WE got off to a rocky start. It was the school holidays and, 40 minutes into the journey from London to the Greek island of Corfu, a flight attendant for the economy-class cabin came over the loudspeaker. There are 28 children on this flight,' she said. 'If parents can't keep their kids out of the aisles, we won't be able to continue the beverage service.'
You could see her point, but people did raise their eyes to the air-conditioning spigots. Then there was a fandango by the lavatories and the long and short of it was that the voice came again: 'Due to health and safety, there will be no more tea and coffee available.' Laughter rose from the cabin, scattered at first, then-chillingly-louder and more united. My husband looked around, interested. He leaned over our children. 'We could make some friends on this plane.'
Later, in the queue for immigration, the woman behind us was going to write a letter to the airline. 'What do they expect?' she said. 'It's Easter. Of course there are families. I wondered how many of them, like me, had seen the ITV adaptation of The Durrells or read Gerald Durrell's memoir on which it was based and felt sold on the salubrious, real-life story of the mother who took her four children out of England in the 1930s and settled in Corfu. It's an evergreen fantasy making tracks for a simpler life and one that works overtime in the chasm of a three-week school holiday. Who wouldn't be susceptible to a verdant island hemmed with deserted beaches, mountains in the middle and (these days) plentiful coolers of almond-crusted Magnums everywhere? I bet the flight attendants have a dartboard with Durrell on it.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 01, 2023 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 01, 2023 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Don't rain on Venus's parade
TENNIS has never been sexier—at least, that is what multiple critics of the new film Challengers are saying.
A rural reason to cheer
THERE was something particularly special for country people when one of the prestigious King’s Awards for Voluntary Service was presented last week.
My heart is in the Highlands
A LISTAIR MOFFAT’S many books on Scottish history are distinctive for the way he weaves poetry and literature, language and personal experience into broad-sweeping studies of particular regions or themes. In his latest— and among his most ambitious in scope—he juxtaposes a passage from MacMhaighstir Alasdair’s great sea poem Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill with his own account of filming a replica birlinn (Hebridean galley) as it glides into the Sound of Mull, ‘larch strakes swept up to a high prow’, saffron sail billowing, water sparkling as its oars dip and splash. Familiar from medieval tomb carvings, the birlinn is a potent symbol of the power of the Lords of the Isles.
Put it in print
Three sales furnished with the ever-rarer paper catalogues featured intriguing lots, including a North Carolina map by John Ogilby and a wine glass gibbeting Admiral Byng, the unfortunate scapegoat for the British loss of Minorca
The rake's progress
Good looks, a flair for the theatrical and an excellent marriage made John Astley’s fortune, but also swayed ‘le Titien Anglois’ away from painting into a dissolute life of wine and women, with some collecting on the side
Charter me this
There’s a whole world out there waiting to be explored and one of the most exciting ways to see it is from the water, says Emma Love, who rounds up the best boat charters
Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to sow we go
JUNE can be a tricky month for the gardener.
Floreat Etona
The link with the school and horticulture goes back to its royal founder, finds George Plumptre on a visit to the recently restored gardens
All in good time
Two decades in the planning, The Emory, designed by Sir Richard Rogers, is open. Think of it as a sieve that retains the best of contemporary hotel-keeping and lets the empty banality flow away
Come on down, the water's fine
Ratty might have preferred a picnic, but canalside fine dining is proving the key to success for new restaurant openings in east London today, finds Gilly Hopper