Not content with slagging off Stow a couple of years back, Sunday Times critic AA Gill slaughters the Cotswolds again while on his way to review the Kingham Plough. Well at least it was a good review...
Writing in today's Sunday Times Style magazine, restaurant critic AA Gill indulges in his favourite pastime (when not shooting baboons) of putting the boot into our "honey-coloured hell on earth". Here's a sample.
"So it was with a leaden expectation and a puckering stomach that the Blonde and I loaded up the twins and hove up the M40, the road of tears, to the land that humility and the Luftwaffe forgot. The Cotswolds. Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire — honey-coloured hell on earth. Darfur with thatch. Stow-on-the-Wold is kitsch Mordor. But this isn’t really the country, is it? It’s a suburban adventure playground for media folk. A sort of chilly safari park, a 4WD turbo pedigree dogging lay-by. I must admit that on a cold and bright winter Sunday, when you could see as far as civilisation, it did have a sparkling varnish of Vaughan Williams lyrical prettiness. Just as long as you kept moving."
You can read the full article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/eating_out/a_a_gill/article6970422.ece
... but at least Emily Watkins' splendid pub emerged with four stars!
