As children we would look forward to the long stretch of summer spent in Harlyn Bay in North Cornwall where we spent hours swimming and rockpooling.
We would drive down from our home in Bisley in the Cotswolds, the same village as Jilly Cooper.
And we weren’t the only ones. Cornwall was practically Cotswolds-on-Sea in those days with the whole Gloucestershire set making their way down, many of whom may have inspired some of my good friend Jilly’s characters.
Friends would come and stay and we would occasionally go to the Trevose Golf Club disco but most of the time we were knee-deep in sand and dogs – it was all very Famous Five. The adults would chat in the sand dunes with flasks of tea and watch their offspring frolic on the beach, and POSSIBLY got up to some shenanigans themselves.
Back then Harlyn Bay was referred to as ‘The Other Side’, with Polzeath and Rock being the places to be. When we got a bit older we would beg my poor mother to drive us 40 minutes (there was no ferry at night) round to The Mariner’s Pub in Rock where a bunch of blonde and shiny teens would drink until Mummy and Daddy came to collect them.
