Letter from Spain #37
Never throw away your old payslips (especially if you've worked in both Madrid and Barcelona) ... plus TBC notes & research
Life expectancy in Spain is currently one of the highest in the world - 84.19 years, a 0.15% increase from 2023 - 81.50 for men and 86.81 for women.
In 1974, the population aged 65 years and above in Spain was just 10.2%. It’s now 20.7% - and it’s growing at an average annual rate of 1.46%.
According to a report by Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) issued in October 2022, life expectancy at birth in the year 2071 in Spain could become 86.03 for men and 90.05 for women.
I have always been impressed with how well the elderly folk look and live in Spain. I’m 63, but there are some tennis players in my group who are in their late 70s - and others playing who are in their early to mid-80s (and they play better than me).
You can put their good health and longevity down to some or all of these reasons: the ‘Mediterranean Diet’; the number of days of sunshine; the walking/strolling habits and emphasis on physical activity; friends, family and community spirit; social life, celebrations and a ‘no rush’ attitude; an occasional afternoon nap; plus a robust public health system … oh, and a decent glass of red wine with most meals.
At the same time, I’ve also always been impressed with how Spain looks after and looks out for its elderly population - at a family and community level, but also (dare I say it) at government level - with the Spanish government increasing its pension spending by more than 10% in March 2023, and 4% more is forecast for this year.
The reason I mention all this is because (touch wood) I’m looking forward to growing old (or older) in this country. It means I’ve also been paying more attention to friends and acquaintances when they start talking about pensions - something that in the past I have always done my best to avoid discussing, because the word ‘retirement’ has never been on my radar, and the word ‘pensioner’ even less so.
What started out as something recommended to me by a friend to ‘possibly check out’, however, has turned into something that could (in fact will) have a very positive impact on me in later life (in the not too distant future) … touch wood again that I get that far.
I’m talking about state pensions.
I worked in London at Condé Nast from the age of 18, in 1978. I was already aware that I’d accumulated enough years to qualify for a full state pension in the UK - thanks mainly to good advice from my father to send voluntary social security contributions while working in Madrid.
Now I have some good advice to give my own sons and anyone else: never throw away your pay slips (or nominas, in Spanish).
This is what happened to me recently:
A friend told me that I should ‘possibly check out’ my state pension status in Spain, because ‘you never know’, he said, ‘you could possibly be able to claim something here as well’ (at least from the age of 67, I think it might be). The thought had never occurred to me - despite having worked in Spain on and off, I mean officially, for around 15 years, and more as a freelance.
When I discovered that the minimum 15 year figure was key to getting some sort of Spanish pension, I went to see a gestor (who turned out to be brilliant) to check my work history and social security contributions in Spain, and to see if I might qualify in due course. But this is when things initially went pear-shaped …
The gestor found that I’d worked in Spain for just 7 years and six months - mainly at a magazine group in Barcelona, jointly owned by Grupo Godó and Grupo Planeta, where I started in June 2007.
Yes, I said, but I also worked for Ediciones Condé Nast SA in Madrid from February 1988 until March 1996 … so that’s another 8 years, at least, that I worked in Spain …
‘No, you didn’t.’
‘Yes, I did.’
‘No, you didn’t.’
‘Yes, I did,’ I insisted. ‘Look, I even wrote a book about it … A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid …’
‘Well, it doesn’t show up on your social security history …’
Shit.
This conversation happened just before Christmas. I spent several nights wondering who was to blame - me, Condé Nast, Planeta, Godó, or the Spanish Labour Ministry? Who could I sue? Where to start? Then I realised that in the research and writing of A Load of Bull (and for its future prequel and sequel), I’d kept every single letter, memo, employment contract and much, much more … somewhere.
On 28 December - which my gestor kindly reminded me is the Day of the Holy Innocents in Spain, the country’s April Fools’ Day, when everyone is allowed to play practical jokes on one another - I spent over three hours in a storage unit here in Sitges, working off the turkey by moving, opening and unpacking box after box of books, files and you-name-it … until I found all my pay slips from nearly 9 years of working in Madrid (some 35 years ago).
It turns out that I had a different social security number in Madrid to the one I was assigned when I started working in Barcelona. The gestor could see this immediately from all the payslips, as they also had two different ‘prefixes’ - one given for those working in Madrid, another for Barcelona. It should never have happened and we have a message from Spain’s ‘Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration’ as follows:
‘Currently it is impossible for this to happen due to existing controls, but before all our procedures were computerised it was common for duplications to occur in cases (like this one) in which a worker changed provinces. If [his social security number] did not appear in the files of the new workplace and he did not notify them that he already had one, he was assigned a new number.’
The brilliant gestor has resolved it all online, and my work history record in Spain and social security contributions have all been corrected. I repeat: never throw away your pay slips.
The Barcelona Connection - Research
So … it seems some readers were shocked with Séverin’s actions in Chapter 66, when he visits Hendrik in hospital.
A friend sent me a message to say that he was ‘slightly surprised by your imagination and details of gratuitous violence’.
Personally, I don’t think anything Séverin did was necessarily gratuitous … it was just Séverin being Séverin. I mean, I didn’t have much control over him once he got going.
Someone else wrote: ‘Your research into the nasty side of life and violent descriptions made me wonder where you actually come from.’
In one of the review links below, someone also wrote: ‘My one objection would be the all-too-vivid descriptions of grotesque maiming and pain, as I am one of those odd people who likes their murder mysteries without a lot of violence.’
Well, I think you should decide for yourselves. If you haven’t read The Barcelona Connection yet, then you know what to do … ;)
Next week we’ll start looking at Chapters 78 onwards …
Previous links to my research notes are here:
Chapters 59 and 63 in Letter from Spain #36 (Benjamin visiting the Dalí Museum in Figueres).
Chapters 50, 52 and 57 in Letter from Spain #35 (Benjamin on the train to Figueres).
Chapters 48 and 51 in Letter from Spain #34 (G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’).
Chapters 48 and 51 in Letter from Spain #33 (Picasso Museum).
Chapters 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).
Chapters 22 and 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.