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Tim Parfitt: a peculiar vision of Spain

Interview: Laura Rodríguez

Details : A LOAD OF BULL, TIM PARFITT, PUBLISHED BY PAN MACMILLAN, LONDON, 2006, 279 PAGES

Tim Parfitt thinks of himself as a guiri, which is what Spaniards call northern European tourists. Although he knows what he is talking about when he depicts the Madrilenian society in the late 80s in his humorous and entertaining book, A load of Bull. He arrived in Spain more than 20 years ago, not as the typical English man on holiday looking for sun and the well-known tourist's attractions, but to establish Vogue España. Today he lives in Barcelona, running a publishing company and making his first film, Barcelona Connection.

However he wasn't always as well integrated as he is today. When he arrived, Tim Parfitt had to learn the strange habits of the Spanish and to become accustomed to three hour lunches consisting of bull's testicles, pig's ears or Spanish sausages. Between these meals he discovered Madrid - a city that wanted to be modern after years of isolation during the Franco era but at the same time kept its own traditions, making it a rather odd place.

You arrived in Spain expecting to find sun, sangria and orange trees and you found Madrid. Was this a big surprise?

It was a great surprise, yes. The traditional guiri image of Spain is one Very Big Party: sun, sangria, beach, paella, flamenco and bullfights. People come to Spain for fun – for a holiday. I obviously found a bit of all of that in Madrid but no beach – and nor was it a holiday. It sounds conceited and ignorant to say now – but I discovered that the Spanish actually went to work, too! So I set out to write a book that was not typical of an idyllic life in the country, redecorating an old finca or cortijo, or driving over lemons or living under the Tuscan or Provence sun. I wanted to write about the working life and routines of Madrid.

You said that Madrid is the "real Spain". What did you find so authentic?

Madrid really did feel to me very Latin from the outset. Yes, the REAL Spain. I believe the Spanish have been very clever: they may have given up their coast to tourism, but the interior of Spain is a delight and the Spaniards have managed to keep that mostly to themselves. So I suppose that’s where my “authentic” feeling came from. I didn’t find many guiris in Madrid in 1988. I felt I was surrounded by authentic Spaniards. Fantastic people. And fell in love with Madrid almost immediately.

In your book, A load of bull, you talk about the problems you suffered caused by the massive meals of the Spanish capital. How do you get used to enormous lunches every day with wine, coffee and liqueur?

I was accustomed to lunch at 12.30 in London – which was invariably a sandwich at my desk. On my first day in Madrid, I wasn't taken out to lunch until 2.30pm. I was ravenous – so I ate the first thing that was put in front of me – a tapa of bull's testicles! No-one had warned me about the late eating hours so I used to dine twice for the first few weeks. I would have dinner on my own at the aparthotel at 7.30pm or 8pm and then with friends at 10.30pm. I thought we were going to meet for a drink – a nightcap – but ended up realising they were inviting me for dinner. I didn’t have the courage to tell them I had already eaten – so I ate twice.

Your portrait of the yuppie and liberated Madrid of the late 80s is very funny and has very clever observations. Could you describe to us what exactly a pijo is?

I have dedicated a whole chapter to this “species” in the book, so it is difficult to summarise them in an answer here. But my best way of describing pijos is the same as the London “Sloane Ranger”. In 1983 I contributed to the Official Sloane Ranger Handbook – so I could easily identify the pijos. I believe pijos are frustrated Sloanes; they would really have preferred to have been born as British aristocrats.

María Teresa, the secretary of Vogue España, tried to teach you Spanish pronunciation using tongue twisters. Can you give us an example of the tongue twisters she taught you?

Some are almost very similar to English tongue twisters. For example, “Pepe Peña pica...”

Pepe Peña pela papa
pica piña
pita un pito
pica piña
pela papa
Pepe Peña.

After a brief period in the United Kingdom you went back to Spain but this time to Barcelona. Are there many differences between both cities?

There are many differences between Barcelona and Madrid – good and bad. I view Madrid and Madrileños as more Latin than the Catalans – which is probably an obvious statement to make. I don’t want to get into politics here. The guiris always seem to refer to Barcelona as “more European” but I am not sure if that is so true. It is more a question of geography and the fact that Barcelona is a port – that it is more outwards-looking, perhaps, in everything, towards the rest of Europe. If Madrid was a port, Madrileños would also be different.

But Spanish people are always making this comparison...

People always ask me where I prefer to live in Madrid or Barcelona. I am very fortunate to be able to visit Madrid a lot and therefore I enjoy both cities equally. I think it also depends at what “stage” you are in your life. As a bachelor-about-town, Madrid for me was heaven. Now that I have a growing family, I am delighted that my kids can swim and surf in the sea at weekends. I think Barcelona and its surroundings is a great place to bring up a family – more so than the centre of Madrid!

Are you nostalgic when you go back to London or the English countryside?

The thing that I miss more than anything is the British sense of humour. When I go back to the UK, I laugh so much with old friends, it literally hurts. I then wonder what is wrong with me – and I realise it is because I haven’t laughed like that with people in Spain. But that is not to mean that the Spanish don’t have a sense of humour. It is a language barrier that will always be there. You can be fluent in a language but I believe that understanding and appreciating jokes is a different matter …

What does one have to do to succeed in a foreign country?

Integrate as much as possible – but also maintain one’s sense of humour and sense of absurdity. I love Spain and living here. But I will never be Spanish 100%. I am a guest here. So I have to balance my perspective of everything.

Really, after twenty years do you still see yourself as a guiri?

Absolutely! If you heard my accent, you would agree.