Letter from Spain #61

This time last week we were still waiting for the power to return.

This is just a short post to say that I’m back. I have returned to Substack.

This time last week we were still waiting for the power to return.

In Spain, the power normally goes off if you plug in your kettle and toaster at the same time - or at least that’s what I’m used to. I think it might be one of the reasons that many Spaniards don’t bother having breakfast at home. They go to work, to an office, and then leave and go out for breakfast somewhere. Or at least that’s what they did the last time I was in an office.

When the power went off at home last Monday at 12.30pm, I went outside and blamed a couple of workmen in the street. You’ve cut through a cable again, I said. No, we haven’t, they said. And they hadn’t.

I then blamed Putin. He gets blamed for everything (most of it rightly so). I then briefly blamed the Chinese, and then I blamed an Israeli ammunitions company, as Spain had cancelled a €6.8 million order to purchase bullets from them for the Guardia Civil police just 5 days previously.

Meanwhile, Spain’s opposition parties were already blaming the government’s renewable energy policies. PM Pedro Sánchez quickly hit back, saying that they were ‘frankly lying or demonstrating their ignorance’, adding that nuclear power generation ‘was no more resilient’ than other electricity sources. The country’s Minister of Ecological Transition said that blaming renewable energy was ‘irresponsible and simplistic’.

At around 7.30pm in the evening of the blackout, when I briefly got a signal again on my phone, it pinged with two messages that had been sent mid-afternoon. They were from LBC and Talk Radio - both asking if I was available to chat with them on air about the power cut in Spain. No, I wasn’t available because I didn’t have any effing power.

At the moment, we still don’t know what really caused the blackout, and the government has said that it needs ‘several more days’ to work it out - or several more days to come up with the perfect fib.

Anyway, I’m back. I will try to post something here every week, although I’m not sure what day it will be. Hopefully Mondays.

If you’re interested, I’m also back on the Talk Radio Europe each Wednesday, too, chatting briefly about the news from Spain with Giles Brown. Here’s the clip from Weds 30 April, in which we chat about some of the things I’ve mentioned above:

My last ‘Letter from Spain’ was on 17 November - about President-elect Elon Musk - and I think I was right about him …

Since then, I’ve been working on ‘The Madrid Connection’ - which will be available this autumn - and the development of ‘The Barcelona Connection’ for the screen. More on this very soon.

Just a final note for today:

If you’re in the UK, Canada or Australia, and you like reading on Kindle, then BookBub is currently promoting the ‘riveting thriller’, The Barcelona Connection, on Amazon for just £0.99 (or $) until midnight tonight (Monday 5 May). Good time to read it with the sequel out soon … ;)

Click on the image below for the Amazon USA link:

Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events

The Madrid Connection … coming this autumn

‘The Madrid Connection’, the sequel to ‘The Barcelona Connection’, will be published this autumn, and I already have two dates in the calendar in Madrid and Barcelona to launch it. I will post further details about these events, the book - and how to pre-order it - over the summer months.

The Barcelona Connection - Research & development for the screen

Development for the screen: ‘The Barcelona Connection’ is currently in development as a film, and I hope I will be able to post further news about this here in due course.

Research: In my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …

The Barcelona Connection - Book & 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 ISBNnumber: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.

Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.

A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.

‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’

‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’

A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.

‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’

‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’

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

‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’

‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’

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

A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & Reviews

Eighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has been re-issued with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.

It is available in print and as an eBook worldwide, in both formats. You can also order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.

If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.

As with previous posts showing images and locations that form part of the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection novel (above), I am also planning to publish an archive of photos here of Madrid that relate to many chapters in ‘A Load of Bull’ - although it will take time! In Letter from Spain #52, I cover Chapter 1 - the Centro Colón aparthotel (entrance) Watch this space for further images …

A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in 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

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