The Seaside, the Seaside! Beachy reads for August from Ali Bacon
From time immemorial (well at least since the coming of the railways) a British holiday has meant the seaside, and for me even a mountain retreat in Wales and Scotland is all the better if there’s a golden beach to run down to at the end of the day. Our coast has been celebrated in all kinds of ways in print and on TV because in our hearts it’s where we like to be. In my case even reading Paul Theroux’s A Kingdom by the Sea which pulls no punches, didn’t rid me of my beach love, and Tenby – the only place he had a good word for– is still on my bucket list. Southwold is respectable but Something Might Happen But we don’t need Theroux to remind us that away from the waters edge, our seaside towns are a mixed bunch and very many of them are in decline. Of all those I’ve visited in the last couple of years, I can see how those that have remained quaint have added a chic and gentrified air that sometimes feels odd. I can think of several that have si...