In both Southwold and Walberswick, there is a jumble of architecture, houses of flint and brick, stone, colour wash and weatherboard; some Dutch influence, Elizabethan, Jacobean and Georgian - all at weird angles interspaced by stunning greens, firebreaks created after a devastating fire hit Southwold centuries ago. A town created by organic growth, with no particular design, the result a harmonious whole.

Southwold has largely won the battle to keep the modern world at bay and whilst the High Street now includes a smattering of upmarket clothing shops, you could be forgiven for imagining yourself in a film set depicting an upmarket 1930s seaside resort. Southwold boasts a boating lake with tea pavilion, the Sailors Reading Room (state-of –the-art 1864), a fascinating museum and its own Edwardian picture house.

That said, the media have labelled it ‘Hampstead on Sea’ and there is certainly no shortage of famous faces to be found browsing the artwork in the Buckenham Art Gallery, choosing their wines in Adnam’s Kitchen shop or dining in The Crown. To be fair they contribute to the ambiance of the town and the summer theatre, literary and poetry festivals are always a real treat.

Southwold is practically an island, bounded by creeks and marshes, the River Blyth and the North Sea. Its closest neighbour, Walberswick is just a mile or so away, reached by a foot-bridge or ferry rowboat or a 16 mile road trip!

Walberswick is a village of post-card pretty cottages and houses on stilts, and a magnet now and for the last two centuries for artists from around the world. There are a handful of sweet little shops, two excellent pubs and a wonderful, windswept sandy beach.