The Partido Popular has got to be the Dallas (as in J.R.’s, not Jerry Jones’s) of the Spanish political scene. It is by far the best political show in the country, unless, that is, you like a bunch of bitter men in tweeds grumbling about one another incessantly, and then you can do no better than Esquerra.  But if you can’t get enough of treachery, corruption, and yes, ladies, or at least, one lady who is rather easy on the eye, then the PP has been where it’s at for …

Novelist Eduardo Mendoza, one of the brave few who are not afraid to mix philosophy with faecal-based humour, is finally publishing a book of short stories.  Having written God knows how many novels — Sin noticias de Gurb, La aventura del tocador de mujeres, El asombroso viaje de Pomponio Flato (to choose the raunchiest ones, each populated with slightly different versions of his standard Torrente-esque anti-hero) –, newspaper columns in El País, and even a play for the theater- Restauració- in Catalan, he now gives us Tres vidas de santos, …