Peter Barron

Peter Barron

After careers at the BBC and Google, Peter Barron turned his attention to restoring an old barn at his finca on the border between Extremadura and Andalucía. He has been visiting Spain for nearly 40 years, and loves Ibérico ham, manzanilla sherry, and flamenco guitar. He writes regularly about life in rural Spain and divides his time between Fuentes de León and London.

Peter Barron is an award-winning former television journalist and senior communications executive who, since retiring from corporate life, has devoted much of his time to exploring and writing about Spain.

He spent more than 20 years producing and editing television news and current affairs programmes in the UK, including Channel 4 News and the BBC’s Newsnight, where he served as editor from 2004 to 2008.

In 2008, he joined Google as Head of Communications in the UK. Over a decade-long career at the company, he rose to become Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. From 2021 to 2023, he was Global Head of Communications at the online payments company Stripe.

Peter has been a contributor to Frommer’s Spain since 2018 and has written regularly about the country in the British press and on his blog, Adventures in Extremadura.

He and his wife Julia own a finca in the oak-dotted dehesa of Extremadura in southwest Spain, where they have spent years converting an old barn. In 2023, they set out to walk more than 500 miles from their home near Fuentes de León to Santiago de Compostela—a pilgrimage Peter chronicled for The New European.

He holds a degree in European Studies and Modern Languages from the University of Manchester and serves as a non-executive director of the UK Statistics Authority, the UK Disasters Emergency Committee, and the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.


Best of Peter

Tourists Welcome! Uncrowded Travel Destinations in Spain

Spanish Wine Itinerary: Exploring the Sherry Triangle of Andalusia, Spain

Road Trip Itinerary: Go Ham! Taste the Best Jamón Ibérico in Spain

More from Peter

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