day you have the America’s Cup taking place on your doorstep, which is where I’ve been most of the day.

It was actually the third and final race day of the first ‘Preliminary Regatta’ of the 37th America’s Cup - which is due to be held in Barcelona between August and October next year. This preliminary regatta has been taking place since Thursday in the nearby town of Vilanova i la Geltrú, so not exacly on my doorstep, but a two minute train ride away from here in Sitges.

I’m no expert on sailing, or yachting, or anything else that takes place on water, or underwater to be honest, but I’ve picked up some basic knowledge about what’s involved with the America’s Cup - and I also highly recommend the Netflix documentary, Untold - The Race of the Century, which had me hooked.

The six teams competing in Vilanova this week are the same teams that will compete for the main event and trophy next year: the Emirates Team New Zealand, INEOS Britannia (UK), the New York Yacht Club American Magic (USA), Orient Express Racing Team (France), Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team (Italy), and Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Switzerland). With this first preliminary regatta, however, the teams competed on ‘AC40s’ – apparently ‘the world’s newest and most exciting foiling class with top speeds touching 50 knots and beyond’ - whereas for the main event, they will be on ‘AC75s’ - with ‘foils that lift them out of the water and enable the yachts to generate so much momentum that they sail four times faster than the wind’.

For the main event next year, the teams will each have eight crew on board, whereas for this week’s AC40 racing, they had four-person crews. These ‘pocket rocket’ AC40s are also used for the Youth and Women’s America’s Cup events - and they also lift out of the water.

Today was great fun - very well organised by the America’s Cup and Vilanova i La Geltrú, and it has certainly put the town on the map ... although it’s always been a great place to visit.

In the 19th century, Vilanova was fondly known as ‘Havana Xica’ or ‘Little Havana’, and today it is now one of the country’s leading capitals of popular and traditional culture. Els Tres Tombs and the town’s carnival, declared a Heritage Festival of National Interest, are just some of the events that have made the capital of El Garraf region here in Catalonia a must-see destination along the coastline. Colonial-style buildings live in harmony with fishermen’s houses along the promenade, and together with its Rambla, its social and retail hub, its wide range of fish and seafood offerings and the famous xató dish, Vilanova really is one of the jewels of Catalonia.

And let’s put it in perspective. Vilanova has a poulation of just 66,000. The second preliminary regatta will be held in Saudi Arabia, specifically in Jeddah (population 5.3 million), between 29 November and 2 December, with the third and last one will be held in August 2024 in Barcelona (metropolitan area population also 5 million).

Anyway, here are some photos from today (plus a video). Some of the photos are by me, some are media downloads. I’m sure you’ll be able to tell the difference …

Subscribe now

The Barcelona Connection - Research

For those of you following this blog’s research and the locations behind The Barcelona Connection …

Chapter 22 deals with Isabel Bosch (also see Chapter 10 below) giving a press conference at the Catalan government’s headquarters in the Plaça Sant Jaume. I’ve sat in that same room listening to a press briefing - in fact it was a day before the ‘illegal’ referendum of 1 October 2017 - so I took my research from that.

Chapter 24 deals with what really happened in Nîmes and beyond. I have written previously about my research in Nîmes below (Chapter 18), but included some bad photos at the time. Now I can include others, as well as the images I took for where ‘the chauffeur parked his Chevrolet in the quiet, narrow street of Trois Maures, very close to the Nîmes amphitheatre …’

Next week, Benjamin and Elena on the Passeig Marítim in Chapter 25, and a bit about Púbol, Port Lligat and Figueres …

Previous links to my research notes are here:

Chapter 21 in Letter from Spain #21 (the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - MNAC).

Chapter 18 in Letter from Spain #20 (Nîmes)

Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia)

Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia)

Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

On Thursday 28 September, I’m doing an event at The Secret Kingdoms bookstore in Madrid, chatting about The Barcelona Connection and A Load of Bull with Ann Louise Bateson, radio producer, former BBC contributor and presenter of the English language programme, ‘Madrid Live’.

Drinks and snacks will also be served, and although the event is free, places will be limited - so if you’re interested in coming along, then it would be wise to reserve your place by clicking on this Eventbrite link. It will be a fun evening and I hope to see you there!

Another date for the diary, this time in Barcelona. On Saturday 28 October at 2.30pm, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion hosted by Barcelona City Council for their annual International Community Day, with the topic being ‘Discovering & Enjoying Barcelona through Literature’. The event will take place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. More details in due course.

As soon as I have news about a possible event at The Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida, I will post details about it here.

Links to reviews & articles

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection that came out in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.

Here’s a link to a review of the book published by the Spain in English online newspaper.

Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Letter from Spain #21

Monday 11 September is the National Day of Catalonia (‘La Diada’), and as Catalonia and Carles Puigdemont have been in the news again this week, I thought I’d write a few words about how I see this whole so-called ‘political conflict between Spain and Catalonia’, and how it can be (and should have been) easily resolved. But then I had a déjà vu moment, because I realised I’ve written about all this before … and I was right about it the first time.

In a previous blog I used to write over on my own website, which I called ‘Un Observador Inglés’, I wrote a lot about Catalonia. It started with Un observador inglés (1) – Rajoy is inept and Spain’s lost its mojo - because I wanted to express my feelings and anger about what I witnessed on 1 October 2017, the day of the ‘illegal’ referendum in Catalonia.

My take on it all from the very start (although there are many people who disagree with me) is that things should never have escalated to the level they did, that the Spanish prime minister at the time, Mariano Rajoy, and his right-wing People’s Party (PP) government, were totally inept, and it was that ineptness and heavy-handedness that drove the Catalan independence movement to become the force that it became in the first place.

As I wrote in that first blog post, Rajoy ‘never used “politics” to try and resolve the Catalan issue at all. He’s simply used the judges and the courts … and continues to do so’ - as do the far-right Vox party nowadays. But it’s not just déjà vu, because if Spain’s not careful then I can see it happening all over again.

Just to clarify something here: I don’t support Catalan independence, although I understand why many Catalans seek it. The madness of Brexit finally made things loud and clear to me. Also, I don’t believe that an independent Catalonia would be better off, economically. Back in 2017, no one convinced me that it would be, and they have failed to do so ever since. The financial support from the EU during and post-Covid also made that loud and clear, as I believe it would have been funding that an independent Catalonia would have missed out on.

What I do support, however, is the right to vote - or at least the right to have voted back in October 2017 without being beaten up by military-style police.

All the current political problems and issues in Catalonia - or rather, that specific push for independence that last culminated in the 2017 ‘illegal’ referendum - all started with Spain’s Constitutional Court making amendments to the Catalan Statute of Autonomy back in 2010, seven years earlier, and that was all thanks to the PP campaigning against the statute and challenging the text of it in court.

Before 2010, there weren’t so many people favouring Catalan independence – not until Spain’s Constitutional Court watered down the Catalan statute. Since then, and especially up until 2019, there’s been anything between one and two million people taking to the streets every 11 September for Catalonia’s national day, demanding it.

I see the issue as being quite simple. Rajoy made the 2017 referendum ‘illegal’. He criminalised it. A stupid thing to do, when in fact he should have just ignored it. He should have let the Catalans vote in their pseudo-referendum, but simply ignored the results of it - as the rest of the EU would have done. Instead, he sent the police to beat up voters, and it made front-page headlines worldwide, and for weeks thereafter. It put Catalonia and the Catalan ‘issue’ of autonomy on the map.

Worse ‘politics’ from Rajoy followed. Nine Catalan politicians and activists were then jailed for between 9-13 years by the Spanish Supreme Court in October 2019, convicted of ‘sedition’ and misuse of public funds for their role in the 2017 ‘illegal’ referendum, with the verdicts causing even more widespread protests across Catalonia. 

Then we got a change of government in Spain, and in June 2021, the nine walked free from prison, following pardons granted by the socialist government led by Pedro Sánchez … and which totally defused the Catalan ‘political conflict’.

You get my drift?

The pardons, of course, provoked outrage and protests from the right-wing and far-right parties in Spain, but I repeat: they defused the conflict.

I believe the pardons were correct, because I believe the 2017 referendum should never have been illegal. It should have just been ignored.

And now? We have a situation in Spain where the former president of Catalonia at the time of the 2017 referendum, the exiled MEP Carles Puigdemont, is demanding ‘amnesty’ for hundreds of Catalan activists and politicians who are still facing legal action over that failed 2017 independence bid - himself included. He’s demanding it in return for his Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) party giving its crucial backing for Sánchez to be sworn in for another term, after an inconclusive general election on 23 July.

The right-wing and far-right groups are in uproar again - for two reasons. One, they consider Sánchez is more obsessed with remaining in power than ‘breaking up Spain’ (although Spain being broken up isn’t really going to happen). Secondly, by granting ‘amnesty’ to the likes of Puigdemont further underlines their outrage at the pardons granted to those who were already in jail for the 2017 referendum: it will be ‘decriminalising’ that referendum … which I don’t believe should have been a criminal act in the first place.

By granting an ‘amnesty’ to the pro-independence Catalan activists and politicians, it will mean that (1), yes, Sánchez can become prime minister again … but I believe he can do a better job than any PP leader can ever do, as he’s shown it for the last four years. That’s my personal opinion (obviously). By granting an ‘amnesty’ it will also mean that (2), the Catalan issue will be defused even more … although they will still need to look at the finer print of the Statute of Autonomy in due course.

I’m hoping for the best, but as I’ve written before in the ‘observador inglés’ blog post, politics in Spain is as polarised as it is in the USA, and it goes around in circles …

Subscribe now

The Barcelona Connection - Research

For those of you following this blog’s research and the locations behind The Barcelona Connection … Chapter 21 takes place at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC).

As I have written in the acknowledgments section in the book, I am very grateful to Pedro de Llobet and Benoît Vincens de Tapol from the department of restoration and conservation at MNAC, and who very kindly gave me their time and shared their expertise with me, when I visited their offices back in April 2013.

Benoît helped me with some crucial research on the different methods of ‘getting below the surface of a painting’, and what might be visible depending on the method used. Pedro and his family have become dear friends to me over the years, and Pedro Pardina in the book - cheerful as ever in his white lab coat greeting Benjamin - is really Pedro de Llobet. Below are some photos from that day …

Next week Chapter 22 and the Plaça Sant Jaume, and some more on Nîmes in Chapter 24 (with some better photos than last week’s post about Nîmes).

Previous links to my research notes are here:

Chapter 18 in Letter from Spain #20 (Nîmes)

Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia)

Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia)

Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

On Thursday 28 September, I’m doing an event at The Secret Kingdoms bookstore in Madrid, chatting about The Barcelona Connection and A Load of Bull with Ann Louise Bateson, radio producer, former BBC contributor and presenter of the English language programme, ‘Madrid Live’.

Drinks and snacks will also be served, and although the event is free, places will be limited - so if you’re interested in coming along, then it would be wise to reserve your place by clicking on this Eventbrite link. It will be a fun evening and I hope to see you there!

Another date for the diary, this time in Barcelona. On Saturday 28 October at 2.30pm, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion hosted by Barcelona City Council for their annual International Community Day, with the topic being ‘Discovering & Enjoying Barcelona through Literature’. The event will take place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. More details in due course.

As soon as I have news about a possible event at The Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida, I will post details about it here.

Links to reviews & articles

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection that came out in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.

Here’s a link to a review of the book published by the Spain in English online newspaper.

Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Letter from Spain #20

As if life in Spain is really just one long Pedro Almodóvar movie, this week’s surreal news started with the mother of the disgraced Spanish football federation president, Luis Rubiales (see last week’s ‘Spanish machismo’ letter), locking herself in a church and going on a hunger strike over the ‘inhumane’ treatment of her son.

On Monday, Ángeles Béjar shut herself inside the church of the ‘Divina Pastora’ (‘Divine Shepherdess’) in Rubiales’ hometown of Motril, in the province of Granada. Rubiales apparently grew up in Motril and his father was the town’s former mayor.

Ángeles had said her protest was ‘indefinite’ and would continue until the ‘inhumane, bloodthirsty witch hunt which my son is being subjected to’ came to an end … but she actually lasted just under three days, until Wednesday afternoon.

The parish priest Antonio Rodriguez told reporters on Wednesday: ‘I have to tell you she had a crisis and had to be rushed to hospital. She is no longer here.’

‘Her feet had become swollen and she was very tired. She had also become very anxious,’ he said.

Ángeles was discharged from hospital just hours later.

Since Luis Rubiales became a national embarrassment, the circus of global news surrounding his lewd conduct and later refusal to resign has been ‘damaging the image and reputation of Spain’, according to the Spanish government, at least at a sporting event - and they’ve started a legal case to get rid of him.

‘When the eyes of the world were on our players, his acts caused damage to our sport and our country that is difficult to repair,’ said Miquel Iceta, Spain’s acting minister of culture and sport. So, despite FIFA already provisionally suspending Rubiales from any activity related to football at national or international level for 90 days, the Spanish government is also trying to get him sacked, because the arrogant jackass still has his head in the sand and is refusing to resign.

As the week progressed, I got the impression that the mainstream Spanish media, especially the national broadcaster, RTVE, launched a strategy of damage control, slowly trying to minimise their coverage of the Rubiales saga in order to lessen the global embarrassment.

Midweek, Alberto Núñez Feijóo - the president of the right-wing People’s Party (PP) - tried his best to grab the headlines away from the Rubiales circus, but in the end it was also pretty embarrassing. Poor Alberto, trying desperately to get enough support before his doomed investiture debate and vote takes place on 26-27 September, met with Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and as good as begged the socialist to support him in having a two-year stint in government. Legislatures normally last four years in Spain, so it was a bit desperate.

‘Unfortunately, what I have obtained, as far as I understood, is a no,’ Feijóo told reporters after the meeting.

Sánchez didn’t even bother talking to the media. ‘The failed investiture is Feijóo’s attempt to save his skin,’ his PSOE spokeswoman said instead. ‘He’s gone from being disparaging about sanchismo, to begging sanchismo.’

The term ‘sanchismo’ had been used by the PP before and during the election campaign in a derogatory manner to criticise the government policies of Sánchez. (I’ve written previously about the election pacts prior to the possible investiture votes, in Letter from Spain #15, if you’re interested - and I’ll cover it again as we get nearer to 26-27 Sept).

Anyway, the rain in Spain this weekend has finally helped wash Rubiales off the front pages and away from the headlines.

215 litres per square metre of rain fell in the past 24 hours in Alcanar (Tarragona) in southern Catalonia, and - at the time of writing this - up to 120 litres per square metre could fall over the next 12 hours in Madrid.

The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, advised all residents to stay at home on Sunday, and the region’s emergency services also sent texts to residents warning them of flood risks and advising them not to use their vehicles.

‘Due to the extreme risk of storms in Comunidad de Madrid today … do not use your vehicle if not strictly necessary and stay at home to receive further information,’ the alert said. They should have added: ‘And don’t mention Rubiales or his mum again.’

Subscribe now

The Barcelona Connection - Research

For those of you following this blog’s research and the locations behind The Barcelona Connection … well, Chapter 18 is set in Nîmes …

The majestic Hôtel Imperator was one of the grande dame retreats of Nîmes; an old haunt of Ernest Hemingway, Ava Gardner and Picasso in its heydey. By the time Vizcaya and Clémenceau arrived, the bullfighter’s assistants were gathered in the bar area. While they were being interviewed, their rooms were also being searched by forensic officers, swabbing for DNA.

As Vizcaya made his way through the foyer towards the bar, he took in the glass cabinets with bullfight artefacts. The bar had framed photos of Hemingway at various bullfights, and there was even a bullfighter’s costume with the fading, yet clearly bloodstained leggings on display in a glass case. Vizcaya had always assumed bullfighting was just a Spanish tradition, yet it was also alive and kicking here in Nîmes.

I spent a long weekend in beautiful Nîmes in March 2013, with Juliane, and we stayed at the Imperator. I spent several hours visiting the amphitheatre and the streets and bistros surrounding it, plotting everything. The description of the hotel bar area is as it was at the time. I think it has since been refurbished, but I wanted to keep it exactly as I saw it.

I’d wanted to include better photos here (I have many), but I’ve had a problem with a back-up disk today. The quality of those I’m posting here is not the best, but it’s all I have for now. In another bar during our visit, I even saw a poster of The Hallucinogenic Toreador on the wall, which was surreal - and it convinced me further that I was on the right track …

As the locations in Chapters 19 & 20 are already covered in previous chapters below, next week we’ll look at Chapter 21 and the research I carried out at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) …

Previous links to my research notes are here:

Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia)

Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia)

Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

This month, on Thursday 28 September, I’m doing an event at The Secret Kingdoms bookstore in Madrid, chatting about The Barcelona Connection and A Load of Bull with Ann Louise Bateson, radio producer, former BBC contributor and presenter of the English language programme, ‘Madrid Live’.

Drinks and snacks will also be served, and although the event is free, places will be limited - so if you’re interested in coming along, then it would be wise to reserve your place by clicking on this Eventbrite link. It will be a fun evening and I hope to see you there!

Another date for the diary, this time in Barcelona. On Saturday 28 October at 2.30pm, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion hosted by Barcelona City Council for their annual International Community Day, with the topic being ‘Discovering & Enjoying Barcelona through Literature’. The event will take place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. More details in due course.

As soon as I have news about a possible event at The Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida, I will post details about it here.

Links to reviews & articles

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection that came out in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.

Here’s a link to a review of the book published by the Spain in English online newspaper.

Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Letter from Spain #19

How is it possible? How can you go from being the president of Spain’s Football Federation whose team won the Women’s World Cup this time last week, to having a growing #MeToo movement in Spain (who you call ‘false feminists’) demanding your resignation, to having politicians and top international athletes requesting your suspension for serious misconduct, to having proceedings opened against you by your country’s Superior Sports Council (CSD) and the Administrative Court of Sport (TAD), to having FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee provisionally suspending you ‘from all soccer-related activities at national and international level’, to having all your current squad members refusing to play for their country again while you’re still the boss, to having all 11 members of the team’s coaching staff (except the coach himself) resign in solidarity with the players, to having a ban on making any further contact (by you or your federation) with the player, Jenni Hermoso - who you forcibly kissed on the lips during last week’s awards ceremony while gripping her head in your hands, after also grabbing your testicles while standing alongside the Spanish queen and her teenage daughter … how can all this be happening and you still think you’ve done nothing wrong?

Come on - how is it possible? The answer, of course, is Spanish machismo. Arrogance. Aggressive pride. Toxic masculinity. Misogyny.

Yes, sure enough, there’s only one story that’s dominated the headlines in Spain this week. It’s dominated a few headlines internationally, too, alongside three other machos - Trump’s mugshot, Putin and Prigozhin’s plane ‘crash’. It’s Luis Rubiales … Spanish machismo.

The story has been moving so quickly all week that by the time you read this, who knows, Rubiales himself might have finally seen the light and resigned - although I doubt it very much. But whatever report you read (and here are just three from the online newspaper I launched a few years ago - RFEF threatens to sue protesting female players - Top players say ‘unacceptable’ after Spain’s football chief refuses to quit over kiss - ‘Harassment, assault … denigrating Spanish sport’), the crux of the whole story all comes down to the same thing: Spanish machismo.

Finally, however, it seems that enough people have had enough of it … in the same way that a good part of the electorate showed on 23 July that they’ve had enough of the far-right Vox party, too.

Jenni Hermoso’s statement on Friday said she’d felt vulnerable and a victim of a sexist act.

‘I felt vulnerable and a victim of aggression, an impulsive act, sexist, out of place and without any type of consent from my part. In short, I wasn’t respected,’ she wrote.

Spain has seen many protests in recent years condemning Spanish machismo and the failure of the justice system to protect women - with the famous ‘wolf-pack’ case being the most prominent. Gender and equality have also become a major battleground in the country’s politics.

Up to now, Luis Rubiales has survived accusations of embezzlement as president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF); he’s survived complaints for using the money from the federation to pay for orgies, or for allegedly allowing third parties to benefit illegally. But it’s Spain’s feminism movement - thank God - that will finally get rid of Luis Rubiales - and hopefully the likes of any future “Rubiales’s”.

Subscribe now

The Barcelona Connection - Research

For those of you following this blog’s research and the locations behind The Barcelona Connection, here are some notes about Officer Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia in Chapter 16 …

Soler had often visited La Vanguardia, as a close friend had once been a crime correspondent for the paper. She knew the ground floor security guards, too, because as part of Vizcaya’s abduction and extortion squad, she’d spent time at the British Consulate on the thirteenth-floor of the same building, after a young child went missing on the Costa Brava during a family holiday …

OK, here’s a weird thing. Many years ago, in September 1987, aged 27, I turned up at La Vanguardia’s offices when they were still in the Carrer del Pelai, just off the Plaça del Catalunya. I met with Lluís Foix, at the time the foreign editor. I was still employed by Condé Nast in London at the time, but was on holiday (on my own) in Sitges, and as I’d fallen in love with Spain I wondered if I could possibly find work over here.

Lluís Foix appreciated my approach, but said that because I didn’t speak Spanish (let alone any Catalan), it would be very difficult for me to find a job, at least in journalism or publishing. What he did say, however, was that Spanish magazines were always looking for stories from the UK, and that perhaps I could start by sending over articles that way, while learning Spanish (which I did). Anyway, I’m not going to write more about this specific episode here, as it will all be in a future sequel to A Load of Bull - but just to say that in 2007 - so, 20 years after that meeting with Sr. Foix - I found myself working full-time at Grupo Godó’s La Vanguardia offices at Diagonal 477, on the corner of Francesc Macià square.

I had a great job (at least it started great), running Prisma Publicaciones, jointly owned by Grupo Godó and Grupo Planeta (more about all that in a sequel to A Load of Bull, too), and I was responsible for a number of newsstand magazines, as well as many supplements for La Vanguardia.

So I mention all this because for several years I had many different meetings in many different offices of the newspaper and with its editors and owners, and I also got to know (and became friends) with two different British Consuls from the 13th floor during my time there. I still know a couple of the ground floor security guards, too - they’re great guys - and they still greet me as if I still work there, whenever I visit the building.

While working there and plotting the book, I was even helped by a crime correspondent on the paper (who will remain unamed) with my research. He also gave me an invaluable insight into the structure of the Catalan police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, as well as all the security protocols that would kick into place on several issues that take place in The Barcelona Connection …

Next week, Chapter 18 and my research from Nîmes …

Previous links to my research notes are here:

Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia)

Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

Now just a month away, on Thursday 28 September I’m doing an event at The Secret Kingdoms bookstore in Madrid, chatting about The Barcelona Connection and A Load of Bull with Ann Louise Bateson, radio producer, former BBC contributor and presenter of the English language programme, ‘Madrid Live’.

Drinks and snacks will also be served, and although the event is free, places will be limited - so if you’re interested in coming along, then it would be wise to reserve your place by clicking on this Eventbrite link. It will be a fun evening and I hope to see you there!

Another date for the diary, this time in Barcelona. On Saturday 28 October at 2.30pm, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion hosted by Barcelona City Council for their annual International Community Day, with the topic being ‘Discovering & Enjoying Barcelona through Literature’. The event will take place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. More details in due course.

As soon as I have news about a possible event at The Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida, I will post details about it here.

Links to reviews & articles

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection that came out in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.

Here’s a link to a review of the book published by the Spain in English online newspaper.

Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.