Much of the story - from the rediscovery of MDMA (the active component of Ecstasy) in the 1960s, the Warehouse, lbiza, raves and Leah Betts ("a symbol not of innocence defiled but of the chasm in understanding between generations") to super-clubs catering for "the chemical generation" - will be vaguely familiar. From within, the tone tends towards the cringe-making sub-literacy of the recent Disco Biscuits anthology. Yet in the context of the sea change engendered by chemicals and music described here, that event seems like an incidental detail. In his first book, Up North, Jennings travelled beyond the Watford Gap and was rude about what he found. "Well," my dad said gleefully, "that's not something you'd ever hear at Headingley." During the course of People Like Us, his odyssey through the world of the upper classes, Charles Jennings also visits the Eton vs Harrow match, directed there by Lady Celestria Noel's Harpers & Queen Book of the Season. Moreover, it is handsomely illustrated but modestly priced - another triumph for Yale.. They flocked to enjoy houses that the Gowers Report called "England's greatest contribution to the visual arts", and valued homeliness as well as stateliness.This summary does scant justice to Mandler's 1ong, sophisticated but sometimes tiresomely abstract account It is certainly open to criticism.
The book explodes the pervasive myth that country houses are unchanging Arcadian monuments, cherished by owners and venerated by a populace who regard them as the quintessence of Englishness. The castle had long been popular with visitors, who apparently paid one housekeeper pounds 30,000 in tips. When I was at school the man was a phenomenon but back then Sid Snot addressing the television audience as Friends of Dorothy meant nothing to a playground of 14-year-olds.THURSDAY: Meet GQ staff for first time Lunch with newspaper mogul. That's it." The man's a poet.WEDNESDAY: Watch Kenny Everett documentary and wonder if the reason we and the rest of the media didn't champion him sooner after his death was because he died of Aids or because everyone had simply forgotten the impact he had had. What's going on? All I can do is throw whatever I've got at a couple of drunken slappers and hope for the best Thirty seconds and then splosh. Even Hodge has a great-looking bird now and he hasn't had a shag since the last Labour government And you're joining an old-man's magazine. Thursday, 1 May, sees the dawn of an optimistic era for Britain's air travellers.
Nothing to do with the election -Thursday just happens to be the day when the summer charter schedules start. There are some causes for hope that this summer will be better than last. Airtours International has a May Day plan to eliminate delays that some travellers suffered last year, such as the 52-hour wait my colleague Wendy Berliner experienced in Orlando. Airtours is keeping a plane on standby at Manchester airport from 1 May. The aircraft will be fully crewed, ready to take off if other planes "go technical". Its big rival, Britannia Airways, says it has operated a back-up plane for the past four years. Britannia has chosen International Workers' Day, 1 May, to ditch its long-established Royal Service in favour of a new, classless (if that is not a contradiction in terms) "360" class. Also on Thursday, AB Airlines opens a new route to Portugal: cheap flights from Gatwick to Lisbon.These are mere silver linings compared with the forbidding cloud on the horizon: the new airport tax being introduced in Spain.
Our most popular package holiday destination has imposed a tax of 150 pesetas on travellers. The amount itself - less than 70 pence - is trivial when compared with our Air Passenger Duty of pounds 5 or pounds 10. But Britain's departure tax is an example of how politicians see travel as an easy target: APD is set to double in November, whoever wins the election.The new tax is the thin end of a potentially expensive wedge: how long before the government in Madrid sees the opportunity for tapping the 10 million British visitors each year for a bit more cash? The levy is all the more galling because, as older readers will recall, Spain dispensed with its 50 peseta tourist tax soon after the mass market holiday industry began 30 years ago.According to one travel company, the true level of Spain's departure tax is not 70p, but pounds 5.The tour operator Unijet has announced it will henceforth quote prices for seats on its charter flights exclusive of tax. Nigel Jenkins of Unijet says the company has taken this step "in order to create a level playing field with scheduled airlines, who have refused to include taxes in their pricing. From a marketing point of view we've been at a disadvantage."Up to a point, this is fair enough: it is important for the traveller to compare like with like.