Away from my Desk

Jeremy, who took these pictures, is behind the camera, and thus doesn't appear in any of them, though I have a picture of him from when we first met (when all four of us were on honeymoon at the Hoopoe Yurt Hotel in Cortes de la Frontera:

You can see him in the foreground (naturally, he's holding a camera). 

The fifth member of our party was Callie, Lucy and Jeremy's boxer, who put up with a whole lot of walking (including lots of long seaside staircases) despite having a spine that's had to be fused together. 

 

Briony and I have had an ongoing project of visiting as many seaside towns as possible. Our progress has been slow, but wide-ranging: we've been to Whitstable, Brighton, the Isle of Wight, Littlehampton, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Scarborough, Whitby, Blackpool, and Gair Loch. 

This summer we found out that Lucy and Jeremy harboured similar ambitions, so in late August, we set off on our first trip - a two-stop tour, covering Broadstairs and Margate.

Visiting seaside towns with Lucy and Jeremy is a particular pleasure because they are serious (and skilful) at buying beautiful old things - and Broadstairs excels at selling beautiful old things. Though in fact, the most memorable purchases from Broadstairs were a pair of sourballs that Jeremy and I got from a sweet shop. In fact, they may have been freebies - and they were actually so sour you couldn't leave them in your mouth. I've just had a look for them online and couldn't find them. They're probably a black-market thing. 

Broadstairs was utterly charming, and I'm sure it has depths that we didn't find, but Margate was the place that really amazed me. Great vintage shops, of which the most extraordinary is Junk Deluxe, which is absolutely worth the trip from London on its own. The whole Old Town is brilliant - cafes, nice-looking pubs, vintage shops, and galleries.Worth a particular mention is Helter Skelter, from which  bought a rather splendid flat cap, and a coaster with an image of an EP: 'A Little Lovin' Sometimes', by Alexander Patten. I'm so proud to share my name with such a good soul singer (sometimes his name is even spelled 'Patton'!). There's an interview with him here (recorded in Whitby, one of our previous seaside destinations, as well as the port into which Dracula arrived). 

But I digress. Margate has a great beach, which you can see here:

Jeremy claims you can see me, I'm either going towards or emerging from the sea. Late in the day, we finally got to Margate's beautiful Turner Contemporary Gallery. The work that stuck with me the most was Daniel Buren's 'Borrowing and Multiplying the landscape', which literally frames the Margate sea view:

The walls on either side of the windows are mirrored:

It's both clever and awe-inspiring, which is a combination that you don't get often enough. And the design of the gallery is such that you keep catching unexpected glimpses of it as you come out of the stairs onto the second floor, or around a corner. 

 

The evening ended in spectacular fashion, with people rotating on poles, propelled by jets on their feet - it was a big, free, communal show on the beach - I can't remember the details now (it was a few months ago) but I remember it was impressive. 

 

I should mention that all the pictures here are by Jeremy Johns (except for the photo of Jeremy). Jeremy takes photos for a living, and you can see all of his photos of Margate here.