Category: Articles

• July 1, 2022

  My Catalonia

  [This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, March 2022.] When I think of Catalonia what immediately comes to mind is the word ‘home’. I see the wide view across rows of vineyards, the mountains of the Penedès in the distance, the tops of Montserrat further away, only able to be seen in winter when the…
• July 1, 2022

  More Borics please

  [This article was first published under the title “Was it sexism?” in Catalonia Today magazine, February 2022.] Was it sexism? It wasn’t widely reported in the English language media but Gabriel Boric, the new leftist President of Chile has a Catalan mother, María Soledad Font Aguilera, who was originally from the working class area of Badalona bordering Barcelona.  Instead, his father’s…
• January 22, 2022

  The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees

     [This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, January 2022.]   Here’s a book about nature that is neither an impassioned rant nor a lecture. Instead, over a period of years, Steve Cracknell spoke directly to the horses’ mouths and with great empathy and balance, he lets us learn about the various sides of the…
• December 25, 2021

  The Game

    [This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, Dec. 2021.]                                                           [Photo: Andreu Puig]   Millions of people are now playing it.  Plenty are as desperate and traumatised…
• November 12, 2021

  Death cafes

  — An interview with Catalonia convenor, Jordi Abad Lalanza [This article was first published in Catalonia Today, Nov. 2021] ​ Q. What do you think is the most important thing people should know about Death Cafes? They are informal gatherings where we talk about death related topics. It is a space of complete trust. It’s non-therapeutic…
• November 8, 2021

  More than teaching

  [Photo of a 1-to-1 lesson by ANDREU PUIG] [This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, October 2021.] Dear reader, It seems I have misled you and that I was wrong about something I suggested in this column last year. In an article titled “House closed”, which was published in November, I wrote about how the International…
• October 9, 2021

  So, how was your summer?

    [This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, Sept. 2021.]   When people ask me this question I’ll be able to say it was unique. I had some novel experiences.    Because the Spanish government doesn’t seem to have the ability to get its Social Security department to pay welfare benefits properly, I…
• August 29, 2021

  Extract from “Slow Travels in Unsung Spain”

  Slow Travels in Unsung Spain eBook and Paperback       Contents 1 To Zaragoza –  a local train not actually on strike – The Distress Jazz Club – a public scolding – “Ah, Cricket!” – “Hoy, Mañana” – top mantas and ‘poor quality’ sperm – the river Ebro – “here there are no tourists” – but George Orwell was…
• July 25, 2021

  Let there be profits

    [This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, July 2021.]   September 14, 2010, 5pm. I’m pacing in little circles outside an office on Carrer Igualada in Vilafranca del Penedes.  I’m the last person in a queue. There’s half a dozen people in front of me and we are waiting for the door…
• June 24, 2021

  Living the reality

    [This review was first published in Catalonia Today magazine here.]   [Writer Carrie Frais: Pic by Poppy Maidment] Who are these people? “Immigrants temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than the one[s] in which they were raised.” This to me is a much better explanation than the word expat (or expatriate) which I…