Berga is the last chapter to be written of my third novel ‘The Land of Castles.’ It isn’t the last chapter of the book. It’s chapter 12 of 14 in Part Three of Three.

I acted on a hunch about Berga being a bastion fortress from the 17th century, and with a bit of satellite research I saw the tell tale signs of two angled bulwarks at the castle’s western end. I don’t drive, so I had to arrange a lift which happened three weeks later. But there is no rush. It has taken an on and off seven years or so for me to get the text where I want it to be and no one is asking me questions about why its been delayed.

Berga is called the Gateway to the Pyrenees and as you first catch sight of the town of 16,000 it lives up to its label, sat in front of a sizable treeless slab of rock that is behind it to the North. Its atmosphere is one of bright clarity rather than looming gloom. After all this is the Mediterranean not Kafka’s Castle.

Berga is very Catalan, full of people who know what they are doing and take their time about it. The chapter in the novel will tell you roughly what happened that 31st March. But a week after the visit I still see the place. So unlike the way I imagine most other places which I assume are packed up and put in a drawer when I am not there.