It was in 1960, aged seven, that I was introduced to Catalonia. At the invitation of my recently widowed Spanish grandmother, the Burns family found itself living in the beautiful medieval fishing village of Sant Feliu de Guixols, named after a 10th- century Benedictine monastery. It would turn out to be our Costa Brava holiday home for the next six years.

I discovered that Catalonia was one of the most alluring regions of Spain, with a distinct cultural identity that had endured despite General Franco’s best efforts to destroy it.