The Guardian City Guide to Barcelona

My non-fiction writing alter-ego has had two articles published in The Guardian.

Go HERE and HERE if you'd like to find out about interesting bars and tapas bars in the wonderful city of Barcelona.

Other contributors to the Guardian Barcelona City Guide include Jill Adams (editor of the esteemed multi-lingual Barcelona Review); Matthew Tree, esteemed English-born writer of fiction and non-fiction in Catalan; and  writers from Le Cool, the online monthly events guide (well worth signing up for), and the Barcelona based, English-language, Metropolitan magazine.

The Guide hangs together very well - with lists of literary haunts, bargain shops, contemporary Catalan restaurants, art hangouts, clubs, as well as boutique hotels and pensións, etc etc. And it's all fresh - deftly avoiding mention of many of the usual suspects which get mentioned in the popular guides.

And, I discovered a few surprises. For example, Matthew Tree lists the café-bar Bauma as a literary haunt. I'd never have guessed. Bauma is very near where I live, and I pass the place nearly every day.

To choose only 10 bars, 10 bars which serve tapas, and have a maximum 120 words to describe each, was a testing exercise. They are not The Best, but 10 of the best. I got the assignment through Spotted by Locals - where you can read more, and more up-to-date, articles about bars, restaurants, clubs, galleries, museums and other local spots.

Spotted by Locals was awarded The Guardian Best Travel Website Award, 2011.

Barça v. United: Poetry, Philosophy and Ethics: 3 - Drama: 1

OK, let's get two things straight before we discuss the details.

The difference in this match was not Messi versus Rooney - the difference was Ferdinand versus Piqué.

Old Trafford sells itself as The Theatre of Dreams. I'm aware Guardiola encourages his players to read poetry.

The difference in this match was the difference between POETRY and DRAMA.

Poetry won.

Poetry is more closely associated to Ethics - Drama associated to Entertainment. Poetry won AND provided more entertainment than Drama.

Piqué played a quiet, effective blinder - blocking, intercepting United's thrusts and then, via both carefully aimed clearances, and luckily timed back passes, but with constant awareness, consistently delivered the ball upfront. By contrast Ferdinand clumbered around like a club-footed donkey - outpaced, wrong-footed and out-thought. The difference can clearly be seen when Messi hits his goal scoring shot - Ferdinand instinctively shies from the ball's flight to protect himself - Piqué would, by instinct, have put himself between the ball and the goal.

Rooney's goal was offside - look at it again - and again and again,  and you will clearly see one, then another, Man U player clearly offside and in position to influence play just before the ball goes in.

Valencia should at least have copped a  yellow in the first half - and, by rights, should have been sent off. I counted his niggly, little trips, pokes, shoves and deliberately badly timed tangles (not tackles, not tangos - but somewhere in-between) - 11 altogether. I counted them off, and after four, I said, "Next time it's got to be a yellow card." But no. We were well into the second half before the ref finally reached for a card - minutes after too quickly grabbing a yellow for Alvés.

Barcelona took United for a little spin on the carousel - and won.

Then, after winning, Barça formed a pasillo - or guard of honour - to clap their opponents from the field. Ethics - not Drama.

Then Carles Puyol, the team's current true captain, handed Abidal the captain's armband so that he could legitimately receive the cup - knowing, as all Barça fans know, Abidal had recently recovered from liver surgery. Ethics - not Drama.

Nothing more to say - or be said - Poetry, Philosophy and Ethics won tonight - Drama lost.

Downtown Top Rankin

Ian Rankin was in town last week. He was here to receive the Pepe Carvalho prize. The prize, named after Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's detective, is awarded annually to a writer working in the crime genre in recognition of their career achievements. Established in 2005 previous winners include: Michael Connelly, P. D. James, Henning Mankell and Francisco González Ledesma.

The Prize giving, held at the City Hall in Barcelona, coincides with a week long festival of crime writing - BCNegra. And so it was that Ian Rankin took part in a round-table discussion at a former chapel in the Raval.

I went along with a friend, and fellow writer, to check it out.

Well, I went along to check it out but I also had another agenda. I'm still in search of a well-known writer to scan my novel After Goya and provide a suitably glowing endorsement for the cover. Who better, I thought, than Mr Rankin? Well read, well liked and well regarded creator of one of the UK's most popular fictional characters, surely his imprimatur would strike the right chord with a lot of potential, discerning readers?

I only have one heavily marked up and annotated proof copy at home so I printed off the first chapter and cover design and took them along. I could have ordered a clean version but I didn't want to weigh the man down. I thought if I could persuade him to take the first fifteen pages then, if he liked what he'd read, I would send him an ARC.

I bottled it.

Before the talk started I sat at a café terrace table immediately next to his, not intentionally, he just happened to be sitting at the next table to where my friend was sitting. He was with a group of four or five people. I wasn't nervous, or anything like, but I didn't want to crash his conversation. It didn't seem polite to interrupt his pre-stage quiet time. Maybe catch him afterwards I thought, congratulate him on the prize, and ask whether he was enjoying Barcelona. Not thinking, of course, there would be a very long line of readers all wanting him to sign copies of their books.

What a plonker. (Me! Not him!)

But, to be honest, I did feel a bit of a fraud. I've only read two of the man's books. And there I was, without a copy of his book to sign, contemplating asking him to read, and in a sense, sign, my book.

His talk was good, he gives good chat. It wasn't so much a round-table discussion, more that he was being prompted by a trio of writers and readers. Interesting and witty, though, as my friend noted, his chat was very much more aimed at readers rather than writers. Nonetheless it was an entertaining and pleasant way to spend an hour or so in the Raval (Montalbán's childhood barrio).

If you enjoy crime fiction, and if you ever get the chance, then do get yourself along to BCNegra. It really is a very good event, with a range of interesting discussions featuring some very interesting and talented writers from across the globe. Most events are simultaneously translated (and the translation is good) and all are free.

And I'm still left with the problems of who, and how, to approach a well-known writer to give me a good quote for my cover. Any ideas?