England, their England

Harry Mount

18 June 2011

/article_images/articledir_14055/7027768/1_listing.jpg

Foreign money now dominates at the most traditional of summer fixtures

Ian Fleming understood the attractions of an English summer. At the end of Dr No, James Bond is in Jamaica, his arch enemy dead, his knockout girlfriend, Honey Rider, about to leap into their double sleeping bag. And yet, despite being in paradise, Bond longs for ‘the douce weather of England — the soft airs, the “heat” waves, the cold spells — the only country where you can take a walk every day of the year.’

It used to be just eccentric Englishmen who acquired this peculiar taste for the changeable English summer. But no longer. Quietly, but decisively, the English summer and social calendar have been globalised and commercialised. The rackety, amateurish, faded charms of high English summer have been replaced by a professionalised, slick operation, supercharged by oceans of international cash. London is the new Rome of the globalised empire, and the English summer has fallen meekly into the imperial line.

Last week, the hedge-funder Arpad Busson, raised an admirable £17.2 million at a Kensington Palace gala auction for his children’s charity, ARK. The ARK dinner has become the most lavish and best-attended party in England — but this was an event not for the English, but for the hedge-funder master race. Yes, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were there, but the royal element was really just an adjunct to a new global hedge-fund monarchy. Most of the guests were from the international private jet set — by necessity. Who else could afford the £5,000 raffle tickets? Squillionaires bid a quarter of a million pounds for a weekend in Blenheim Palace, and £220,000 for a weekend’s hunting, shooting and fishing on the Hebridean island of Jura. Even James Bond might have found the weather on Jura a little grim; now the international elite are falling over themselves for a few days with the midges and the mizzle. Drinks were served by waitresses in white hotpants and pink gauntlets. Male models in skimpy trunks dived into a pop-up swimming pool. Prince William told guests he was worrying about ‘the conversation I’m going to have with my grandmother tomorrow when I try to describe this’.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Next page