John Barlow Interview
Interview Time: Rob Savage chats to John Barlow, author of Everything but the Squeal
As a fellow Yorkshire man who’s moved away from home, do you think the allure of the motherland will ever tempt you back again?
Yes. I miss the feel of Yorkshire, the sound of people’s accents, the fish and chips, the rubbish weather … I just miss being there.
In ten words or less how would you sum up your book?
Mysterious, unknown corner of ‘green’ Spain explored by hungry Englishman.
Now in as many words as you would like, how would you describe your experience ‐ eating your way across northern Spain?
It was fun because I never made any plans. I’d just drive to some out of the way place and walk about until someone talked to me. It was like being a journalist who didn’t know what story he was supposed to be covering. Through writing the book I became a big fan of just hanging about, taking in the scenery and doing nothing in particular. Sometimes I’d make plans, but the best days were when I had no idea what was happening.
Is there anything, pork related or not, that you wouldn’t try once?
Not really. In the book I do make reference to human flesh, and how it apparently tastes like pork. I reckon I might draw the line at roast human. Although if no one was looking I might have just a little taste.
In a day and age when it seems like recession is around every corner, what amusing anecdote can you serve up to distract the hordes of independent travellers still making their way around the planet?
In Galicia there are still plenty of village festivals where the food is free; I ate free roast chorizos in Vila de Cruces, and large, wobbly chunks of hot pig’s head in Laza. And if you go deep into the rural hinterland, people still let you sleep in their barns and in the ground floors of their houses (formally used as stables for the animals).
I put this question to all of my interviewees ‐ what are your top five books of all time?
- Don Quixote, byMiguel de Cervantes
- The Don Camillo Stories by Giovanni Guareschi
- Rabbit, Run by John Updike
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- On the Road by Kerouac
One of my favourite chapter titles from Everything but the Squeal is Exaltation of the Sausage. If you had to give a similarly entertaining title to the departure of George Bush as the President of the United States of America, what would it be?
Lame dog drags tail; no one looks.
Do you harbour any ambition to pack your bags, rock up in another country and eat your way through the specialities that surround you there?
Yes, Britain. I’m getting mighty sick of doing interviews here in Spain (where I live) in which the awfulness of British food is taken for granted. One day I’m going to eat my way across the British Isles.
What don’t you miss about life in the UK?
The separate hot and cold taps. Traffic jams on motorways. Ridiculously expensive (and bad) hotels. Ginsters pasties whilst driving long distance ‐ you know they’re horrible but you’ve got another 150 miles to go, so you buy one anyway.
Finally ‐ after the launch of Everything but the Squeal in May, are you looking ahead to any other projects ‐ of the culinary and literary variety?
I’ve just finished a detective novel. As for travel writing, I’m toying with the idea of embracing the whole of Spain and doing a foodie trip from north to south.
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