Contra la monarquía Publisher: : Ara Llibres, S.L. (2004) ISBN: 84-96201-19-8 'Contra la monarquia' ('Against the Monarchy', Catalan original available only) is an anti-royal diatribe. Directed mainly against the Spanish royal family, it includes a couple of side-swipes at the one I grew up with in the UK, until I left the country aged 26. Many readers liked the book's simple premise that to believe in a royal family is as irrational and absurd as the more extreme forms of magical thinking; that belief in a royal family, indeed, amounts to collective madness. It was steadfastly refused publicity – meaning reviews and interviews – by all right-thinking newspapers, meaning all newspapers, in both Catalonia and Spain. Some Spanish-language publishers showed an interest in doing a translation of the book, then backed down for reasons best known to themselves and easily guessable by everyone else.