Robert Hughes was born in Australia in 1938. Since 1970 he has lived and worked in the United States, where he has been Time magazine's art critic for more than twenty-five years. He is the recipient of a number of awards and prizes for his work, including one from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Age Book of the Year Award for The Fatal Shore. Robert Hughes died in August 2012.

"Nobody has ever represented [Barcelona's] character more powerfully, or illustrated its claims to self-destiny more persuasively, than has Robert Hughes in this monumental work"

Los Angeles Times

"Whether untangling the unlikely legends of Wilfred the Hairy or tangling with the likes of Antoni Gaudi, Hughes has shaped Catalan art, architecture and politics into the ultimate guidebooks"

Guardian

"A wonderful book, by far the best yet to have appeared in the current flood of books on Spain - and one that fills a genuine gap"

Sunday Telegraph

"Barcelona is unlikely to be rewarded with a better history than this. Robert Hughes is a master of the big canvas, scooping up the detail of social, economic, political and artistic life and producing images of captivating richness"

Sunday Times