Thanks to James Pembroke for this English seaside hotel recommendation:
‘Boutique hotels like Babington House claim to have reinvented British hospitality. Their guiding principle is “whatever you want, whenever you want”. You and your mates can chill out, you can order whatever food you want 24/7, and let your kids run riot while you watch DVDs on 36-inch plasma screens in your bedroom. No more breakfast between 7.30 and 8.30 am and no more last orders at 10.30 pm. You, the guest, rule.
‘But these places are very expensive – and, as it happens, not at all relaxing. There are constant decisions to be made: When do we have breakfast? Do we let the children stay up with that drummer’s black-eyelidded tribe until midnight? Does an 8-year-old really need salt-baked Scandinavian pollock in a pomegranate coulis for £21 (no veg included)?
‘So here’s an alternative for worn-out Oldie readers who just need a couple of days away from it all: Knoll House Hotel, in Studland on the Isle of Purbeck. I discovered it through friends who were looking for a relaxing English holiday for themselves and their three tiny daughters. Babington’s 24-hour service beckoned, but a grandparent told them of an old-fashioned hotel right by the sea with the most fabulous views out to the Isle of Wight. They booked for a week and stayed for three: they’d never been on such a blissful holiday.
‘Knoll House has barely changed its rituals since it started in 1931. Most bookings are repeat business: three generations at a time come back every summer, bringing their dogs (along with the odd nanny). Their “USP” is that children have a great time – but at no one else’s expense. So there’s a wonderful adventure playground, outdoor pool and children’s discos, but also a children’s dining-room where the under-eights are fed proper home-cooked food between 5 and 6 pm while you dress for dinner. A baby-listener (not a machine but a young girl) is on every corridor from 7 pm to listen out for children, or you can have a baby-sitter in the room if you pay extra. Children can also go to a playroom while you have dinner undisturbed. There’s a TV room – but no telly in the bedrooms, just a radio, so you sleep properly, with your children or grandchildren in the next-door bedroom, in your own suite.
‘The food is traditional English with a triumphant pudding and cheese buffet and an affordable wine-list from which you can buy a bottle of house champagne for £26 or Taittinger for £36. Discreet service is provided by staff who have worked there happily for years – 45 in the case of the head chef, Peter Selby.
‘There’s a health spa, a nine-hole golf course between the hotel and the long sandy beach 300 yards away, and the gardens and Azalea walks of Studland Bay House, which are only open to hotel guests.
‘The atmosphere throughout is one of total serenity. No Michael Winners flapping their napkins. No tantrums. “Routine is why everyone relaxes here,” Mike Ferguson, the owner, told me. “You never have to make a decision. You don’t have to wonder when you’re going to have lunch or dinner. I greet all guests in the dining room between 7.30 and 8.15 and that’s it. Enid Blyton used to come and stay. We don’t do fuss.” ’
• Knoll House Hotel, Studland Bay, Dorset, BH19 3AH
  www.knollhouse.co.uk Tel: 01929 450450


I’ve mentioned the brilliant on-line train information and booking service, The Man in Seat 61, before in this column. Now it has been turned into a book and it’s a terrific bible to have in your travel collection if you’re planning to choose the train rather than the plane. It provides excellent instructions on how to book even the most complicated trips. You can travel to Prague for about £160 return, (£270 if you include a sleeper), or all the way to Istanbul for £470 return, including beds for three nights and the option to stop off en route and take in Cologne, Vienna, Budapest. For Marrakesh, the train will drop you at Tangiers where you can take a ferry for the final leg (£269.00 including sleeper and ferry tickets). If you book a couchette, you will find yourself sharing a cabin, some of which are mixed sex. Sleeping cars, while a little more pricey, will guarantee privacy and a romantic journey ( proper beds, washbasin and room service for early morning coffee).
Mark Smith, the founder of the website and author of the book, explains the title: Seat 61 is his a favourite seat for travelling first-class in cars 7,8 and 11 on Eurostar – because it has a table which lines up with the window.
• The Man in Seat 61: A Guide to Taking the Train
  Through Europe, Bantam Press, £12.99

Thanks to Nick Flowers for the following:
‘After reading your Skeleton Coast
article I’d like to tell you about an early part of its history. It was considered by the British Government as a dumping place for criminals after we lost America in 1776 and before we chose Botany Bay. After some disastrous false starts in West Africa where the prisoners died in droves from disease, some bright spark suggested the South West African (now Namibian) coast, thinking that there must be good land up the river estuaries. A vessel was sent to survey the coast and when they depressing truth came out, Botany Bay was selected after all.’