When I came last to Ludlow

I once had a conversation with the Canon Jeremy Saville - the younger son of Malcolm Saville - who sadly died in 2009.

We were discussing the places in which his father had set his children's books. I said that while I liked the perfect towns like Ludlow and Rye which he had written about, I could find them a little too pleased with themselves - I once was once told off at the information centre in Ludlow for not booking accommodation in advance.

I said that in some ways - or in some moods -  I preferred the scruffier, even desolate settings of Snailbeach and Dungeness. Jeremy agreed with me.

I tried Ludlow again this summer and again did not quite get on with it. The answer, I suspect, is to visit such places out of season. Certainly, Ludlow is at its best in the autumn when the crowds have gone and the woods on the other side of the Teme are turning.