BEREFT IN BENIDORM

Last week I seized the opportunity to spend 4 days in a Spanish fishing village. The plan was to chill out on a sundrenched beach reading trashy paperbacks whilst grilling my flesh. I am pleased to report that all went to plan although the barbeque effect was hotter than imagined and the reading material, branded as “rom coms,” ended up providing something of a busman’s holiday filled with the scrapes of divorced and divorcing couples. They certainly weren’t the kind of reads I’d recommend for those suffering from the pain and heartache of the early stages of separation. Indeed a health warning on the cover would have been appropriate: “Not for those suffering the effects of divorce or of a prudish disposition.”

But what do you read assuming you are in that position and can settle your mind long enough to peruse a chapter or two? Is it a time for easy crime novels or historical sagas (Henry VIII excepted)?

What about War and Peace? It has an inspirational title and beats “Alone and Bereft in Benidorm” any day.