‘I think I’d like a week in Lyme Regis,’ My mum says.

We’re sitting in her kitchen, in August, playing our favourite game – Post Pandemic Fantasy Holidays. Dad has opted for a return to Vienna and I quite fancy Stockholm, but Mum, who has just finished re-reading Persuasion for the third time, decides on Dorset. Having just finished reading Penelope Lively’s A Stitch in Time, which is also set in Lyme Regis, I can see where she’s coming from. Both of us are dreaming of the classic British seaside holiday – a week of days on the beach, hours spent paddling in freezing, grey-green water, sandwiches with extra sand, shell-collecting and sunburned noses. Since a week in Dorset is off the cards due to Covid, we decide on the next best thing and head to Hayling Island for the afternoon.