Black paintings and missing uncle bill

You know you live in relatively peaceful times when an insurrection leads to little more than a big night out.

My son Fred jnr was in Barcelona when Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont declared independence from Spain. Two days later, Puigdemont and five of his ministers had fled to Belgium to escape charges of sedition, and Freddy, meeting me for a week in Madrid, was talking with a voice still gravelly from being swept up in the brief but wild celebrations.