From The Sunday Times
August 24, 2008
Hell on earth – the typical holiday
Trudging about in pursuit of culture or pigging out in the name of fun – yuk

Lionel Shriver writing in The Sunday Times:

I don’t go on holiday. Ever. Offer me two free tickets to Florence and a hotel overlooking Piazza San Lorenzo, and I will politely insist that you give them to a couple with a masochistic streak. Since I was freed from my parents’ clutches, I have never voluntarily taken a traditional holiday in my life and can think of no inducement that would persuade me to join the hordes who spend a fortnight “doing” culture or lying on a beach or eating five-star meals in the lap of luxury.
But I work pretty hard and surely deserve a break. Wouldn’t a holiday be fun?

Like happiness and love, fun is one of those peculiar quantities that can rarely be obtained by seeking it directly. You have a higher chance of having “fun” helping cyclone victims in Burma than taking a flight to Barcelona with the specific aim of living it up. Fun is a byproduct, like yeast extract. Trying to have fun is as doomed as trying to make Marmite without a brewery.

For Lionel Shriver's full story go to the Sunday Times online.