"Inside the fabulous world of the super-rich Cotswolds set" (Debate)

Tue 30 Apr, 07:37 (last edited on Tue 30 Apr, 19:23)

This morning there was a man camping in the seating shelter on the North bound platform of our railway station.

As Hanif Kureishi has said: "Young people have nothing to be hopeful for" - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68881605

I find this "wealth flaunting" incomprehensible and despicable. 

Mon 29 Apr, 22:03 (last edited on Mon 29 Apr, 22:04)

Ignore

Mon 29 Apr, 07:50

I think Christine's confusing the puff piece in the April 28 Sunday Times (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/plum-sykes-cotswolds-book-interview-wives-like-us-q5m70zmdm) with an earlier  (April 18) and nearly identical FT puff piece (https://www.ft.com/content/880966ad-ef99-41c3-8543-e2f9e32614d8)

The confusion's understandable, of course - even if the planted articles aren't. But both sad reminders that in both newspapers, you have to fight your way through acres of "fashion" nonsense intended to attract a certain kind of print advertising, to read their near-unrivalled coverage of the complexities and hardships of the real world. 

Sun 28 Apr, 17:42

Sorry to say that Plum Sykes "satirical" Cotswolds novel -- the focus of the 2 earlier posts by both Matthew Greenfield and Melissa Midgen -- will be published in a couple of weeks.

Another puff for it in today's FT. Hoping against hope that it won't produce even more of the type of tourists who are attracted to her fantasy world of the super-rich West Oxfordshire "set" . But I am not raising my hopes ... 

Thu 21 Mar, 19:01 (last edited on Thu 21 Mar, 19:02)

Broken Britain and the return of “private affluence and public squalor”

Mon 18 Mar, 18:04 (last edited on Mon 18 Mar, 18:22)

Could somebody make it stop? 

Well, somebody who knows Simon Mills could have a go at doing so, I suppose; but probably the mythology is now so embedded in estate agent and car dealership sales that even that wouldn't work. 

After all, Simon Mills who wrote this "report" in The…

Long post - click to read full text

Sat 16 Mar, 23:41

Someone called Plum writes a spoof … we appear to be living through Charlbury’s post satire era. Can someone make it stop?

Sat 16 Mar, 18:26 (last edited on Sat 16 Mar, 23:38)

Another spectacularly silly article about the Cotswolds - in The Times this time:

https://archive.is/Kg1JP

It starts by describing a new (non-satirical?) model of Range Rover called the "Burford Edition" and then refers to the "Charlbury gastro-pub cluster":

"The car’s launch, along with Bull Burford’s sushi restaurant, the omnipresent scent of Daylesford Farm Shop’s tomato vine candles, the Charlbury gastro-pub cluster landlorded by Baroness Bamford and, over the road, the team from the Pelican in Notting Hill, the opening of a Roman-themed spa at Estelle Manor, near Witney, and the Pig Hotel at Barnsley (no, not that Barnsley), which is slated to open this summer, all help to rubber-stamp a growing, aspirational phenomenon: the Cotswolds are no longer just an area of outstanding natural beauty but a lifestyle. An area of outrageous and extraordinary wealth… a recognised brand."

😱