The Season: A Summer Whirl Through the English Social Season

by Sophie Campbell

Overview

When travel journalist Sophie Campbell squeezed into heels and a hat to investigate the English social season, she got more than she bargained for. Why, she wondered, were events such as the Chelsea Flower Show, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Derby at Epsom, Royal Ascot, the Henley Royal Regatta, Wimbledon Fortnight and Glorious Goodwood so formal, so fashionable and so famous?

Her hectic and sometimes hilarious journey through the English summer proved as exotic as any tribal rite of passage as she swam the River Thames in the dark, partied with owners and trainers at Ascot, camped out for Wimbledon, joined Irish Travellers at The Derby, infiltrated the parents’ stand at the Eton v Harrow cricket match and got caught using a mobile in the Stewards’ Enclosure at Henley. En route she found a fascinating and surprisingly complex social structure dating back to the time of the Stuart monarchs and involving fashion, food, art and the marriage market. The English summer will never be the same again.

  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781311400
Publisher:	Aurum Press
Publication date:	06/06/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Sophie Campbell writes regularly for the Daily Telegraph and is a qualified London Blue Badge Guide. She lives in London.

Sophie Campbell writes regularly for the Daily Telegraph and is a qualified London Blue Badge Guide. She lives in London.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Strange Bedfellows ix

1 A Toe in the Water 1

2 Getting In 12

3 The Last Truck to Chelsea 18

4 A Garden Grows by the River 25

5 Not a Thing to Wear 42

6 The Ups and Downs of Epsom 53

7 And All for a Bunch of Students 67

8 The Merry Monarch Shows His Serious Side 84

9 The Butterflies Emerge 95

10 Music on the Mittel Downs 112

11 Nobody's Looking at You, Dear 126

12 Toppers and Tails 138

13 The Royal Enclosure at Last 145

14 The Perfectly Packed Basket 159

15 The Last of the Gilded Youth 168

16 The Butterflies Take Off 184

17 The Tented Village 195

18 The Carpet of Green 210

19 The Long Stretch 234

20 Hello, Real World 245

21 Chukkas and Chavs 245

22 The Sultan of Speed 255

23 Red Sails in the Sunset 265

Epilogue: The Butterfly Summer 278

Acknowledgements 283

Notes 286

Bibliography 290

Index 293

Editorial Reviews

'hectic and sometimes hilarious 'rite of passage'

'a fresh and sometimes very funny look at familiar events.'

'Sophie Campbell is a joyful companion on this jaunt ... an intelligent and affectionate portrait of the English at play.'

'a fresh and sometimes very funny look at familiar events.'

'Sophie Campbell is a joyful companion on this jaunt ... an intelligent and affectionate portrait of the English at play.'

'hectic and sometimes hilarious 'rite of passage'

From the Publisher