TAKE IT EASY: A HISTORY OF THE FLY AND FLOP

Never has the fly and flop looked quite so glamorous as in the 1999 film of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr Ripley, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law as rich Americans abroad in Capri and Positano, sunbathing at beach clubs and drinking heavily in nightclubs with enviable loucheness.

The aristocracy had been indulging in Tender is the Night-style decadence on the rivieras of France and Italy forever, of course, but the 1950s brought a post-war holiday boom. A combination of wage increases, paid holiday and charter flights now made trips to the Mediterranean a possibility for millions of Britons. In the early 1950s Thomas Cook launched flights to Palma, Sardinia, Corsica and the Costa Brava; in 1957 British European Airways launched a direct flight to Valencia, and the Costa Blanca was born. Franco drove the promotion of Spain as a holiday mecca, throwing up “pile ’em high, sell ’em cheap” resorts in Benidorm and Mallorca.

By the 1960s, demand had soared. Jet planes drove down journey time and cost. That a sense of place barely came into it was mocked by the press and bourgeoisie – fine for F Scott Fitzgerald and Dickie Greenleaf, not so the working classes. Yet after the hardship and trauma endured in previous decades, the combination of sun, sand and sea was a life-giving tonic – and for many, that was enough.

After the events of the past couple of years, and all the resulting stress and anxiety, perhaps the time is right for another fly-and-flop heyday – albeit in its new and more thoughtful guise.