We were really looking forward to our summer holiday on an island in the Med. For the more mature, middle-class market, sun, sea and sex have been replaced by rest, ravioli and reading, and the resort we chose offered something for everyone, from a kids’ club to yoga classes.
There was one problem, however. Three weeks before we were due to go, we rang up the hotel to enquire about the weather. Not about if it was sunny or rainy, but, specifically, what was the temperature, and what the outlook was. It was 38°C, they said, “but we are expecting a heatwave”.
On further investigation, we discovered that the previous year, in the same week in August that we were due to go, the temperature had reached 48°C. Guests were advised to stay in their air-conditioned rooms and cautioned not to go to the........