Audio: Matthew Tree on the best Literary Things to do in Barcelona

Literary Tourist in BarcelonaMatthew Tree is a British writer who has lived in Barcelona since 1984. In addition to publishing fiction and non-fiction in both English and Catalan, he contributes to various newspapers and magazines including Catalonia Today, The Times Literary Supplement, Barcelona INK, Altaïr, El Punt Avui and L’Esguard. He appears on Catalan language radio and TV, and in 2005 and 2006 scripted and presented two series of the infotainment programme Passatgers for TV3 (Catalan Public Television).His novel Snug is about a small village in the Isle of Wight which finds itself under siege by Africans who have gone there for that very purpose.I caught up with Matthew on a blustery afternoon to talk about cool literary things to do while in Barcelona. Books mentioned during our conversation include:George Orwell’s Homage to CataloniaJohn Langdon Davis’s Behind the Spanish BarricadesMerce Rodoreda’s In Diamond SquareSpeaking of Diamond Square, after our conversation I made straight for it to check out the statue that Matthew mentions.This from Little Brown:"First published in 1962 as 'La Placa del Diamant', this is considered the most important Catalan novel of all time.Barcelona, early 1930s: Natalia, a pretty shop-girl from the working-class quarter of Gracia, is hesitant when a stranger asks her to dance at the fiesta in Diamond Square. But Joe is charming and forceful, and she takes his hand.They marry and soon have two children; for Natalia it is an awakening, both good and bad. When Joe decides to breed pigeons, the birds delight his son and daughter - and infuriate his wife. Then the Spanish Civil War erupts, and lays waste to the city and to their simple existence. Natalia remains in Barcelona, struggling to feed her family, while Joe goes to fight the fascists, and one by one his beloved birds fly away."'An extremely moving love story...which reveals much about the Spanish civil war as ordinary, non-political people had to live it' says Diana Athill.***There was another reason I wanted to go to the square.Hibernia Books, the only secondhand English bookstore in Barcelona, is close by. It's a fine establishment. I found a first edition of Power Politics, an early work of poetry by Margaret Atwood, signed! The shop is owned and operated by a pleasant Irish couple