LEADING MAJORCAN WRITER AND JOURNALIST BALTASAR PORCEL DIES

PALMA
LEADING Majorcan writer and journalist Baltasar Porcel yesterday died in Barcelona aged 72 from a brain tumor.
Porcel was born in Andratx in 1937 and he is expected to be buried in his home town.
Porcel was a columnist for the Barcelona-based La Vanguardia and the Bulletin sister paper Ultima Hora.
Porcel was also one of the Catalan writers that received the most international acclaim and was an irreplaceable figure of contemporary Catalan literature.

Translated into many languages, his works have been awarded prizes in Italy (The Bocaccio Prize), France (The Meditérranée prize) and the United States (Critics' Choice).

His creative output also included drama and non-fiction and he travelled a great deal.
However, he always maintained that Andratx, which is where he presented his last novel last year, was his principal source of inspiration.
Tributes from the worlds of journalism, literature, theatre and art were being made last night.
His body is going to lie in state in the Palau Moja in Barcelona. He will then be buried here in his place of birth in Andratx.