Spain
Can Spain's faith in the EU survive Covid?
According to ancient Moorish legend, when the world was created each land was given five wishes. Spain’s first four wishes…
Spain's transgender wars are turning nasty
Lidia Falcón O’Neill is a legendary figure in Spanish politics. Half a century ago, she stood up to Franco as head of…
Will Spain’s nation of rogues comply with the curfew?
A few years ago, when I was in the queue to catch a plane, a Spanish lady caught me watching…
The lockdown battle of Marseilles is a warning for Boris
From the vantage point of Downing Street, Boris Johnson may feel reassured that the further measures against Covid-19 he imposed…
The finest Rioja in all of Spain
It had been a long and no doubt fractious sea voyage. The crew would have signed up for a variety…
Does Catalonia really want independence?
In 1714, after a long siege, Spain managed to regain control of Barcelona after the War of Spanish Succession. Catalan…
Why poetry matters
Juan Carlos, ex-King of Spain, behaved foolishly in relation to money and sex, and so his decision to leave Spain…
Can Boris avoid a winter lockdown?
As the government struggled on Saturday with the question of whether to impose a quarantine on those returning from Spain,…
Portrait of the week: Second wave fears, cash for cyclists and a cat catches Covid
Home At a few hours’ notice, the government removed Spain from the list of countries from which it was possible…
The Spanish approach to face masks
We self-critical British should never forget that other nations are pretty crazy too. I write this from Andalusia, Spain; and…
Joyous and very, very funny: Beastie Boys Story reviewed
The music of the Beastie Boys was entirely an expression of their personalities, a chance to delightedly splurge out on…
Covid statistics are just politics by other means
Statistics is the continuation of politics by other means, to misquote Clausewitz. One hundred and fifty years after the crushing…
Spain's fiendishly complex rules for easing the lockdown
Once upon a time, when travel was still allowed, I checked into a small hotel in back-of-beyond Extremadura, in South-West…
Spain and Italy have been abandoned by the EU
If ever there was a time for the EU to show the benefit of belonging to an economic bloc with…
The Spanish winemakers with a missionary zeal
It is time to begin with an apology, and hope. In the course of these columns, I have already admitted…
Franco’s exhumation could help decide the Spanish election
I was no sooner in Madrid than General Franco was exhumed from his mausoleum not far from El Escorial. An…
The delights of Spanish wine – and art
First, an apology. In my last column, I appeared to be saying that good champagne does not age. This must…
Spain was wrong to jail the Catalan separatists
Some things just don’t pass the gut test. Your head tells you they’re right, all the facts point in their…
Enjoy a blast of Spanish sun from Joaquin Sorolla
Artists can be trained, but they are formed by their earliest impressions: a child of five may not be able…
The day I had enough of experts
‘Don’t even try,’ said the man on the car deck as Brittany Ferries’ Finistère tied up on the dock in…
Gibraltar, the rock of ages past
How lazy, snobbish and wrong it is to mock Gibraltar for the lager and fish and chips clichés. Yes, you…
The Spanish artist who is more gruesome even than Caravaggio
Last year my wife and I were wandering around the backstreets of Salamanca when we were confronted by a minor…
Trains in Spain
The first railway line in Spain, from Barcelona to Mataro a few miles up the coast towards the French border,…
Spanish practices
In October 1936, on the anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of the New World, a ceremony was held at Salamanca University,…
Low life
Valencia was a furnace. During the short ride from the airport, the taxi driver supplemented his chat about the weather…
