Barcelona Negra was a unique event - a celebration of the crime and dark genre organised in the beautiful Palau de la Virreina. This was a busy and fun festival, the brain child of the very enthusiastic local book store Negra y Criminal. I’m just sorry I had to leave early which meant missing the closing event - a mussels and chips lunch in the pedestrian street outside the store.

It was fun to meet up with Mark Billingham again, and for once have time to chat (and try some great Basque pintxos - a kind of tapas). And to make the acquaintance of the other Brit on the panel too, Andy Oakes. So many thanks to Negra y Criminal and my Spanish publisher Nausicaa for the invitation.

You never see a city properly unless you’re guided by the locals, of course. Without Nausicaa’s Manolo Pintor I would never have found the restaurant 7 Portes. This is an astonishing establishment just out of the centre, where the kitchen opens from 1pm to 1 am every day ’sin interrupción’. Amazingly, it is over 150 years old, and over the years has counted John Wayne and Che Guevara among its customers (as well as Himmler, says the website).

We ate a fantastic lunch -mixed seafood starters of anchovies, prawns, mussels, salt cod fritters and bread with tomato. After that it was one of the best black rices I’ve ever encountered - a lovely paella of squid ink. And after that it was siesta time before the panel in the evening.

Barcelona really is a foodie city. Take a look at some of the fresh stuff on show in the main market on La Rambla below.

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