Whimsy in Wales

THE time of year has come for us to pack up the rusty Land Rover Defender and head to north Wales.

Our favoured holiday spot there is an old farmhouse with commanding views of Cardigan Bay and the Ll n Peninsula, to which friends and family come and go, ready and willing—most of the time— to be marched up mountains and dunked in lakes and rivers whatever the weather.

Those who are new to this corner of Snowdonia are then rewarded for their endeavours with a trip to nearby Portmeirion, the bizarrely picturesque Italianate village built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1976 on a peninsula, which juts finger-like into the wide Dwyryd estuary between Harlech and Porthmadog.

Sir Clough has long been a hero of mine, not least for his attire. This was a man who believed no time should be wasted each morning deciding what to wear, so he acquired a selection of tweed suits, each comprising jacket and breeks, and paired them with a yellow waistcoat and yellow knee-length socks to become his own distinctive uniform.