From Scarborough to Salcombe - a Summer tour

In the last fortnight or so a Summer's journey has taken in Yorkshire, Kent and Devon and counties in between. The first weekend in August saw my wife and I heading for Yorkshire to visit her parents in Withernsea, outside Hull. Withernsea is a seaside resort out on the East Ridings and journeying to it feels a little like voyaging across a land-sea of endless flat fields comprising some of the the most arable farming land in the county, England and the UK. The landmark that heralds our destination is a tall white structure visible from some miles off. Known as the Kay Kendall lighthouse it is named after the town's most famous daughter - the actress Kay Kendall, star of films such as Genevieve (with Kenneth More, Michael Redgrave and and once married to Rex Harrison, star of stage and screen with appearances of varying quality from the incomparable My Fair Lady through to the less illustriuos Dr Doolittle to wonderful, almost half-forgotten, gems such as The Yellow Rolls Royce (also starring Omar Sharif). It was said that Kay Kendall was the love of the much-married Rex Harrison's life and when she died young of leukemia he was inconsolable. In a way it is fitting that this vivacious woman who managed to shine a light into the heart of a gifted but in many ways impossible man, should be remembered in her home town by a lighthouse however landlocked. Needless to say it is only open on high days and holidays in the season when the moon turns into a balloon (as observed by her friend and fellow actor David Niven).

Another Yorkshire seaside town with artistic connections is Scarborough. A cross-country drive into North Yorkshire via Bridlington and Filey brings a motoring party to this Victorian pleasure site. Like many such towns of its era it boasts an esplanade, a pier and a grand hotel as well as two beaches complete with promenades. It also has two theatres and a link with the playwright Alan Ayckbourn, whose plays were first performed in the theatre which is named after him - The Theatre in the Round. It was thus the citizens and holidaymakers of Scarborough that were first treated to such modern classics as Absurd Person Singular, The Norman Conquests, Absent Friends and Bedroom Farce . If the works passed the 'Scarborough test' they were ready for the rest of the world - in this way the people of Yorkshire were the literary and artistic arbiters of modern theatrical tastes and trends for where Ayckbourn has trod others have followed.

After such heady artistic pursuits, the traditional beach-side ice-cream experience was deferred for the farmgate produce of Mr Moos, where the challenge is the consumption of what seems to be the largest plateful of chocolate chip-vanilla ice-cream with cookie biscuit base this side of the Yorskhire Dales.

Another county with plenty of agricultural produce is, of course, Devon which is where we ventured post Yorkshire. After a brief administrative stop-over in Kent (Garden of England where the strawberries are boasted of as the best in the UK if not Europe) involving government agencies and paperwork, the caravan rolled southwestwards via the old road connecting South East to South West known to all familiar to it as the A303. Almost a parallel route to that of the Western M4, the traveller passes through counties such as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset before crossing into that deceptively large expanse of south-west countryside known as Somerset. Villages with evocative names abound on this route, including that of Norton-sub-Hampden - for those with political interests it is the place from which Paddy Ashdown the politician (former Leader of the Liberal Democrats) and international civil servant (UN High Representative to Bosnia) takes his title - Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hampden. By sheer chance, when we were sojourning in Devon, the eponymous Paddy A appeared on an edition of the Radio 4 Any Questions programme, which was broadcast from that same village. Once famed for being the only MP to be able to kill with his bare hands - a product of his training as a marine commando - the admirable Paddy still cuts a dash on the stage of public life, where he is noticeably reticent about giving any advice to his successors in the Liberal Democrats. He seems to have taken the advice first attributed to ex-President Harry Truman when counselling others after leaving high office in relation to their successors not to 'talk to the Captain or spit on the floor'. His closing speech to the Party Conference when he retired from the leadership was a masterclass of its kind, ending with the valedictory "and may God continue to hold you in the hollow of his hand". His is a class act in many ways which has developed in adversity as well as truimph since the day he inherited a party, over 20 years ago, that was close to bankrupt. Not that it gets any easier to be a Liberal Democrat when adherents often have to hold simultaneously to two completely contradictory beliefs - and are often hampered by this during election time....or at least are obliged to tell one story at one end of the country and another at the other.

A little like this post, the road eventually leads to Exeter - Devonian market town with a well-regarded University which this correspondent attended in what seems like the increasingly receding years of the late 1980s to early 90s. Follow it south from Exeter and onto what is known as the Devon Expressway which sweeps down the peninsula towards Plymouth, eventually arriving at Ivybridge and Lee Mill, home to my wife's daughter and her Devonian-born boyfriend. Which is how we ended up at Salcombe, for he lived in that fair seaside town which attracts the glamorous and the well-upholstered together with the surfers and boaters of all kinds, urban and sea-prone, townies and locals alike. All this as well as the delights of a visit to the newly revamped harbour area of Plymouth called the Barbican, where we sat and watched as the drama inherent in any activity involving a TV film crew unfolded before us - notwithstanding that what was being filmed rejoiced under the title Come Dine With Me - a day-time cooking show of the variety ubiquitous to the small screen, or idiot's lantern as they call it in some parts. Not far from where we sat, the spirit of Sir Walter Raleigh relives his famous game of bowls upon the Plymouth Hoe - scene of one of the most celebrated pieces of sang-froid of all history: the Spanish Armada was hoving into view carrying the invasion forces of England's rival power and the good sailor and hero of the hour (as the history has it) insisted on finishing his game of bowls before joining with, and ultimately defeating, the Spanish foe. The same chap who cast his coat down in front of his sovereign, Elizabeth I so as to save her dress from a puddle. A hero for history in a long line of naval heroes. Plymouth is an appropriate setting for all this drama - the port of Devonport providing the raw material of the naval power that enabled Brittannia to literally 'rule the waves' from Tudor times to the end of the Second World War. A panolpy of naval heroes echo down through the ages from Raleigh onwards including Nelson as well as all those yachtsmen. Few, perhaps, quite as quixotic as Walter. Could be the effect of the salty air combined with the clotted cream......