Spain

Why did Goya’s sitters put up with his brutal honesty?

10 October 2015 9:00 am

Sometimes, contrary to a widespread suspicion, critics do get it right. On 17 August, 1798 an anonymous contributor to the…

(Photo: Getty)

Will Spain learn from Scotland in the battle for Catalan separatism?

3 October 2015 8:00 am

One of the unforeseen consequences of the reunification of Europe after the Cold War has been a resurgence of independence…

Andrew Marr’s diary: The summer of Corbyn — and other things we didn’t see coming

22 August 2015 9:00 am

This is the Corbyn summer. From the perspective of a short holiday, my overwhelming feeling is one of despair at…

The missing ingredient for a perfect gazpacho

15 August 2015 9:00 am

We were eating tapas and talking about Spain. Leaving caviar on one side, when jamón ibérico is at its best,…

In my opinion, Death Corner was a very safe place to stand

18 July 2015 9:00 am

Watching the daily running of the bulls through Pamplona’s narrow streets online this week has given me a wistful pang…

The Spanish village that thought it was called ‘Kill Jews’

11 July 2015 9:00 am

A village has changed its name because it seemed offensive. But I think the villagers were under a misapprehension. The…

Anita Dobson as Queen Elizabeth I in ‘Armada: 12 Days to Save England’

BBC2's Armada has something for everybody - including three yummy female historians

30 May 2015 9:00 am

It has been a while since the BBC really pushed the boat out on the epic history documentary front. Perhaps…

A portrait of Raymond Carr as Warden of St Antony’s College, Oxford, by his son Matthew

An education to know: remembering Raymond Carr

25 April 2015 9:00 am

Laughter, bird-watching and erudition with Raymond Carr

Left-wing populism is on the rise - and may take Ed Miliband to No10

18 April 2015 9:00 am

Would-be leaders of the left are harnessing the mood of angry populism

Wines to toast a warrior saint

28 March 2015 9:00 am

Towards the chimes at midnight, a few of us left a — respectable — establishment near Leicester Square. Eight or…

Opera North's Gianni Schicchi and La vida breve reviewed: a flawless double helping of verismo

28 February 2015 9:00 am

Is there a more beautiful aria than ‘O mio babbino caro’ from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi? There are more overwhelming moments…

Sensual but not thrilling: Carlos Acosta as Basilio

Royal Ballet’s Don Quixote: Carlos Acosta is too brainy with this no-brain ballet

13 December 2014 9:00 am

One feels the pang of impending failure whenever the Royal Ballet ventures like a deluded Don Quixote into a periodic…

How to fight Europe’s demons of deflation

22 November 2014 9:00 am

The new fear haunting Europe

The king who blamed everything that went wrong on God

15 November 2014 9:00 am

Geoffrey Parker is a product of Nottingham and Christ’s College Cambridge, and I think was once a pupil of the…

I nearly went lost my mind in southern Spain on the trail of Gerald Brenan

15 November 2014 9:00 am

Another writer I once liked very much is Gerald Brenan. Brenan served with distinction in the first world war and…

A buffet in an Egyptian tomb

15 November 2014 9:00 am

Atlantico is a vast buffet inside the Lopesan Costa Meloneras Resort Spa and Casino in Gran Canaria. The Lopesan Costa…

How Italy failed the stress test (and Emilio Botín didn’t)

1 November 2014 9:00 am

Continuing last week’s theme, it was the Italian banks — with nine fails, four still requiring capital injections — that…

I like the look of this exciting new Islamic State. But why don’t they want Belgium?

5 July 2014 9:00 am

There is something attractive about almost the whole of southern Europe being part of an immense and somewhat rigorous caliphate,…

Jean-Claude Juncker is stale, grey and likes his booze. That's why Cameron should back him

7 June 2014 9:00 am

David Cameron is surely right to think that Jean-Claude Juncker is not the man to relieve the European Union’s woes,…

Time for the King of Spain to save his country again

5 April 2014 9:00 am

Might there ever be in this century, anywhere in Europe, a case for serious political interference by an hereditary monarch?…

What Quique Dacosta knows that Picasso didn’t

29 March 2014 9:00 am

Chefs have a problem. Think of much of the best food you have ever eaten. Caviar, English native oysters, sashimi,…

A spirit to warm Bruegel’s ‘Hunters in the Snow’

15 February 2014 9:00 am

The ostensible subject matter is misleading, as is any conflation with his lesser relatives’ wassailing peasants and roistering village squares.…

Wall-painting in San Isidoro of a shepherd

Christopher Howse takes the slow train in Spain — and writes a classic

2 November 2013 9:00 am

This is probably not a book for those whose interest in Spain gravitates towards such contemporary phenomena as the films…

The week in words: 'Pull & Bear' is all style, no substance

2 November 2013 9:00 am

‘This’ll make you laugh,’ said my husband, sounding like George V commenting on an Impressionist painting. ‘Someone in the Telegraph…

Does the world need 17 volumes of Hemingway's letters?

26 October 2013 9:00 am

‘In the years since 1961 Hemingway’s reputation as “the outstanding author since the death of Shakespeare” shrank to the extent…