Letter from Spain #32
The five questions I get asked when I visit England ... plus TBC notes & research.
It’s not really a letter from Spain this Sunday, because I’m in England, catching up with family and friends … some dear friends who I’ve known for 56 years. I arrived on Thursday and return to Barcelona on Tuesday. It’s been great, and the fun’s still going on … so this is just a very brief letter from England before I rejoin the party.
Whenever I come to England, here are the top five questions I get asked from new acquaintances if and when I tell them where I live:
When did you arrive?
When are you going back?
Do you speak Spanish, then?
What’s the weather like there now?
What do they think about us, about Brexit?
This time I was also asked what’s going on with Spanish politics and ‘all that Catalan stuff’. Read my blog, I wanted to say, but didn’t.
Just before I left for the UK, I’d spoken on the radio again about Spanish politics and other news from Spain, in my fortnightly discussion with Giles Brown on Talk Radio Europe. Below is the chat from Wednesday 22 November if you’re interested.
I imagine that those who are against amnesty are still protesting in the Calle Ferraz of Madrid outside the PSOE headquarters, but I’m not sure - and I know they were trying to start a general strike on 24 November, but that clearly failed.
In the meantime, Pedro Sánchez has got on with the job. He’s formed his new cabinet, with more women than men - which is good - and without the more ‘radical’ Podemos figures of Irene Montero and Ione Belarra, which I think is probably also good, despite their good intentions.
He then travelled to Israel, the West Bank and Egypt, and visited the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt together with the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo - and he’s upset the Israelis with his comments, after calling the ‘indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians’ in the Palestinian territory ‘completely unacceptable’. But we’ll talk about that next week.
Sorry for the short post this week, but here’s the radio clip:
The Barcelona Connection - Research
I’ll be back next week with further notes and comments regarding the research, locations and characters in The Barcelona Connection …
Previous links to my research notes are here:
Chapter 39 and 42 in Letter from Spain #31 (Hotel Arts & Port Olímpic).
Chapter 36 in Letter from Spain #29 (Hotel Arts & Port Olímpic).
Chapter 29 in Letter from Spain #28 (Nîmes to Barcelona and tollgates).
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
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.
You can also click here for the Kindle edition of A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid.
For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.
Welcome back to rainy England. I finished the Barcelona Connection the other day and really enjoyed it. I loved the plot, the misunderstandings and misplaced assumptions all the way through - very clever and extremely readable. I'm looking forward to the next instalment based in Madrid! :)