Amongst the heavily thumbed magazines to be found in the waiting room at my rural GP surgery was always at least one copy of Country Life. This magazine, to me, represented the completely unobtainable. It featured houses the likes of which I would never afford. There were nuptial celebrations that clearly weren’t in the local working men’s club and a heady mix of horse-riding features, fine art sales and articles about Rolls Royce. Unobtainable – like that girl in the sixth form to my fourth year hormone rush.
How elevated must I feel now to find myself within it’s esteemed pages. 19th January issue. Hardly tomorrow’s chip paper. This serendipitous chain of events continued with my receiving a letter from Adrian Holmes from Barnes which is so glowing in praise and so beautifully written that I post it here verbatim:
Dear Martin –
Your book (which I saw featured in Country Life) is an absolute delight – by turns daft, erudite and laugh-out-loud funny. Thank you for the pleasure it gave me.
As a mark of my appreciation, here’s a photo I took while on holiday in Scotland in July 2005. The stretch of water in the distance is Upper Loch Torridon.
Regrettably, Google Streetview reveals the inevitable has happened – that jaunty line of beautifully weathered poles has since danced its way into oblivion.
Now in its place there’s just a drab line of freshly creosoted, boringly vertical spindles (there’s no other term), carrying one measly multicore cable.
Actually, I tell a lie: by some miracle, original pole no. 3 in the photo is still hanging on in there. Yay!
Best wishes,
Adrian Holmes
Barnes
London
I confess to a tear upon reading Adrian’s words, and then a second tear as my heart swelled with this breathtaking view from Scotland.
The full article from Country Life can be found right here. Country Living, 19th January