With a lack of committed summer sunshine in Britain we Brit girls do love a good holiday wardrobe to hike across the waters with us. The beautiful lightweight dresses, tops, skirts, shorts and equally gorgeous sandals, hats and bags that just don't get the love they deserve in our grey country, all come out to play at holiday time.
I have just come back from Greece, and despite flicking through the magazines eagerly reading about what I'll be wearing for A/W, I couldn't help but indulge in skipping around in my summer clothes, with no care for layers. The ultimate novelty.
Cue some gorgeous summer look book shots. Dreamy...
Clever words written by one of literature's greats, Charles Dickens, masterfully quoted in the novel "One Day" by David Nicholls, under these age related headings:
Early Twenties
"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it and think how different it's course would have been. Pause, you who read this, and think for a long moment of the long chain of iron or gold, or thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on that memorable day."
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Late Twenties
"We spent as much money as we could and got as little for it as people could make up their minds to give us. We were always more or less miserable, and most of our acqaintance were in the same condition. There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one."
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
It astounds me that these words, from a novel first published in 1861, can still hold meanings and relevance more than a century on. Clever, clever, clever.
Recently heading off on my beach break holiday my first "to do" at the airport was to grab a great read. With armfull's of mags I head to the book shop for my grand finale. Noramlly this part requires a lot of umming and ahhing, however this time I had something in mind. Not only have I been unable to jump on a tube, train or bus without seeing someone clutching onto it in the last couple of years (or so it seems), had endless "it's a must read" nudges from friends, it is now being released as a film. Yep you got it, ONE DAY. I just had to beat it to the box office!
I am totally aware that this is a jump on the bandwagon style moment but sometimes they really are worth doing. It is absolutely wonderful! I couldn't tear myself away from it, Nicholls had me laughing out loud - the giggling kind, not belly laughing - as it is just such an honest account of life and so easy to relate to. This review sums it up perfectly for me:
‘The funniest, loveliest book I’ve read in ages. Most of all it is horribly, cringingly, absolutely 100% honest and true to life. I lived every page.’ – Jenny Colgan
Now I only hope the filmsters have done it proud. I'm already a bit in love with the advertising photography, so I'm quietly confident.
