Culture clash in Cornwall

For several years now, I’ve been going to Cornwall for a week during the Easter Holidays — usually to Bude in North Cornwall. Bude has the advantage of being working class and unpretentious, so you’re unlikely to bump into any Guardian readers. My children and I can sit on the beach, tucking into our McDonald’s Happy Meals, without attracting any disapproving glances.

But the house we usually rent wasn’t available this year, so Caroline suggested we go to St Ives instead. I agreed without giving the matter a second thought, unaware that St Ives is ground zero for trendy north London couples with young children. This is on account of its reputation as an ‘artists’ colony’. It was home to Bernard Leach and Barbara Hepworth and since 1993 it has boasted its very own Tate Gallery. The Guardian named it Britain’s best seaside town in 2007.

This was a major victory for Caroline in the culture war that’s been going on in our household since our first child was born.