Michael Hayman reflects his summer travels around Britain in his column for Country & Town House
If over the years you’ve been enchanted by the prose of Bill Bryson, it will come as no surprise that the author’s Notes From A Small Island came in at number four in The Sunday Times 100 bestselling books of the past 50 years, published in August.
At a time when we face so many difficult questions about history and identity, it is wondrous his journey resonates as well today as it did nearly 30 years ago.
Bryson’s book formed part of my inspiration this summer to travel around the UK with my young family, to connect them to our island story and see how great Britain really is. While we didn’t follow Bryson’s pilgrimage to places like Shellow Bowells and Farleigh Wallop, we did get around and about.
As friends relayed stories of adventures in Italy and Greece, our starting point was the shingle beaches of East Sussex. And while la dolce vita might not spring to mind, it’s time to release your imagination and think again.
While 40 degree-plus heatwaves confined our friends to barracks in the sweltering Med, we were bobbing in the sea at Cooden Beach with the place very much to ourselves. A night at the newly and beautifully-renovated Relais Cooden Beach hotel shows savvy investors have also got an eye on the shape of things to come.
More of the same at Rottingdean near Brighton, where a day on the sand was followed by another excellent find: The White Horses – not long ago a symbol of coastal decline, now resplendent after a £6m investment.
From Sussex to Dorset, and the seaside beauty of Mudeford, home to an incredible community of beach huts (one is reputed to have been sold for over £575,000), as well as glorious sandy coves and walking country.
And let’s not forget the food. The Noisy Lobster on Avon Beach gleaned seafood as fresh as you could hope for and a joyful sommelier who trained at The Newt in Somerset.
In London, The Corinthia was our base for Abba Voyage and rooftop restaurants, and then to Edinburgh, for an unforgettable night at the military tattoo. We journeyed home on the Caledonian Sleeper, the kids conjuring the Hogwarts Express to my Casino Royale.
As the tired travellers tumbled home, my thoughts turned again to my literary inspiration. ‘It occurred to me that this was a very fine country indeed,’ Bryson wrote. And while he had doubts about its future, this small island endures as a green and pleasant land.