This was published 12 years ago
Dune House, Suffolk review: Books, beach, bliss
By design ... Dune House, a booklover's retreat at Thorpeness, Suffolk.
After a consultation with her bibliotherapist, Joanne O'Connor retreats to a seaside library.
Choosing the books to take on holiday is a serious business, one that gives me pleasure and angst in equal measure. I spend more time agonising over my reading material than on choosing the destination itself. Then, having crammed the entire Booker long-list into my luggage, I'll buy a gossip magazine at the airport and spend the holiday happily reading about Kate Middleton's latest hairstyle. Often the books return home unread.
Now the problem might have been solved for me. The Reading Retreat is the latest offering from the School of Life, a London-based enterprise that runs events and classes concerned with the art of living well.
It works like this: fill out a detailed questionnaire about your reading habits, likes and dislikes; following a telephone consultation with a "bibliotherapist", you'll be sent a reading "prescription" - a list of books carefully chosen to suit your interests and your destination; take your books and a couple of well-chosen friends off to a beautiful architect-designed house in a remote spot; spend the holiday reading and discussing books; return home, refreshed, inspired and well read.
The retreats are run in collaboration with Living Architecture, an organisation that aims to make modern architecture accessible to everyone by commissioning leading architects to design unusual holiday houses around Britain.
Three houses have been completed: two in Suffolk and one at Dungeness in Kent. Two more are under construction.
With books and family in tow, I head to the Dune House in Thorpeness, Suffolk. A quick peek at Living Architecture's online photo gallery reveals the house to be a slightly austere-looking creation - glass and polished concrete. But as we drive into the village of Thorpeness and spot the angular, steel-clad roof of the house seemingly floating above the dunes, it is hard not to let out a little gasp of admiration.
When I step into the house, any remaining misgivings disperse. Though concrete, aluminium and glass are the main elements of the open-plan ground floor, the effect is far from cold or industrial. Underfloor heating keeps things cosy and the house is suffused with light and the warm, resinous smell of wood.
The walls are made almost entirely of glass, with sliding panels giving access to the beach. The simplicity of the decor allows the panoramic sea view to take centre stage. Upstairs is more traditional, with timber-clad floors and walls, comfortable beds and free-standing baths. No surprise to discover that the architect is Norwegian - the feel here is unmistakably Scandinavian.
In the afternoon we walk along the pebble beach into Thorpeness, stepping over vivid orange starfish on the shore. As we enter the village, with its collection of timber-framed mock-Tudor houses arranged around a picture-postcard lake and village green, the audacity of the Dune House's modern design is all the more apparent.
Thorpeness was the vision of a Scottish barrister, Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie, who wanted to create the perfect retreat for the Edwardian middle classes. The social hub was the Kursaal (now the Country Club), which comprised tennis courts, a bowling green, croquet lawn and card rooms.
Thorpeness now has the feel of an elaborate stage set, with its ornamental clock tower, windmill, whimsical gabled houses and ducks waddling across the green. Follow the road out of the village and it's a shock to come across a modern housing estate and a convenience store.
The Edwardians were a fanciful bunch and nowhere is this more apparent than on the Meare, the huge man-made lake at the centre of the village. J.M. Barrie was a family friend of the Ogilvies and many of the islands and features of the lake take their names from Peter Pan. In summer you can hire a rowing boat, as generations before have done, and explore this watery adventure playground with its Pirates' Lair, Wendy's House, Dismal Swamps and desert islands.
It is too wet for boating when we visit, so we walk instead to the village's most eccentric landmark, the House in the Clouds, a five-storey former water tower with a little timber-clad house on top, now a holiday home. Perhaps our glass house in the dunes isn't so outlandish after all.
In the evening I retreat to the library area on the landing to examine my pile of prescribed books. It's an intriguing collection, ranging from a biography of intrepid travel writer Freya Stark to a poetic Japanese love story. Next morning I wake early to hear waves thundering onto the shingle and rain lashing the windows. I spend the morning in bed reading, something I haven't done since my daughter was born two years ago.
By lunchtime the rain has cleared. We walk two kilometres along the beach to Aldeburgh, passing Scallop, Maggi Hambling's controversial steel memorial to composer Benjamin Britten, who lived at Snape Maltings with his partner, Peter Pears. We're here for the fish and chips - Aldeburgh Fish and Chips and the Golden Galleon on the high street are regularly rated among the best in the country.
Three days isn't long enough to make much of a dent in my reading list but I fall in love with the Dune House, forced to reconsider my prejudices about modern architecture. Most exciting of all, I rediscover my love of reading.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
From London's Liverpool Street, there is a regular National Express East Anglia train service to Saxmundham, the closest station to Thorpeness. It takes two hours, 15 minutes and costs from £20 ($31) one way; then take a taxi. If driving from central London, allow three hours for the 200 kilometres, via the A12, then A1094.
Staying there
A 40-minute bibliotherapy phone consultation costs £40. Book with the School of Life (+44 (0)20 7833 1010; theschooloflife.com). The Dune House sleeps nine people. A four-night midweek break in September is £1664. See living-architecture.co.uk.
Other European breaks for book lovers
The School of Life arranges regular reading weekends at country-house hotels in Sussex and Scotland, with visits from guest writers. The next weekend is on October 7-9 at Turnberry Resort in Ayrshire and costs £400 a person. Longer holidays in Antigua are available. See readingweekend.co.uk.
Galeazza castle in north-east Italy hosts informal reading retreats. The guest rooms are furnished with antiques and visitors are expected to make themselves at home, helping out with meals, gardening and browsing in the library. You have to become a member to stay here. Annual membership costs €550 ($737) and entitles you to stay 14 nights a year; see galeazza.com.
The Sanctuary Bookshop in Lyme Regis, Dorset, has second-hand books on four floors, plus a reading room. The owner's B&B is above the shop. Two guest rooms are rented, from £26 a night; see www.lyme-regis.demon.co.uk.
- Telegraph, London
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