A troubling review of Spain

Where to start? Firstly, a quick search on other articles written by the columnist and historian (I'll come back to this a little later) would suggest that her favourite words are "creepy" and "weird". She thinks Nigel Farage has "sex appeal" and describes herself as "a birthday dictator". Just so we know where we are.

Strimpel talks of her "brushes" with Spain; this hardly suggests a deep connection with the country having spent years exploring its culture and getting to know its people or literature (more on that later).

She claims that as a kid she visited a number of cities where the rooms she slept in were "marred by the stink of drains". Strimple was born in 1982, which leads me to believe that she hasn't been back to those cities (Granada, Cordoba and Seville to be precise) since at least the 1990s. Would you really believe a review written by someone who hasn't actually visited the place they're reviewing in 30 years?

Strimpel claims that Gaudí's architecture is "the ugliest on earth". I happen to like it. One man's food is another man's poison, as the saying goes. Talking of which, this is precisely how she described Spanish food. I suspect that she has only sampled the admittedly fairly bland touristy paella and tapas sold at, yes I agree, over-inflated prices in some of the haunts she also dismisses in her article.

Should she actually try to really get to know the country then Strimpel, like any other long-term resident (Spanish or otherwise) wouldn't dream of going to such places. She has clearly never darkened the doors of one of Malaga's markets or tasted real Spanish 'comida casera'.

The historian claims that Spanish history, "is also horrid if one begins with the Inquisition". She doesn't have to leave the UK to find a country with an equally horrid history. "And moves through to Franco and the long love affair with fascism".

This historian seems only to have Hemingway to base her knowledge of Spain's Civil War and dictatorship. Perhaps she'd like to speak to a survivor of the Desbandá and see whether they would describe it as "a love affair".

Talking of Hemingway, she seems to think he was Spanish – at least it's only one of two references she has for Spanish literature. The other of course being Cervantes. Has she not heard of Lorca, at least?

Strimpel "won't be troubling Spain" with her tourism again. Spain can also remain untroubled, safe in the knowledge she won't be back. I think it would take more than her recent article to put people off visiting one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.