The first thing you need to realise about this is that not all fishes are suited to being cooked on the barbecue. Additionally, they hardly take any time to cook and you don't really want to overpower the flavours. Finally, it's catastrophic to have a fish fall into flakes as bits of it stick to the metal grill - this must be avoided.

However, it can easily be done and there are some amazing ways to barbecue fish and other types of seafood. Choose some nice firm fish - tuna steak, monkfish, cod loin, salmon steak - and oil it lightly, maybe adding a splash of lime juice (not too long before you fire up the barbie as this actually starts to cook the fish on its own). When the coals are slightly cooler than you'd normally cook meat on, add to the grill on the top slot of the barbecue. Make sure that the grill itself is really, really clean, and if you're worried about anything falling through take a wire oven rack and lay it across the top, creating a cross-hatch of small square holes.

Cook whole fish such as mackerel or snapper with a couple of additions - try placing slices of lemon and some sprigs of thyme in the mackerel, and a boiled lime and bell pepper inside the snapper - and score the skin slightly. Also, try asking your fishmonger to clean a couple of baby squid for you, cut the bodies into flat pieces and cook very thoroughly on the barbecue (until they've started to curl at the edges and brown).

Try cooking king prawns in their shells and then adding to a sauce made of chopped tomatoes, olive oil, onions, red chillis and green chillis and cooked on the hob until reduced and soft. Leave to stand in the hot sauce for five minutes before serving. Make some mayonnaise with lime juice instead of lemon, add a couple of teaspoons of finely-chopped capers and some black pepper, and serve this with lobster tails and claws barbecued in the shell for real indulgence.