Closing date:
Safari doesn’t have to mean utilitarian colour palette. I love fun bursts of fluorescence or pattern. This Padma dress (left) is by one of my favourite holiday designers, Dodo Bar Or (at beachcafe. com). For daytime, dress it down with trainers and for evening, opt for gold sandals or Castañer wedges (modaoperandi. com), like the Duchess of Sussex on tour. It doubles up as coat or cardigan – elegant with a T-shirt and white skinny jeans. Safari tones have been all over the catwalks this season, with designers such as Valentino and Stella Mccartney showcasing elegant khaki and camel-hued designs. I bought this camel suede Ralph Lauren Icons shirt (right, ralphlauren.co.uk), but found it hard to wear regularly in London. On safari, it went with everything. I wore it over a high street cream dress from & Other Stories with my favourite Gucci belt (£ 315, net-a-porter. com) and supercomfy Penelope Chilvers Jungle Leopard trainers (£ 199, penelopechilvers. com). In terms of jewellery, a pair of gold hoops are all you need. Try Theodora Warre’s Gypsy Hoops (£ 120 theodorawarre.eu).
the Trevillet river has carved a route through the slate and created a quite magnificent waterfall.
I can imagine Disney-style, tutu-clad folk wafting through the ferns here. The area is steeped in the legend of King Arthur, too, while piles of flat rocks left near the cascade of water are known locally as the fairy stacks. It’s just a shame the coastline has the less magical air of a caravan park.
According to the new survey, fairies come in all shapes and sizes. Little people have been seen dancing at a rave in Glastonbury and on the runway at Heathrow Airport. They like to travel, too, so I’m heading to my favourite beach near Treligga, a few miles farther south down the B3314.
As special places go, Tregardock beach is about as magical as it gets. Only accessible on foot – not even a Land Rover could manage those steps down – the lengthy footpath passes through a lush valley that offers dragonflies and grasshoppers, but not a fairy daytripper in sight.
I would be happy with just a pixie sighting at this point, so I turn the Land Rover north and we head up the Atlantic Way, via Camelford and Davidstow, to Lesnewth. The single-track lanes here are captivating, passing through a ford and on to St Juliot church, with its ancient, vaulted ceiling. Thomas Hardy was sent to plan a restoration of this remote building in 1870. The novelist met his future wife Emma Gifford and the breathtaking location inspired some of his greatest romantic poetry.
Exhausted after a long day bouncing around in a Land Rover, I give up my fairy hunt and return to nearby Helsett Farm. Rustic and quirky, it’s one of a scattering of smallholdings in the parish and it now offers selfcatering holidays in a very traditional setting.
The evening sun through the trees sends ghostly shadows dancing over the Delabole slate tiles. It feels like little has changed here for centuries.
The fairies may have moved out, but this place holds an enduring enchantment.
As special places go, Tregardock beach is about as magical as it gets
For superstitious reasons, dinner parties of 13 guests at the Savoy Hotel are com compulsorily joined at their table by whom? (a) Th The hotel manager (b) Th The next single diner to ar arrive (c) K Kaspar, a sculpted cat
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