Situated on Spain’s North East coast, a mere 2 hour flight from London, lies the hustle and bustle of Catalonia’s greatest city. From the sandy beaches of the city center, to the non-stop maze of bars and clubs scattered throughout, Barcelona is the ultimate destination for a weekend abroad with the lads.

If you are within Europe, there are no excuses. Everyday hundreds of cheap flights land in Barcelona’s El Prat airport, with hundreds more hitting the RyanAir runways of the nearby Girona and Reus airports, both within just 90 minutes of Barcelona’s city center. Momondo.com will allow you to search for the cheapest flights to Barcelona, including both the Girona and Reus airports automatically.

Once you have landed the limits are endless. Kicking off with an ice cold sangria on the Barceloneta beach is a sure fire way to get the weekend started right. The numerous “Churinguitos” or beach bars that line the coastline, are a great stop for both beers and sangria. Anything more than this, such as cocktails or a bit of grub, should not be done at these bars. The prices are five star, while the quality is on par with a college cafeteria. The Port Olimpic has some decent options for food, although on summer weekends, it can often be impossible to show up with a group and lack of reservations.

The Port Olimpic is also a great location after hours. Home to Barcelona’s trendiest and most famous nightclubs, this has been the go to spot for this city’s party crowd since its development in 1992 for the Summer Olympic Games. The most recent of these clubs is “Pacha”, a sister club to the world famous Ibiza nightclub of the same name. On average these clubs cost about €15-€20 to enter, often including one drink with the entrance. The cover charge can usually be skipped if you have a rep helping with your vacation. Reps can also be very useful in ensuring you actually enter the club, as many of these big nightclubs frown upon large groups of men. Do not wear fancy dress, they will not let you in. No exceptions. Dress to impress… that means no shorts!

Keep in mind, Spanish partying starts late, very late. It is not uncommon for these clubs to be completely dead until 1:00 AM. If you spend all day drinking in the sun, a traditional midday siesta may be the only solution to allow for more partying.

After closing the club at 6:00 AM, spending an hour trying to find a non-existent late-night kebab shop, yet eventually surrendering to your rented bed, it is not uncommon to wake up well into the afternoon. It is for this reason you should avoid booking any activity before noon. Just like Barcelona’s nightlife, the days here start late, and so long as you are up before 2:00 PM you should be able to make the most of your day.

Barcelona has your typical stag weekend activities; paintball, go karting, limos, the works. Thanks to its coastal placement however, this city is able to offer a whole lot more! The most popular of these unique activities, not just with stags, but with all the travelers alike, are the coastal booze cruises. A couple hours’ unlimited beer and sangria as you party up and down the coast. Some of these boat trips even include an all-inclusive BBQ, as well as a chance to anchor up, and go for a swim.

If an afternoon back on the drink is testing your gag reflex, perhaps a day up in the world famous Costa Brava is a better choice. Kayak and snorkeling trips are a popular way for stag groups to explore the jagged cliffs, and caves, of this amazing part of Spain. Pissup.com offers both these activities, as well as several others. They are well established and provide free consultation so it is a good idea to see what they can offer you before trying to plan everything on your own.

Sundays are a day of rest and relaxation, and in Barcelona, nearly 80% of the city shuts down on this day. This is a good reason to plan for the beach. Most hotels and apartments will allow you to leave your luggage after checkout, so you can pack up, drag yourself to the water, and let the last few rays of sunshine wash away your sins. This is the perfect close to an amazing weekend in Barcelona, and you will honestly be amazed at the curing properties the Mediterranean Sea seems to have on your aching body.

So what are you waiting for? Leave the dreary London skyline behind and lose yourself in the Spanish city that never sleeps!

Exploring a town, city or region for the first time is always great fun, and there are various ways you can go about it, from the conventional to the wacky, weird and wonderful.

Playing it safe and taking the traditional city tour can be great for those of us looking for a dependable, reliable way to make sure we don’t miss out on any highlights.

But for those among us seeking a little spirit and adventure in our voyages of discovery, there are usually fairly inexpensive alternatives to the humdrum, injecting that frisson of excitement into our experience of a destination.

Take a look at these five delicious European mad modes of transport from east and west, to guarantee your sightseeing has an air of eccentricity about it! Click the numbered headings to read more about each quirky conveyance.

1.) Enjoy a city tour of Prague in a shocking pink Škoda Felicia convertible…

Although Prague is culturally and economically on a par with the rest of its European counterparts today, you can still hark back to cold war days with a tour of the city’s hotspots in this iconic communist convertible.

2.) Take the longest trolleybus ride in the world – from Yalta to Simferopol…

Most tourists opt for a plane or taxi, but you can cruise through the Crimean mountains in a genuine old Škoda trolleybus on this epic 86 kilometre journey at the pace of a snail.

3.) Ride the meanest, greenest solar train to see what’s what in Maastricht…

It’s quirky, clean and fun, and will get you round the sights of the Dutch city of Maastricht using nothing but the power of old Phoebus himself.

4.) Drive your own Trabant around Berlin’s east side…

Get behind the wheel of a real, live genuine Trabant and explore Berlin as part of a Trabi Safari. It’s not so bad once you’ve mastered the revolver gear shift…

5.) From the French frontier to the Dutch border, discover the scenic Belgian coastline on the Kusttram…

The De Lijn Belgian Coastal Tramway is a great way to cover the whole of Belgium’s diverse coastline – all 68 kilometres of it!

You can pretty much guarantee that London will give you a good time, no matter who you are.

Whether you’re a tourist visiting the bright lights of England’s capital for the first time, or a hardened Londoner who chews on jellied eels, bellows Knees up Mother Brown at passers-by and understands why taxi drivers don’t go “sath of tha riva”, there are always new discoveries to be made in this sprawling city.

Of course, other guides might try to fob you off by recommending the staples – Buckingham Palace, Westminster, the National Gallery. But we’ve put together something a little different, the places that it might not occur to you to visit.

If you’re travelling from Gatwick Airport, drop your car off at the Gatwick Meet and Greet, make your way into the city and get ready for a good time.

Have your Great Expectations met at the Charles Dickens Museum.

Charles Dickens – writer of Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol and countless others – used London as the canvas for almost all his tales. Famously, the esteemed writer would wander around the most impoverished areas of the capital at night, using the squalor as inspiration.

The Charles Dickens Museum is the home to this legend’s canon, and features a slew of facts, relics and manuscripts from the writer’s life. Situated in the house where Dickens once lived, it’s a truly unique experience that almost lets you breathe the same air as one of Victorian England’s true greats.

The finest grub in Chinatown

Chinatown is one of the finest places to eat in all of London – that is, if you’re a fan of Chinese food.

To start with, try out the modestly priced Four Seasons, a restaurant famed for its Cantonese-style roast duck. If you’re heading down Wardour Street, you’ll find it easy to spot – it’s the one with the barbecued meats displayed in the window.

If you’re looking for a more authentic look to your dining, try out Longji on Charing Cross Road. Kitted out just like a Hong Kong fast food joint, it’ll give you the flavour of Asia in both sight and taste.

A laugh of an evening

The Comedy Store has become a mecca for stand-up comedy in the UK, priding itself on presenting the best in up and coming comics.

Originally making its name during the alternative comedy scene of the 80s, it played host to figures like Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, Paul Merton, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, among others.

Now, it’s where comics come to make a name for themselves and, if you’re up for a laugh, it’s the perfect end to your night.

We’ve been waiting for so long…it’s been hard and we almost lost hope. But you’ve finally arrived and we are ready to enjoy you and your #LongerDays…

WELCOME SPRING!

The long winter, with its meagre daylight hours, is at last drawing to a close. There is a freshness; a lightness in the air that hails the oncoming spring to summer, and the promise of long days and bright nights. It is time for adventure.

The North Face® are inviting those intrepid walkers, runners, hikers and climbers to explore longer, making the most of those wonderful, longer days ahead. And for those more sedentary specimens amongst us, why not take up the challenge and make this the season to do more, live more and seek out adventures you’ve never dreamed of. Most of us lead busy, hectic lives these days, so take the opportunity to embrace your inner explorer and revitalise your spirit.

Take up the inspiration and get involved in the fun and action, head over and like
The North Face® on Facebook, follow them on Twitter and Instagram, and check out their official website for the skinny on how you can become part of the great adventure.

Don’t forget to include @thenorthface.europe when posting on Facebook, or @thenorthfaceEU for tweets, and to embrace the experience to the fullest, download the Explorer app to your mobile now, create your profile and start adding your pictures and stories – the more the better! And keep the excitement going by retweeting and reposting every time you or the campaign get a mention. Keep your followers up to date and share, share, share!

There are daily prizes to be won in the Explorer Photo Competition, so whether you’re on a mountain summit or blazing your favourite trail, share your pictures and experiences using #LongerDays.

Make the most of the longer days, and live life to the full with The North Face®.

Post sponsored by The North Face®

It sulks, brooding across the bay. The clouds, dark and impendent, sit like gods around its perimeter; gods whose charge it is to let nothing in or out. The black, lapping water foreshadows untold terrors apt to befall any who would dare to harbour an endeavour to penetrate this fortress’s ’mail. Shadowy wings mimicking Pterosauria circle menacingly overhead. Better that you turn your back and walk away now than entertain any thought of going out there.

Such is the impression created by the former island gaol of Alcatraz as you view it at the dusk of a squally day from the safety of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco Bay. Filled with fear and fascination, you determine to discover its mysteries first hand. Tomorrow is the day.

Of course, as you approach the landing at Pier 33 in sunshine the following morning, all the previous day’s forebodings seem utterly ridiculous. Alcatraz looks perfectly innocuous basking in yellow light, and you look forward with renewed vigour to the adventures that await. You board your craft and begin the half hour trip out to the notorious island.

Disembarking your vessel of conveyance, you cannot fail to experience the sense of awe that comes from setting foot on such an historic site. Since it opened as a federal penitentiary in 1934, ‘the Rock’ became home to some of America’s most infamous criminals, including Al ‘Scarface’ Capone and Birdman Robert Stroud, right up until its being decommissioned in 1963.

For those who seek to immerse themselves in the history of this most legendary of prisons, disappointment will not make an appearance. To simply wander around the island itself would be reward enough for one’s efforts, but the experience goes way above and far beyond, allowing access to the cell blocks and main buildings, recreation yard and grounds, all exquisitely enhanced by audio and video presentations. But Alcatraz offers so much more, being a home to rare flowers and plants, marine wildlife and thousands of roosting and nesting sea birds.

Scattered haphazardly around are 19th century buildings from the time of Civil War, when the island served as both a harbour defence fort and a military gaol.

Traces of the American Indian Occupation, which began in 1969 once the prison had closed, are still visibly evident, and stand in testimony to a milestone in the rights movement, and provide yet another rich perspicacity into US history.

The day done, all that remains is your return trip to the mainland and, as the sun dips, caressing its orange fingers over the lonely island, a deep sense of satisfaction can be felt deep in your heart. As the delicious delights of discovery dance enticingly in your memory, you are blessed yet further with the most stunning and romantic view of the city skyline and Golden Gate Bridge, as your craft floats dreamlike towards the berth whence you departed so many hours ago.

You can make the trip to the Rock with several reputable companies; we used the excellent Alcatraz Cruises. Booking prior to arrival is strongly recommended.

A city tour can be a useful device with which to acquaint oneself with the often many and varied quarters a new playground of adventure has to offer.

There is, indeed, not much more disheartening to the intrepid traveller than gaining fleeting glimpses of treasures undiscovered from the dusty window of an airport or railway station bound taxi cab.

Finding both value and requisite quirkiness fused pleasurably in one offering can be a little irksome, and require much tramping and traipsing of dusty streets and squares, and consorting with guidebooks. Let us save you that trouble in Maastricht – simply seek out the innovative Solar Train, whose soft amble and green conscience make it the perfect conveyance for acquainting yourself with the main cultural staples of this splendid Dutch city.

Claimed to be a world first, this cheeky little road train trundles and winds along main streets, squares and cobbled alleys with ease, imparting historical knowledge through its tiny speakers at almost every bend in the road.

A different, fun and inexpensive environmentally friendly way to do your sightseeing, the Maastricht Solar Train will surely catch on in other cities soon. Hop on at Kesselskade and enjoy the ride!

Visit www.vvv-maastricht.eu/day_out/zonnetrein_maastricht

Tickets available at:
VVV Maastricht
Kleine Staat 1
6211 ED Maastricht
Netherlands

Tel.: 0031 (0)6 1236 4416 for reservations

Any self-respecting sci-fi buff will always thrill to the happenstance of the discovery of some new exhibition or artefact, but occasionally such an operation will throw itself in your way in the most unlikely of venues and circumstances.

Such is the case in the quiet Herefordshire town of Bromyard – so quaint and picturesque in itself that it rather more suits the appellation of ‘village’ – where can be found, without much in the way of looking, The Time Machine Museum of Science Fiction, nestling mysteriously at 12, The Square.

In fact, The Time Machine is the type of collection that will thrill even those who are not such devout fans of the genre, by presenting a beautiful collation of models, toys, screen-used props and a cornucopia of memorabilia from the golden age of sci-fi TV set happily alongside the most up-to-date acquisitions from recent Dr Who episodes featuring Matt Smith. You’ll also find some great displays from such classics as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Star Trek, Star Wars, Red Dwarf and Buffy, that ever-resourceful vampire slayer.

The Museum is open every day during all Bank Holidays and all local School Holidays from 10.30am to 4.30pm, and the same times Wednesday to Sunday from April through to September. October to March it is still open every weekend.

A rare treat, this stunning exhibition is lovingly presided over by the owner, who delights in sharing a lifetime’s collection with his eager visitors.

At £8 a throw for adults (£6 for kids) this is an amazing experience, enhanced by authentic musical scores which add an ambience of magic and excitement, and – in our opinion, at any rate – not to be missed.

Featured on BBC 2’s Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, Friday 8th November, 2013

Visit www.timemachineuk.com

The Time Machine Museum of Science Fiction
12 The Square
Bromyard
Herefordshire
HR7 4BP
England

Tel.: 0044 1885 488329

Email info@timemachineuk.com

Choosing the first winner of our prestigious award has been no easy task…

When it comes to travel and holidays, there are those of us who consider ourselves tourists, and those who think of ourselves more as travellers. Whilst for some, the perfect holiday is returning to a favourite resort year after year, relaxing in the sunshine with everything around us immediately to hand and familiar, others are more intrepid in their taste for adventure and crave exploration a little more off the beaten track.

World Travel Blog has always been committed to discovering those roads less travelled, which can always be found even in the most popular of tourist spots, and our anecdotal advice and articles are aimed at providing some insight into how such endeavours are best undertaken. But sometimes, for some trips, a specialist is needed, and that’s what has led us to launch our Travel Company of the Year Award this year.

Choosing our first winner hasn’t been easy – there are many agents in the market today offering a wide range of trips to suit varying budgets. We’ve been rigorous in our selection, though, and scored each of our shortlisted operators on the areas which matter most, namely quality of the itineraries on offer, overall value of holidays, how well organised the trips are and, all importantly, how knowledgable the staff and representatives are about your chosen destination. Feedback has been gleaned from not only the World Travel Blog team, but also independent reports from individuals and groups who have used these companies first hand.

We are, therefore, very pleased to announce that after very careful consideration, the winner of the first World Travel Blog Travel Company of the Year Award is:

Regent Holidays have been chosen for their unquestionable product knowledge, their willingness to be of assistance both before and after booking, and during the holiday itself, the friendliness of their team of experts, the fantastic choice of locations available, the overall exceptional value and for having innovation in spades.

So, congratulations guys – this award is not given out easily, and you should be very proud. Long may you continue to provide the excellent service you do!

Regent Holidays
Colston Tower
Colston Street
Bristol
BS1 4XE

Visit www.regent-holidays.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)20 7666 1244

Email: regent@regentholidays.co.uk

Gordon West’s classic 30s travelog is a charming account of Morocco between the wars

Without doubt one of the most charming travel books ever written, Gordon West’s classic By Bus to the Sahara follows the incredible journey undertaken by the author and his wife, affectionately referred to throughout as ‘the Spirit’, as they make their way – largely, although not exclusively – by bus across Morocco to the Sahara desert.

Written in the 1930s, the colourful account overflows with charm and beauty, as it chronicles the Wests’ exploration of the land of palm groves and oases, mosques and muezzins, and the ancient walled cities of an old Empire – by bus.

Setting off from Tilbury with two suitcases, a large painting box and a roll of artist’s canvass, they sailed to Tangier, and there entered the world of French Morocco, a world of sheiks and harems, the ancient Berber tribes of the Atlas Mountains, of French Legionnaires drinking ‘earthquakes’ in seedy desert bars, of beautiful old Moorish palaces and mountain mud villages.

Born in 1896, West studied at the London School of Economics and served in the Royal Navy in the First World War. It was after the war he began his career in journalism, graduating to Foreign Correspondent for the Westminster Gazette in the 1920s, and becoming Foreign Editor of the Daily Sketch during the Second World War.

It was in the late 1920s that, with his wife Mary, he decided to explore the then little-known island of Majorca, which was the inspiration for Jogging Round Majorca, the forerunner to By Bus to the Sahara.

Improved with age, the latter leaves you gasping for more, wonderfully capturing the colourful, exotic and little-explored country of Morocco and the desert in a vanished era.

No longer available new, the 1980s Black Swan edition can still be picked up very reasonably second hand. It’s well worth indulging in, and will transport you to a world of adventure which has long since vanished.

Seaburgh’s warning to the curious

If, like me, you’re a fan of the good old English ghost story, then you’ve probably read at least one by M R James. My favourite, I must confess, is ‘A Warning to the Curious’, but this is due largely to the iconic BBC adaptation of the short story which was made in 1972. Directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, and starring Peter Vaughan and Clive Swift, with a memorable performance by John Kearney, this classic little chiller can still send a shudder up many a spine today. Being frightened out of my wits by this film as a child is what started my interest in the story and, undoubtedly but thankfully, led me to the many ‘anxious’ hours I have subsequently spent in the deliciously dark company of England’s master of the traditional ghost story, Montague Rhodes James.

Tracking down the locations in the story can be a tricky business and, if you’re trying to do it in one trip, it’s probably best to choose either the film or the text, as one will point you to Norfolk and the other to Suffolk.

So let’s deal with the original source material first. James’s chilling little number is set in the fictional seaside town of Seaburgh, which is simply sited as being ‘on the east coast’. In a prologue to his ‘Collected Ghost Stories’ the author states clearly that his inspiration for Seaburgh was the sleepy little resort of Aldeburgh, nestling quaintly but quietly on the Suffolk coast. Although born in Goodnestone Parsonage in Kent in 1862, James had a lifelong affinity with the seaside town, visiting it often for holidays. He describes it thus:

The place on the east coast which the reader is asked to consider is Seaburgh. It is not very different now from what I remember it to have been when I was a child. Marshes intersected by dykes to the south, recalling the early chapters of Great Expectations; flat fields to the north, merging into heath; heath, fir woods, and, above all, gorse, inland. A long sea-front and a street: behind that a spacious church of flint, with a broad, solid western tower and a peal of six bells. How well I remember their sound on a hot Sunday in August, as our party went slowly up the white, dusty slope of road towards them, for the church stands at the top of a short, steep incline. They rang with a flat clacking sort of sound on those hot days, but when the air was softer they were mellower too. The railway ran down to its little terminus farther along the same road. There was a gay white windmill just before you came to the station, and another down near the shingle at the south end of the town, and yet others on higher ground to the north. There were cottages of bright red brick with slate roofs… but why do I encumber you with these commonplace details? The fact is that they come crowding to the point of the pencil when it begins to write of Seaburgh. I should like to be sure that I had allowed the right ones to get on to the paper. But I forgot. I have not quite done with the word-painting business yet.

Walk away from the sea and the town, pass the station, and turn up the road on the right. It is a sandy road, parallel with the railway, and if you follow it, it climbs to somewhat higher ground. On your left (you are now going northward) is heath, on your right (the side towards the sea) is a belt of old firs, wind-beaten, thick at the top, with the slope that old seaside trees have; seen on the skyline from the train they would tell you in an instant, if you did not know it, that you were approaching a windy coast. Well, at the top of my little hill, a line of these firs strikes out and runs towards the sea, for there is a ridge that goes that way; and the ridge ends in a rather well-defined mound commanding the level fields of rough grass, and a little knot of fir trees crowns it. And here you may sit on a hot spring day, very well content to look at blue sea, white windmills, red cottages, bright green grass, church tower, and distant martello tower on the south.

Once James as narrator has evoked the setting of the story, he allows his friend to take over, who goes on to tell us of a stay in an inn called ‘The Bear’ at Seaburgh, where he came across a very nervous-seeming young man who was afraid to be alone. This young man, Paxton by name, then tells his story of having learned from the local rector of a legend of three Anglian crowns buried along the coast as protection from foreign invaders. One crown, according to the legend, had been discovered and melted down, and the second had been washed into the sea by coastal erosion. The third crown, the last remaining defence, was still buried along the coast but protected through generations by the men of the Ager family. When Paxton discovers that the last of the Agers has just died, his curiosity is piqued. When he ascertains from another local the possible location of the buried crown, he is compelled to unearth it. Having done so, however, he finds himself constantly followed by a mysterious presence. He is desperate to put the crown back where he found it, but it may be too late. It is for this task he enlists the help of the other two main protagonists of the tale.

Apart from the total loss of the old battery and settlement of Slaughden to the ravaging sea, Aldeburgh is pretty much today as the author described it. Many of the landmarks featured in the story can easily be tracked down, and the footsteps of the characters can be followed with little difficulty. A good base is The White Lion, a Best Western hotel which, although now considerably altered and devoid of ‘sitting rooms’, was actually ‘The Bear’ in James’s narrative. If you’re looking for more modest accommodation and don’t want to pay almost a fiver for the smallest glass of red, you could try the excellent ‘Toll House’ situated on Victoria Road, just off the main roundabout as you enter Aldeburgh. You’ll find no bar here (although the lively and convivial ‘Railway’ pub is literally just across the way) and you certainly won’t have a sea view, but this clean and friendly establishment is well run by Richard and Isobel, and is no more than five minutes walk from the town centre. And they do serve up a mean full English, packed with delicious local produce cooked to perfection; just the ticket to set you up for a day’s ghost hunting.

The short walk to the beach will take you past the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul. Although only featured briefly in the story itself as young Paxton, accompanied by the narrator and his friend, Henry Long, attempts to return the crown, it’s worth a brief sojourn here to visit the graves of Suffolk composer Benjamin Britten and his lover Peter Pears. Much is made of Britten’s connection with Aldeburgh, which by contrast seems to highlight the fact that absolutely nothing can be found relating to M R James or ‘A Warning to the Curious’. Even the ‘literary expert’ to whom we were pointed at one of the town’s main book shops, could only manage a cursory, dismissive grunt as she thrust a copy of Wilkie Collins’ ‘No Name’ at us without really listening to our question. “M R Who..?” she barked eventually, “No. There’s nothing,” and then, without further ado, promptly turned her back on us to strike fear into the heart of the next customer patiently waiting for her contentious wisdom.

Also worth examining at the Peter and Paul Church is the stunning Britten window by John Piper, before meandering your way through the graveyard to the claustrophobic ‘narrow path with close, high hedges’ – the route taken by the three men on their way to return the misappropriated treasure.

These secluded paths lead down to the beach itself, which is exactly as described:

There was a choice of ways: past the houses on the sea-front, or along the sand at the bottom of the beach, which, the tide being now out, was fairly broad. Or of course we might keep along the shingle between these two tracks and have some view of both of them; only that was heavy going. We chose the sand, for that was the loneliest, and someone might come to harm there without being seen from the public path.

From the sea front, you can walk southwards towards, first, the only remaining windmill of the several James describes, now sadly without sails, and second the martello tower. The latter now belongs to the Landmark Trust and is probably in far better condition than it ever was. At the north end of the beach lies the timber framed Moot Hall, which has the dual function of museum and town hall, and has one or two interesting exhibits to complete the story well worth the modest one pound entrance fee. An 1860s print clearly shows the old gun battery just north of the martello tower intact. The second half of the nineteenth century must have seen a great deal of damage; by the turn of the century the battery was a crumbling ruin. This whole coast has suffered from the inroads of the sea. In the sixteenth century there were three whole streets to seaward of the current front, and the Moot Hall itself, now practically on the beach, was well inland. You’ll also find a picture painted around 1900 depicting the railway (which fell victim to Dr Beeching in the sixties), the ridge of firs where the crown was supposedly buried, and, in the far distance, the north sea. The trees were much more sparse then, but the picture gives you a good idea of the scene as it was in the story.

The church at Froston, whose porch houses the coat of arms depicting the ‘three Anglian crowns’ which initially fuel Paxton’s interest in his folly, is not so easy to place. It could be at nearby Friston, where there is indeed a church, but the absence of both the heraldic clue over its porch or any other intelligence bequeathed by James himself, leaves this open to some conjecture.

Now, as I’ve already intimated, this is all very well if you’re following James’s actual text. However, if you are a devotee of the film and not the literature, you will have come completely unstuck as soon as you set foot in Aldeburgh. Trying to uncover the actual locations for filming can frequently be frustrating, as what meagre sources of information there are can be at best sketchy and at worst conflicting. What’s absolutely clear is that no filming was done either in or around Aldeburgh or, indeed, anywhere in Suffolk.

To follow the location of Clark’s masterpiece, you’ll have to migrate to Norfolk, to the even sleepier Wells-next-the-Sea on the north coast. A modest trip eastwards will have you fetch up at Happisburgh, where you’ll definitely locate the church featured in the film, together with the red and white stripy lighthouse to which Vaughan’s older Paxton cycles.