The Holiday

By Guy Bellamy

Some people are born to wealth and luxury. Others have it thrust upon them. The rest of us watch and wonder. But for a few glorious weeks in The Holiday, even the bankrupt can dream…

The classically ornate – and exceedingly expensive Carlton Hotel on the Croisette at Cannes is beyond the reach of most English visitors seeking the sun, food and solace of the South of France in August. For publishing tycoon Andrew Marner – comfortably installed in a rooftop suite with journalist Kimberley Neal – it is the only place to stay.

Yet others have arrived at the Carlton by more circuitous means; The newly redundant Bruce, desperate to recapture his sparkle after twenty years lost in a boring job; his long-suffering wife Frances, now the baffled nanny to her husband who is behaving like a 40-year-old boy; and rough-hewn Londoner Roger, celebrating a casino win with Esme, an artist by trade.

What peculiar circumstances lead to Bruce’s arrest, a middle-aged insurance manager who has always followed the straight and narrow? Can Kimberley Neal imagine life as a prostitute? How can Roger not remember the mother of his child? Will Andrew Marner get a knighthood? And, last but not least, just who was it who sang that irritatingly catchy pop song ‘Little Things Mean A Lot’?

Anything can happen to the English abroad and here most things do. Master satirist Guy Bellamy serves up a delicious cocktail of wit, humour and wry social commentary in The Holiday – his best and most memorable excursion ever…