How much does the world know about Catalonia and its role as a great medieval empire and one of Europe's first nation states? In Catalonia Is Not Spain: A Historical Perspective author Simon Harris takes the reader through 1,000 years of Catalan history focusing on the Principality's often difficult...

Thank you, Cool Summer although cool is definitely what you won't be if you visit Barcelona in summer - the city is hot and muggy in July and August. I recommend spring or autumn, when it's still warm enough to sit out but not so claustrophobic. If you come to Catalonia in summer, you should go up t...

Yes, Saffron I'd say the Castellers are a defining feature of Catalan culture, which excells in its capacity for teamwork and cooperation. One of the reasons they resisted so well under Franco is that they form groups to collect mushrooms or asparagus, restore churches and study history and also to ...

I also don't think the UK is as inherently centralising as Spain. From the time of Felipe II, who made the tiny village of Madrid the capital in 1561, roads that fan out from the centre have been paid for by the state whereas roads connecting towns in the provinces have been generally privately fund...

Yes, Robert, that's obviously the big difference!

Also Scots don't have an identity problem - nobody tells them they don't exist! I deal with this in Chapter 3 of the book - if you understand any Spanish, just do a Google search for "Cataluña nunca existió" and you'll see what I mean!

Catalonia is a separate nation within Spain, which was effectively annexed militarily by Castilian troops in 1714. Its laws and political institutions were abolished, its language was banned, its universities closed down and it was effectively under military occupation for the next half century. By ...

I'd never heard of the Catalan opening, Robert, despite having many chess-playing friends. FC Barcelona and the Beautiful Game are my personal obsession and a Catalan opening generally has more to do with a pass from Xavi to Neymar, who crosses into the the box for Messi to volley the ball into the ...

Rather than paying for reviews, wouldn't it make more sense to drum up interest through a site like this? If anyone is willing to review my latest book 'Catalonia Is Not Spain: A Historical Perspective' on Amazon, Bookreads, their blog or anywhere else, please PM and I'll send you a copy in pdf, kin...

It's a work of genius. I read it just after I arrived in Barcelona back in 1988 and being able to walk around places where Orwell had been was a total inspiration then and still is now. In fact, I give occasional guided tours of Barcelona and always point out Hotel Continental on La Rambla, where Or...

Thanks for the Welcome, Rita. As you may have guessed from the title, my current topic is about Catalonia not being Spain. Agree or not, I'm fortunate to be living the Catalan process for independence first hand ... it's very exciting both to be part of it and also to have the chance to write about ...