Letter from Spain #70
Rail chaos & Best Picture?
I didn’t need to catch a train in Catalonia over the weekend, which was a good thing as there weren’t any. The entire Rodalies commuter network (and regional trains) were suspended from 1pm on Saturday ‘until the safety of passengers could be guaranteed’.
Presumably passengers’ safety was finally guaranteed by 6am this morning (Monday), as that’s when the trains started running again, albeit ‘gradually’. Then at 6.30am they were suspended due to an ‘incident’. More exactly, an incident that took place at the Centralised Traffic Centre run by Spain’s rail infrastructure manager, Adif, which is based at the Estació de França in Barcelona.
Then … wait for it … just after 7am, it was announced that services would gradually restart again, but it was short-lived. Another incident hit the central control centre and, at 7.30am, all trains were suspended again … finally only running from around 8.15am, as far as I know. By then, many commuters had given up.
That’s what it’s like here at the moment. It’s chaos. It’s an embarrassment. It’s ‘third world’, according to the commuters who are suffering every day.
Adding to the chronic lack of investment in the Rodalies rail network, the collapse of a wall near Barcelona during last week’s storm that resulted in the death of a trainee train driver - all coming just days after the high-speed train tragedy in Andalusia that claimed 45 lives - everyone is now blaming everyone else. The three-day mourning period that I wrote about last week is well and truly over.
You know things are bad in Catalonia when you have Carles Puigdemont - the former Catalan president who fled to Belgium after the failed independence bid in October 2017 - saying that things were better when he was in charge.
The regional Catalan government has today called for resignations at RENFE (Spain’s national rail operator) and at Adif (the rail infrastructure manager). The Catalan Esquerra Republicana (ERC) party has called for the resignation of the central Spanish government’s Transport Minister, Óscar Puente - as have the right-wing PP and far-right Vox parties on a national level … but that’s really because they’re incapable and unwilling to hear his lengthy explanations and updates about the initial investigation of the Andalusian train tragedy. Right now, being transport minister in Spain has to be the worst job in the world.
Sometimes the news - and the weather (Storm sodding Ingrid now being followed by Storm effing Joseph) - is just so depressing that I have no desire to write about it or comment on it. But if you really want to hear more about the recent news in Spain, there’s an audio below of my latest chat on Talk Radio Europe about last week’s train tragedies.
As for the United States government … don’t get me started. Do they take us for fools? How dare they deny what is crystal clear from multiple videos taken by witnesses and verified by trusted media outlets? Those ICE ‘police’ in Minneapolis are nothing but killers - murderers. The US president … with his so-called ‘Board of Peace’ set to turn the Gaza Strip into a Trump Tower-style Riviera … has no ounce of credibility left. He’s vile, period.
So, let’s change the subject …
Let’s go from one extreme to another: the Oscars.
Every year, before the Oscar ceremony takes place, I aim to have watched as many of the films nominated in the Best Picture category as possible. Of the 10 films in the final list this year, I have so far seen only three: One Battle After Another (on Netflix), Sentimental Value (at the cinema) and Train Dreams (on Netflix). How many have you seen?
We’re off to the cinema this Friday to see Marty Supreme - then I have Sinners to watch on HBO and Frankenstein on Netflix - but that still leaves Bugonia, F1, Hamnet and The Secret Agent to watch somewhere before 16 March. Hopefully I’ll be able to do so - although I’m not too bothered about missing F1 …
Of the three movies in the Best Picture category I’ve seen so far, One Battle After Another wins hands down. I loved it. I thought it was a bit weird - the second half seemed like a different movie to the first half - but I still loved it. Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn are superb - both deserve Oscars in their categories.
Sentimental Value was … okay … but it was a bit slow. The cinematography was striking, but it hasn’t been nominated in that category. I didn’t see it as a ‘Best Picture’ movie. Watching it in its original Swedish (and half of it English) with Spanish subtitles didn’t help, I don’t think. But what I mean by that is that I felt it was more ‘Best International Film’ category … but maybe I’m wrong to think/write that. I think the lead actress, Renate Reinsve, was excellent - she deserves her nomination - but I don’t understand Elle Fanning getting a supporting actress nomination.
As for Train Dreams … I watched it on Netflix last night. I don’t really understand why it has been nominated as Best Picture at all.
For those who are interested …
The Madrid Connection - Research & Images (1)
After The Barcelona Connection was published in April 2023, I started to regularly post images and notes in this Substack blog about my research for the book, especially about Salvador Dalí and many of the locations that appear in the book - from Nîmes to Barcelona, with Figueres, Cadaqués, Púbol, La Bisbal and even Girona airport in between. Links to all those past posts can be found below.
I now intend to do the same with The Madrid Connection - again, just for those who might be interested!
To kick things off, you might want to read a previous Substack post about the time I spent in the Prado Museum in Madrid (where the story in the book starts), somewhat amazed that I hadn’t been arrested. In the acknowledgements of The Madrid Connection I also write this:
When I lived opposite the Prado Museum in Madrid during the late eighties, I used to plan how to rob it – for fictional reasons, of course. So, I think my research for this book started back then – 37 years ago.
Over the last two years, I lost count of how many times I ‘cased the joint’, specifically Rooms 2 through to 8A, as well as the outdoor Café Prado in the courtyard. A number of guards and other staff at the Prado always eyed me suspiciously, and they would have caught me staring up at their CCTV cameras and making detailed notes of their positions …
For fun - well, and to help promote the book! - I have even started to create short ‘teaser’ videos that will depict various chapters and/or passages in the book - and I will share them here over the coming weeks and also on Instagram (@tjparfitt) and TikTok (@tjpspain) - where you can also follow me.
I don’t really understand how TikTok works at all, but I’m learning! And if you know any ‘BookTok’ reviewers who might like to read any of my books - please let me know!
Next week, I’ll post some photos here that link to the ‘Prologue’ section in the book. In the meantime, here’s the first 14-second video I made last week to kick things off …
A bit about me: on and off, I have worked in the media in Spain for some 30 years (click here for more info). Currently, in addition to writing my books set in Spain and developing them for the screen (see below), I also chat briefly on Wednesday mornings to Giles Brown on Talk Radio Europe about the latest news from Spain. If you’re interested, here’s the chat we had last week - on Weds 21 Jan. There was only (and sadly) one topic: the train tragedy.
Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events
To anyone in and around Barcelona, come along if you can to this ‘Chit-chat with Author’ event at the Come In English Bookshop on Tuesday 27 January (tomorrow!) at 6.30pm. You don’t need to have bought your copy of ‘The Madrid Connection’ from the shop - in fact you don’t need to have bought it from anywhere! We’re simply going to have fun chatting about it, and it would be great to see you there. The shop says it would be best to register via the QR code or via this link.
Another date for the diary: on FRIDAY 17 APRIL I am going to be presenting The Madrid Connection in the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop in Madrid. More details to follow in due course.
The Madrid Connection
Published on 26 November 2025, The Madrid Connection is a standalone crime-thriller, but also a sequel to The Barcelona Connection (see below).
Here’s the back cover blurb from The Madrid Connection:
Of all the paintings in all the galleries in all of Madrid.
They chose a Caravaggio.
And they chose last night.
On the night Madrid hosts the Champions League Final, disaster erupts at the Prado Museum: a guard is murdered and a Caravaggio is stolen.
British art detective Benjamin Blake, hoping for a quiet few days in the city on a low-key assignment, instead finds himself dragged into the chaos he swore to avoid.
Suddenly he’s the investigation’s uninvited headache – and possibly its key.
Rival mafias begin circling. The Asians want him gone. The Italians want him alive – at least for now.
As the cultural bureaucrats drag him into the case to deflect from their own failings, Madrid’s homicide chief – choking on his own lies – wants him nowhere near the case, let alone the truth.
Across the city, journalist Elena Carmona is in Madrid on a separate assignment, digging into the poison of racism in football – an evil that opens into a far wider conspiracy.
Trafficking, exploitation and revenge run beneath the pitch and deep into the criminal underworld, drawing her straight towards the same mafias now circling the stolen Caravaggio.
As her investigation crashes straight into Benjamin’s, they find themselves at the centre of something far darker than either imagined.
Art, money, football, murder, mafia – Madrid was never going to keep them apart.
The Madrid Connection is a fast, gripping and darkly funny page-turner - the perfect sequel to The Barcelona Connection.
The Barcelona Connection - Research & development for the screen
‘The Barcelona Connection’ is in development for the screen, 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
cheers from the north of spain