The Lady Magazine

6 May 2016

Dear Readers, In this season of ‘big birthdays’ – the Queen and David Attenborough to name but two – we look at another national treasure celebrating a significant anniversary: Butlin’s, whose first holiday camp opened 80 years ago last month. Paul Barnes’s tale of life in the Skegness camp in the late 1950s, with its Redcoats, sing-songs and knobbly-knees competitions, is one of round-the-clock cheerfulness and jollity. Even if review websites like TripAdvisor had been around then, we doubt there’d have been many complaints. These days, though, things are very different. We inhabit a culture of criticism, brilliantly dissected in Liz Hodgkinson’s ‘Moaning Minnies’ feature, which seems to positively encourage negative, even downright nasty, feedback. Unpleasant behaviour can, of course, make for entertaining fiction, and Miranda Priestly, the magazine editor portrayed by our cover star Meryl Streep in comedy drama The Devil Wears Prada, is a delicious example of a bullying and mercilessly critical boss. Priestly may be a devil, but she does, however, wear fabulous clothes, and if you yearn to cut a similarly elegant figure, don’t miss this week’s fashion pages, featuring monochrome outfits and accessories. In a nod to Cecil Beaton’s famous black-and-white designs for the Ascot scene in My Fair Lady, we bring you a stylish and flattering selection, fit for any occasion that calls for striking yet understated chic. Until next week, best wishes, Sam Taylor, Editor