LORD PATTEN
Writer and politician
Where are you going on holiday this year? To my house in the Tarn region of southern France. I love the garden, I love the views, the trees, the roses and the shrubs from year to year.
What was your best holiday? In the Tarn but I’ve also greatly enjoyed walking holidays in Italy and sightseeing everywhere from India to the west coast of America. Early on in holidays, I normally injure myself doing something too sporting. Last year I dislocated my shoulder while playing tennis, which meant I spent the whole of August with my arm in a sling. I often fall over wheelbarrows and hillsides, which generally indicates that I’m now passing that stage of life that is characterised by four funerals and a wedding.
Who are you going on holiday with? My whole family including five grandchildren, several friends and Archie the dog, who has his own passport.
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? Apart from my family, my tennis partner from Hong Kong.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? Alas yes, how boring can you get!
What do you think about on holiday? The garden and how to kill moles.
What will you be reading? Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate) and The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian by Robin Lane Fox (Allen Lane).
How do you like to get there? By car.
How do you feel when you get back? Fed-up.
What do you think a holiday is for? Remembering the things in life that really matter.
AS BYATT
Writer
Where are you going on holiday this year? To our house in the Cévennes, in the south of France, as usual.
Where would you like to be going? Probably to the Cévennes. Most of the other places I want to go – Venice, Lisbon, Seville, Sicily – aren’t good summer destinations.
What was your best holiday? I went with my husband for a brief holiday on the Amazon – at Manaus in Brazil and then a long way up the river. People were saying it would be a green hell. I wanted to see it because I had been writing about it without seeing it. But what we found was paradise. We breathed clean air. In Europe we have no idea what clean air is. We saw all sorts of birds and dolphins and alligators and fish, and caught piranhas with a line and ate them (they are full of nasty bones).
Who are you going on holiday with? My husband and, at various times, all my daughters, their partners and the grandchildren (in their separate houses).
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? My husband. Among the dead, Robert Browning. Everything interested him.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? No. I don’t have one.
What do you think about on holiday? What to write next. Death. Champagne. Weather.
What will you be reading? Balzac, Steven Pinker.
How do you like to get there? Slowly, by car, stopping frequently off motorways.
How do you feel when you get back? Ready to work.
What do you think a holiday is for? Good weather. Another language. Eating out,but not too much. Actually talking to the family.
STEWART LEE
Comedian
Where are you going on holiday this year? I want to take my wife and son to New Mexico to see the San Geronimo Day celebrations at Taos Pueblo in September. I thought this event was the greatest piece of theatre I have ever seen and hope my son will be thrown in a river by a Tewa clown-shaman. But I can’t really afford it unless I get some more TV work. So, failing that, Bognor Regis.
What you need for a great picnic
1. A good terrine
Make it a week before, with ground pork, pork fat, chicken livers (or pork liver), parsley and garlic and flavoured with white wine, herbs and juniper berries. Serve with good tomatoes, crusty baguette and chilled Chinon or Saumur. Not much else is necessary.2. Wine under screwcap
With a screwcap, the wine will be as fresh as can be and you can simply put the top back on. Corks, a pain at the best of times, are a nonsense on picnics.3. A sense of humour
Be warned that sometimes the mayonnaise will curdle, the butter will melt and the wine will be warm and full of flies while, if you’re on a beach, the crab will be reunited with the sand. This is not pessimism, this is picnics. A GSOH, as they say in the personals, is essential.Rowley Leigh
What was your best holiday? A week in Florence with my wife, looking at frescos and eating ice cream. I also loved touring the Cathar castles in south-east France, being edified by the Bayeux Tapestry and the D-day beaches in Normandy, creeping round the prehistoric remains of the Orkneys, and wild west hotel-hopping in Arizona.
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? I would like to go with my wife, my son and a childminder. Perhaps the childminder could be some fictional or historical character, Conan the Barbarian or Wile E Coyote, the babysitting skills would swing it.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? I don’t own either, so no.
What do you think about on holiday? How much money I need to save to give up work for ever.
What will you be reading? James Joyce’s Ulysses (Penguin), and Iain Sinclair’s Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire: A Confidential Report (Hamish Hamilton), two fat books I began on my last holiday and must finish.
How do you like to get there? I used to like to drive vast distances, with the radio on. Now I get there as soon as possible by air or rail.
How do you feel when you get back? Depressed, hemmed in, crabbed, caged, despairing, bleak.
What do you think a holiday is for? Learning local history, hearing local music, eating local food, walking up and down things, drinking local drinks, spending special time with your loved ones, and reading good books.
IRVINE WELSH
Author
Where are you going on holiday this year? Because I live mainly in Ireland and America, I’ve decided I’m holidaying in my own country this year. My wife is American, so we’re hiring a car and I’m going to show her some of Scotland. Our itinerary is flexible but we’re going up to my godmother’s in Nairn, to hook up with some relatives. Then we plan to take my mother over to Skye, and then slowly wind our way back to Edinburgh for the festival.
What was your best holiday? Hawaii, with my wife. It was our first big holiday together and it was very romantic, being in that laid-back place, watching the little volcanoes going off.
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? Obviously, my wife for romance. If it’s in a war-zone, my friend Sue Ryan, as she’s incredibly resourceful, if it’s a boy’s weekend, my pals George, Jimmy and Deano because they’re up for all sorts of nonsense and always big fun.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? No.
What do you think about on holiday? Not a great deal, once I wind down after the first couple of days.
What will you be reading? Scottish writer Alan Bissett has a new novel out called The Death of a Ladies’ Man (Hachette Scotland). That’s coming with me.
How do you like to get there? I usually like to fly but this one will be a car trip.
How much do you eat and drink? Far too much. You always put on weight during a holiday. This one will be particularly bad as I’m meeting relatives I haven’t seen in a long time, and they all enjoy a drink.
How do you feel when you get back? Fat, but refreshed.
What do you think a holiday is for? Cleaning out the psychic pipes. If you let yourself go and really enjoy it, you have that startling, frightening revelation of just how much antipathy you have to your normal life.
NATALIE MASSENET
Founder and chairman of Net-a-porter.com
What, was your best holiday? We hired a villa in Ibiza last year throughout August and invited lots of friends and family to come and stay. It was such great fun, which is why we are doing it again this year.
Who are you going on holiday with? My husband, Arnaud, our two daughters, Isabella and Ava, who are nine and three, Isabella’s godfather and Arnaud’s cousin, Stephan Voisin, with his two twin five-year-old daughters, as well as Tom and Amber Aikens. We rent a big villa that can house a lot of people so we always invite a variety of fabulous and great friends as house guests.
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? As above, but perhaps I’d invite Bono and U2 so that they could perform some cool, impromptu acoustic sessions under the stars.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? Both but I try to only look at them once in the morning and once in the evening. Though I do take them with me wherever I go, so they always end up covered in sand by the end of the holiday.
What do you think about on holiday? I think about how much I love my family and friends and how lucky we all are. And about how I must remember to turn over to tan my back.
What will you be reading? Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (Penguin). I’d also love to tackle Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (Penguin).
How do you like to get there? As fast as possible.
How do you feel when you get back? Rested, energised and excited about next season. I try to extend the holiday a little by creating playlists of the sounds of my summer.
MADHUR JAFFREY
Food writer and actress
Where are you going on holiday this year? We are going to spend most of the summer at our country house in upstate New York. In the past we went away but now I find myself getting more and more upset about being away from my vegetable and berry garden. So we have decided that we should spend the time at home and travel in the winter, though we may still go to Vail in Colorado for a week.
What was your best holiday? One of the best recently was a trip my husband and I took. We decided that the two of us would just go away somewhere, rent a car and see all these lovely grand canyons and arches and the national parks in Colorado, Arizona and Nevada. It was stunning.
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? With my family, always.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? Never. I stay away from those things.
What will you be reading? A chick lit book called Perfection by Julie Metz (Hyperion). I also have a book by a Pakistani writer, Ali Sethi, called The Wish Maker (Hamish Hamilton).
How do you feel when you get back?
I’m always glad to be back and to get on with the things I need to do.
What do you think a holiday is for? In my life holidays are always combined with work. A few years ago I was filming in Vancouver and I fell in love with the city. When I came home I took my family back with me. We went salmon fishing, whale watching and observed bear habitats. It was fantastic seeing everything through my grandson’s eyes.
WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
Historian and travel writer
Where are you going on holiday this year? I’ve been commissioned to write about the Romanesque architecture of Moissac, Vézelay and Autun in France, and I’m longing to revisit all these places but whether my children will be interested I’m unsure. We may also stay with some friends in their lovely Ottoman villa in Spetses. It’s a rather special Greek island where all four-wheel traffic is banned.
Where would you like to be going? It’s a very good time of year to go to Bali, which is one of the world’s great pleasures. And I know it’s really boring but you can never really beat Tuscany. We have friends at Sant’Antimo with a beautiful villa located through olive groves. That’s pretty much an all-time favourite.
Wines and dining
1. Hostomme, Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru NV Champagne
Outstanding bargain from a famous store. £20.83 in Fortnum & Mason’s summer offer.2. Egon Müller, Scharzhofberger Riesling Saar
Virtually any vintage or quality of this featherlight wine will do. www.frw.co.uk; www.justerinis.com3. Château D’Esclans Rosé 2007 Côtes de Provence
The finest pink I have ever encountered. €25 a bottle from www.chateaudesclans.comJancis Robinson
1. Monachyle Mhor
Converted farmhouse in the Trossachs, with cool air and magnificent views. www.monachylemhor.com2. Els Pescadors
Exemplary fish restaurant on Spain’s Costa Brava. www.restaurantelspescadors.com3. Kiaroa, Brazil
Extraordinary beaches and wonderful food, including the best breakfasts I’ve eaten. www.kiaroa.com.brNicholas Lander
What was your best holiday? We live part of the year in Delhi and my younger son has the urge to see a real fluffy white Christmas. So last year we took him to Kashmir, where it was more hard, dirty and grey rather than white and fluffy but we went on Shikari rides on the lake and pony trekking up in the hills. It was fantastic.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? Yes. Last year we went to a place in Turkey with very good reception so I had a couple of lost mornings because of it. I have made a vow that this year it will definitely be banned from the bedroom.
What do you think about on holiday? After a few days you stop thinking about the bad stuff and you’ve got time to clear up the issues of the rush of daily life.
What will you be reading? I avoid non-fiction on holiday because I read it the rest of the year so I take this opportunity to catch up on novels, particularly old ones such as Michael Frayn’s Headlong (Faber), which is still light enough to be holiday reading.
How do you feel when you get back? If it’s to London it always feels a downer. It’s a peculiarly unattractive place to come back to. But going back to Delhi, where I’ve lived almost 20 years now, is still exciting and it’s a bit of a holiday anyway. Delhi doesn’t speak of the mundane to me the way London does.
What do you think a holiday is for? Depends what kind of holiday. There are working holidays, kid’s holidays and the slob holiday on the beach, which is about re-charging.
KEN HOM
Food writer and restaurateur
Where are you going on holiday this year? To my summer home in Cahors, south-west France, to cook and entertain.
Where would you like to be going? Somewhere more tropical with a lovely beach.
What was your best holiday? I recently went with close friends to Jigokudani in northern Japan to see the snow monkeys. You have to walk about 25 minutes on the snow-covered ground to the main pools then you will see monkeys everywhere. We ate wonderful light Japanese food and drank sake for three days and soaked in hot tubs filled with natural volcanic hot water.
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? My partner.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? I have neither.
What do you think about on holiday? Food.
What will you be reading? China’s Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation by D Shambaugh (University of California Press); Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street by Kate Kelly (Portfolio) and Dancing to the Precipice: Lucie De La Tour Du Pin and the French Revolution by Caroline Moorehead (Chatto & Windus).
How do you like to get there? Trains are the best way to travel in France – efficient and always on time.
How do you feel when you get back? Fantastic.
What do you think a holiday is for? Total relaxation, with no stress.
DYLAN JONES
Editor GQ magazine
Where are you going on holiday this year? We will be spending a fat week in Banyuls-sur-Mer in the south of France with our dear friends from Hong Kong, a further weekend on the Côte d’Azur, and then a couple of weeks at our house in Wales. I’m giving Corfu a miss this year. Maybe.
Where would you like to be going? I’m trying to persuade my wife to let me take the family to San Francisco for a week. I haven’t been back for 18 years and it’s my favourite city in the world.
Remote spots and city hotspots
1. Greek islands
Schinoussa, one of the lesser Cyclades, has 16 beaches, most of them deserted. Eat at Kyria Pothiti’s taverna.2. Scotland
Cross the Bealach na Ba to the fishing village of Applecross in Wester Ross for superb views of the Cuillins on Skye and the Isle of Raasay.3. England
Walk along the bird-haunted banks of the rivers Ore and Alde on the Suffolk coast. Take refuge from the sun in the cool of the churches at Blythburgh and Orford.Harry Eyres
1. Spend Sunday morning in Zürich at Seebad Enge spa. Best enjoyed with a bowl of Birchermuesli. www.tonttu.ch
2. Unfurl your blanket to the south side of the tennis courts in London’s Regent’s Park. Well shaded and goes best with a crisp bottle of rosé.
3. East of Genoa is the tiny train station at Sori and then find the baths. Hire a lounger. www.comune.sori.ge.it
Tyler Brûlé
What was your best holiday? For the past three years we’ve been to various resorts in the Maldives at Easter. It is unbelievably peaceful, and the food is extraordinary. I would be very happy to go back there every Easter for the rest of my life.
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? I’m completely happy going on holiday with my family. And the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.
Do you take your BlackBerry/ iPhone? Of course. My wife hates me for it but I spend as much time on my BlackBerry on holiday as I do when I’m in London, or anywhere else on business. I don’t find it a distraction or an irritant, although I always hide it under a book when my wife walks into the room. She knows I do this and it just makes her pity me even more.
What do you think about on holiday? Where my next meal is coming from, and whether it’s socially acceptable to have a beer at midday. I usually decide that it is.
What will you be reading? I usually take at least six books with me and this year they will include a Keith Waterhouse memoir, a Bruce Chatwin, a couple by Sir Bernard Ingham, and the new Tony Parsons in proof form.
How do you feel when you get back? For 24 hours I want to be back on the beach, and then I get totally immersed in work and love being back.
What do you think a holiday is for? Most people say recharging the batteries. I tend to think of a holiday as an iPod, where you’re using it and recharging it at the same time.
ANYA HINDMARCH
Accessories designer
Where are you going on holiday this year? To a cottage in Cornwall. Staying in England is less stressful than flying abroad and our trip to the south-west coast is a relaxing, family escape I look forward to each summer.
Where would you like to be going? I would love to go to the Aeolian islands just off the northern coast of Sicily in the Tyrrhenian Sea for the exquisite scenery alone.
What was your best holiday? Just this year, we had the most fabulous holiday in Tangier, Morocco. We stayed in a wonderful house called Dar Sinclair built in 1940. We found the most amazing hotel for drinks, the Minzah, and browsed in nearby antique shops.
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? I love to travel with my family as I don’t get to see enough of them at home. Stephen Fry would always be a welcome addition though.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? I hate to admit that I do.
What do you think about on holiday? A holiday is a great time for reflection and it is often when we are at our most relaxed that inspiration strikes, but I try very hard to shut down just a little and go with the natural flow when I am away but keep a notebook to hand to jot down any ideas or notes I might need to reference later.
What will you be reading? I always take the Spectator away with me (lightweight but gets me thinking), Country Life (I like to dream!) plus the book I am meant to be reading at the time but my head is so busy I find it hard to concentrate.
How do you like to get there? I fly so much for work that I enjoy a road trip in England. If I were travelling alone with my husband, I would love to do so in an Aston Martin.
How much do you eat and drink? I love local cuisine wherever I am. In Cornwall this means fresh fish followed by delicious ice cream.
How do you feel when you get back?
Refreshed and raring to go.
What do you think a holiday is for? A holiday can and should be anything you want it to be.
SIR NICHOLAS KENYON
Managing director of the Barbican Centre
Where are you going on holiday this year? We’ll be spending time at a cottage an hour away from London near Newbury, with magnificent walking nearby, a sense of vast perspective away from the activity of London – doubtless listening to Proms on the radio in the evening. We will also be going to a fascinating corner of Estonia as we spent a day in Tallinn not long ago and loved it. I’ll also be in Lucerne for conductor Claudio Abbado’s concert on August 12.
Where would you like to be going? It really doesn’t matter where we go, it’s just great to be going at all.
What was your best holiday? There have been many but my holiday after starting the Barbican last year was particularly memorable as before that I was involved with the Proms, and had not had a summer holiday in 12 years!
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? Someone who has all the architectural and cultural facts at their fingertips! A sort of walking Pevsner would be good.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? Inevitably, but I try not to use it much.
What do you think about on holiday? Long-term thoughts. I usually come back with a short list of big things to achieve next.
What will you be reading? I’m exploring some of the pioneers of the revival of early music and will be reading a new biography of Imogen Holst: A Life in Music by Christopher Grogan (Boydell Press). She did so much at Aldeburgh and Dartington.
How do you feel when you get back? Refreshed. Ready for action.
What do you think a holiday is for? Refreshment, stimulus and some adventure – just like a visit to the Barbican!
JOHNNIE BODEN
Founder and chairman of Boden clothing
Where are you going on holiday this year? First to Dorset, then to Corfu.
What was your best holiday? A couple of years ago my wife persuaded me to take a barge holiday on the Oxford canal. Somehow we survived the locks, the close confines and my bungling efforts as skipper without the crew staging a mutiny.
Who are you going on holiday with? Dorset will be a family affair but we’ll be travelling with friends to Corfu.
Ideal travelling companion – dead, alive, historical, fictional? I’d like to invite Jane Austen or George Eliot to provide scintillating conversation at dinner and help with bedtime stories.
Do you take your BlackBerry/iPhone? I take my BlackBerry, we can never be parted. But I have to sneak off and look at it in private, to avoid an ear-bashing from my children.
What do you think about on holiday? I try to step back but as I’m obsessed with colour, my surroundings often inspire rambling thoughts about next season’s palette.
What will you be reading? I’m re-reading Our Man in Havana and Brighton Rock (both Penguin) by Graham Greene. I’m also keen to start Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (Penguin).
How do you like to get there? Where holidays are concerned, my children are bizarrely attached to very early starts. So this year we’ll be getting up at 4am to fly out of Bristol.
How do you feel when you get back? I love getting back to London but always feel slightly overwhelmed when I discover yards of unanswered e-mails.
What do you think a holiday is for? I feel terribly liberated by the fact that nobody really wants or needs my opinion on anything. I only have to make decisions of a trivial nature. Sparkling or still?
