Author Archives: Jimmy Burns

A lot of water has passed under the Spanish cultural bridge since I first saw the flamenco guitarist Paco Peña   in  the late 1960’s playing his guitar in a charity fund-raising event for London’s Spanish immigrant community. Half a century ago, Peña was slowly building up a following after  moving as a teenager to the UK from  Spain, and playing for diners at the since defunct Antonio’s  Restaurant in Covent Garden. His  fan base initially grew  among the new British mass tourism to  Spain, and other previously uninitiated  in traditional …

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Cuando amigos me preguntan qué ventajas veo en ser hijo de madre Española y padre Anglo-Sajón/ Escocés, respondo,  citando a Valle Inclán, que es el privilegio de ver las cosas con la perceptiva de la otra ribera. Ser bi-cultural no provoca trastornos bipolares sino  al contrario puede, en un buen día, facilitar cierta claridad de perspectiva basada en la experiencia de lo bueno y lo malo de una cultura y la otra. Pues bien, doy gracias a dios que la profesión de periodista la aprendí en el Reino Unido, con …

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As anyone who reads some of the comments on my blogs will know, I have an obsessive follower.  He follows me continuously  so as to conduct an unrelenting campaign of criticism verging on defamation whenever I write anything positive  about  FC Barcelona- which is quite often, I admit. I can reveal  that ‘Captain Terry’ –for that is the alias under which he pursues me on the web- is known to me as a good friend from childhood on any other subject but football- otherwise I would have set the dogs …

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Looking back over the thirty years I worked for  the FT, I still cannot believe how lucky I was to have worked for an organisation that believed there was such a thing as journalistic integrity. It meant that however difficult the assignment we were expected to get our facts right, and on stories of particularly sensitivity,  there were hierarchical checks and balances in place that went via down-table sub-editor to the editor, as well as legal ones, with a lawyer at the end of a phone, or if needs be, …

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  Its rare to recall a football game in which your team’s defeat doesn’t leave you with a bitter after-taste. But few Barca supporters looked dejected last night as they emerged into the Scottish rain after seeing their team lose 2-1 to Celtic in their Champion’s league tie. From earlier in the day Barca and Celtic supporters had been sharing pints, swapping travelers tales, previous match anecdotes, and shared good memories of a Swede. When the match was almost upon them , the 1,000 cules who had scraped their spare …

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