Letter from Spain #45
The rain in Spain does NOT 'stay mainly in the plain' ...
Just a short post this week to say Happy Easter - and that the rain in Spain does not stay mainly in the plain, as per the lyrics from ‘The Rain in Spain’ song in the musical My Fair Lady …
Actually, they used to say that the rain normally stays in Spain’s rocky, steep northwestern corner, in Galicia … but that’s no longer the case. Climate change has clearly altered the direction of the wind, from coming from the north to attacking from the south. Despite the drought we’ve had here in Catalonia, when the rain finally falls it really falls, normally accompanied by a storm (this week it’s been ‘Storm Nelson’). Catalonia’s coastal towns and cities - Barcelona included, as well as here in Sitges - have taken yet another hammering, losing not only most of their sand, but with the boardwalks and promenades suffering further erosion as well.
‘The Catalan coast begins an uncertain season with beaches without sand and promenades destroyed by storms,’ El Diario online newspaper reported this week. Some towns, such as Montgat, are considering giving up the summer season altogether, while others, such as Platja d'Aro, ‘will demolish part of the coastal infrastructure to remake it in accordance with the threats of climate change’. Here in Sitges, as you can see from the photos I’ve taken today, things are bad, too.
Storm Nelson arrived just in time for Easter, a few days after the beach season officially began, but it’s now clear that the ‘chiringuito’ beach bars have been installed too early.
Last November, Catalonia was hit by ‘Storm Ciarán’ (who names these storms?) which brought waves of over three metres, causing devastation to many Catalan beaches that were already in a very precarious state due to previous storms. In Barcelona, the waves caused a part of the Nova Mar Bella promenade to collapse. During the last five years Montgat has gone from having two kilometres of beach to having just 500 metres.
According to geologists in the El Diario report, the change in wind direction has caused many of the elements that were built at the end of the last century to prevent beach erosion (breakwaters, ports or retaining walls) to now be ‘obsolete’. The lack of sand has also left exposed structures such as the train tracks that run along the entire coast of Maresme (Barcelona).
‘Sand regression’ is a recurring phenomenon along the entire Catalan coast, but especially in Barcelona, where the majority of beaches are artificial. I think the sand for the ‘new Barceloneta’ beaches built in time for the ‘92 Olympics came from the Sahara. This causes the city’s beaches ‘to not feed naturally’, according to geologists, so the city depends on its own management system that takes sand from other places where it accumulates. It means the beaches are more or less stable for the summer season, but it doesn’t prevent them from being bare during storms.
Barcelona City Council (like many other coastal councils) are seeking help from Spain’s Ministry of Ecological Transition to carry out further transfers of sand, but it won’t be imminent - and it certainly won’t arrive in time for this summer. The last time it was carried out was in 2010 and at the time, the Spanish Government considered that the cost of €170 million to provide around 600,000 cubic metres of sand since 2004 had been a waste of money.
One cubic metre of sand costs around €6, according to El Diario, and so with 30,000 cubic metres of sand being lost every year, it could be said that the sea has swallowed up more than €1.8 million in the last decade …
As for the boardwalks, a recent report from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has analysed 31 coastal towns and cities and has assessed that 12 of them have a ‘very high’ risk of being affected due to climate change.
‘Climate change is already an undeniable reality, as are the consequences it will have on infrastructure and constructions that were made without respecting the sea line or taking into account the effects of storms, wind changes or rising waters,’ the report concludes.
Sorry to appear gloomy, but it’s a reality. And then we’ll all be complaining about the 45+ degree temperatures again in a couple of months time …
In the meantime - Happy Easter!
Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events
Forthcoming Events
I’m going to be chatting about A Load of Bull and The Barcelona Connection with the journalist and presenter Carrie Frais at a brilliant new English bookshop in Barcelona - the Backstory Bookshop (C/Mallorca 330) - on Friday 19 April. The event is to celebrate the re-issue of A Load of Bull, and it will start from 5pm until 7pm. Please RSVP if you you can make it, as the bookshop needs to estimate numbers. Hope to see you there!
On Friday 20 September, I will be doing another event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop at the C/ Moratín 7 in Madrid. More details will follow in due course …
The Barcelona Connection - Research
In my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I also included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & Reviews
A murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & Reviews
Eighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has just been re-issued, with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook, and this time worldwide, in both formats. Bookshop distribution is underway but in the meantime you can order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid
The hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish edition
A Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact Details
You can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk