Christopher Fitz-simon - writer and director
What’s your earliest holiday memory?
In 1940, my family took an extended holiday in Ballyconneely, Co Galway, with other families. They believed that Hitler was going to invade the east coast of Ireland, so if we were in the west we would be fine. The time we had there was just wonderful. I remember the bay and the colour and the coral beach where it never rained, or did it? Thirty years later, it was revealed that Hitler had plans to arrive at the beach where we stayed.
What was your worst holiday?
In the 1960s we went on a camping holiday with the children in Co Kerry. It lashed rain and I hate discomfort. We had a primer stove which wouldn’t light in the rain. We thought relatives in Derrynane would take us in, but they had a full house and only made us tea. So we stayed in the Great Southern Hotel, Killarney, for the rest of the holiday where management hung up our tent in the boiler room.
What was your best holiday?
We took a cruise from Amsterdam to the Black Sea a couple of years. While I expected each country to be “different”, what I hadn’t absorbed in advance was how very different they are within a few kilometres of one another – the flowery Lowlands of Holland, the hummocky Gothic landscape of southern Germany, the baroque excesses of Austria, the melange of east and west in Hungary, war-torn Serbia’s astonishing recovery, Bulgaria’s tangible memories of Byzantium, and the contrast of rude modernism and beautifully preserved classical remains in Romania. My favourite cities were Rothenberg, Pécs and Belgrade.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?
I’d love to go to southern India and see the temples. I spent time there as a child as my father was in the army and we stayed in Ootacamund, a British garrison.
I don’t remember it, but there is a photo of me with a cat beside our house and I believe I was very fond of my Indian nanny.
The hill town has been preserved as typical example of British colonial architecture. So I’d like to see if our bungalow still exists.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?
My wife always comes. If I’d pick someone else, it would be David Norris as he’s so knowledgeable, great company and so amusing.
What’s your favourite place in Ireland?
The small towns of west Cork have wonderful scenery, ancient monuments and great townscapes. I am a judge in the tidy towns and am always terribly pleased when I am assigned to west Cork.
Your recommended holiday reading?
I love reading travel guides and can pore over them and maps for hours. I particularly like the Dorling Kindersley guides.
Where will you go to next?
We were to visit Malta last year but it was cancelled because of the ash cloud. So we are going now because I want to see if they have implemented any of the recommendations I made in a report I wrote for Unesco.
- Writer and director Christopher Fitz-Simon's comedy drama series Ballylenonis on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesdays at 11.30am. His book, Buffoonery and Easy Sentiment, will be published soon by Carysfort Press, €20.
* In conversation with Genevieve Carbery