An Interview with Lee Pennington of 7daywonder booklovers holidays
In anticipation of my visit to the 7daywonder holiday in Spain in September I asked Lee Pennington, who runs the course, if he would be kind enough to answer a few questions and he said yes!
Biography.
I came to live permanently in Catalunya in 2005; my partner and I are expecting our first child this month. Since my time in France in my twenties I really wanted to live in a place of magic or creativity or like Derbyshire with olives and a clear blue sea. My passion and 'default setting' is to cook. My longest stint in someone else's kitchen was 7 months. I spent nearly 15 years working as a builder and gardener. Latterly, school was a drag and I was surprised to find myself at Uni doing English in the mid nineties after a spell farming. I grew up in the hills near Macclesfield and have a sister who is 9 years older.
Interview.
CD: Why did you start 7daywonder holidays? What made you think of a reading holiday in particular?
LP: It´s really hard to be brief about this. It goes back to 1990 when I went to stay with friends in SW France (near Gaillac). They had a large farm with vineyards and a lake. They were trying hard to make ends meet and started doing some B & B. This was the first time I cooked for a group of people. I did this for several long summers. Big house, green space, swimming, good food, lots of people. Eventually someone there was teaching me how to paint and I thought that being able to go on a holiday where you could do 'something else' would be great. Those summers in my early twenties set the scene. After that it was just a matter of time until I made the opportunity to 'run' my own different holiday week - which at first was an experiment.
Ultimately I started this because I like to enjoy the good things in life around others doing the same ! Books. I love reading. And I think talking/sharing books is fantastic. The Booklovers week is really just an excuse to talk/listen. It´s also quite creative. We don´t just sit around saying why we did or didn´t like a book - often we really try and work a book... if you know what I mean... the way good conversation goes.
CD: What other sorts of holidays do you do?
LP: Stand-up comedy (4 nights), novel writing, singing & song writing, Dali tours (4 nights). Mostly a week and normally from June until late September. I´ll try any kind of holiday but essentially it has to have a creative heart.
CD: The settings of 7daywonder holidays are idyllic. How do you choose the locations?
LP: France is important because of my personal relationship with it... but Catalunya is the clear winner for me. It has everything for me and I think for the type of holidays I run: beauty, culture, history, Michelin starred food, olives, wines and fabulous people. I chose these places because this is where I choose to live and I want an idyllic life.
CD: The meals at 7daywonder are a particular feature (and delicious!) - how do you go about choosing the menu?
LP: The structure of the menu has been put together over several years. It´s partly about availability of foods etc and dietry req.s but it´s also about finding dishes that work for groups - I love cooking and I want the food to be really good. I work hard to try and surprise people with the quality, and often I´m cooking fairly classic dishes. I think the food has improved every year. But living in the proximity of world class restaurants and having a market of fresh food 3 times a week is a superb influence on my cooking.
CD: It struck me as a lot of hard work - please would you outline your typical day.
LP: 7.30am Drive to bread shop-buy bread. 8am Breakfast. 10am Sit with the reading group. 1pm Help (Debbie) with the lunch, tidy. I might get an hour lie down (here called a Migdiada) - then back to the kitchen to start cooking supper. Oh, and maybe I´ve zipped down town to buy some foods I forgot and then midway through supper it might be a quick pick-up (of a novelist) at the airport and then back to a glass of wine and make sure the guests are happy.
It is hard work. It´s the toughest stuff I´ve done, and I´ve been around. I´ve done a lot of physical work like on building sites etc but this is very demanding. However, if I didn´t like it I wouldn´t do it.
CD: What aspects do you enjoy the most?
LP: The whole thing. It´s just me in my element. Cooking is probably the heart of it. Sitting with the group getting our teeth into a novel or sharing a glass by the wood-fire at night. I really enjoy every hour of the day.
CD: What sort of people tend to come to 7daywonder holiday?
LP: It´s hard to say - but in general the people that come (and really do come back) are looking for something different. It´s people (initially) brave enough to move away from the big brands and the well tramped places. They´re looking for a real holiday. There´s usually quite a few singles.
CD: Have there been any amusing or interesting incidents?
LP: Running comedy holidays means there´s lots of amusement, and over the years there´s been a few missed flights, lost bags, burning trains, etc. I think the less said the better about inebriated guests but last September I hired a classical guitarist to do a little concert - he was absolutely great, it was an incredible musical evening - however afterwards he proceeded to drink the place dry and tell stories until 4am... way past my bed time!
General Questions.
CD: Do you have any connection with snails?
LP: Not really other than when I worked as a gardener I encountered a lot of them. And gruesomely when the eclipse occurred in 99 me and my pal were at my sisters in Devon - that same night we were stargazing (after a few ciders) looking for the perseids on a dark garden terrace, I just recall my pal Rob groaning with horror as yet another one cracked under his shoes.
CD: What is your proudest moment?
LP: I was very proud of the success of the first few 7daywonder holidays. I´m now very proud to have met and settled down with a Catalan (Carolina); I´m also proud that I still run 7daywonder after 7 not entirely always financially lucrative years.*
CD: Have you ever had a life-changing event - if so what was it?
LP: I think that things happen all the time that are life changing. But here, I´ll say it was reading "Catcher in the Rye" when I was about 21 - that is ultimately why this September I´ll be sat talking books with a dozen or so people in a Catalan mansion.
CD: What is the saddest thing you’ve ever heard of or seen?
LP: One only has to turn the news on to hear of really sad things. There´s a lot of things that conjure sadness in the world and I don´t think I can name one over another. It saddens me that some people really don´t care.
CD: If there was one thing you’d change about yourself what would it be?
LP: Oooooooff! My credit rating!
CD: What is happiness?
LP: When you´re not thinking about "what´s next?"; laughing with someone you love; the almost soundless track down a snowy mountainside on a snowboard.
CD: What is the first thing you do when you get up?
LP: Monday-Friday, read the FT; then coffee !
*Just over a week after this question I must add that now the proudest moment of my life is being a father - I can't tell you how proud (and the rest) I feel about this.
Mar was born on my 39th birthday at 4.30 am.
Biography.
I came to live permanently in Catalunya in 2005; my partner and I are expecting our first child this month. Since my time in France in my twenties I really wanted to live in a place of magic or creativity or like Derbyshire with olives and a clear blue sea. My passion and 'default setting' is to cook. My longest stint in someone else's kitchen was 7 months. I spent nearly 15 years working as a builder and gardener. Latterly, school was a drag and I was surprised to find myself at Uni doing English in the mid nineties after a spell farming. I grew up in the hills near Macclesfield and have a sister who is 9 years older.
Interview.
CD: Why did you start 7daywonder holidays? What made you think of a reading holiday in particular?
LP: It´s really hard to be brief about this. It goes back to 1990 when I went to stay with friends in SW France (near Gaillac). They had a large farm with vineyards and a lake. They were trying hard to make ends meet and started doing some B & B. This was the first time I cooked for a group of people. I did this for several long summers. Big house, green space, swimming, good food, lots of people. Eventually someone there was teaching me how to paint and I thought that being able to go on a holiday where you could do 'something else' would be great. Those summers in my early twenties set the scene. After that it was just a matter of time until I made the opportunity to 'run' my own different holiday week - which at first was an experiment.
Ultimately I started this because I like to enjoy the good things in life around others doing the same ! Books. I love reading. And I think talking/sharing books is fantastic. The Booklovers week is really just an excuse to talk/listen. It´s also quite creative. We don´t just sit around saying why we did or didn´t like a book - often we really try and work a book... if you know what I mean... the way good conversation goes.
CD: What other sorts of holidays do you do?
LP: Stand-up comedy (4 nights), novel writing, singing & song writing, Dali tours (4 nights). Mostly a week and normally from June until late September. I´ll try any kind of holiday but essentially it has to have a creative heart.
CD: The settings of 7daywonder holidays are idyllic. How do you choose the locations?
LP: France is important because of my personal relationship with it... but Catalunya is the clear winner for me. It has everything for me and I think for the type of holidays I run: beauty, culture, history, Michelin starred food, olives, wines and fabulous people. I chose these places because this is where I choose to live and I want an idyllic life.
CD: The meals at 7daywonder are a particular feature (and delicious!) - how do you go about choosing the menu?
LP: The structure of the menu has been put together over several years. It´s partly about availability of foods etc and dietry req.s but it´s also about finding dishes that work for groups - I love cooking and I want the food to be really good. I work hard to try and surprise people with the quality, and often I´m cooking fairly classic dishes. I think the food has improved every year. But living in the proximity of world class restaurants and having a market of fresh food 3 times a week is a superb influence on my cooking.
CD: It struck me as a lot of hard work - please would you outline your typical day.
LP: 7.30am Drive to bread shop-buy bread. 8am Breakfast. 10am Sit with the reading group. 1pm Help (Debbie) with the lunch, tidy. I might get an hour lie down (here called a Migdiada) - then back to the kitchen to start cooking supper. Oh, and maybe I´ve zipped down town to buy some foods I forgot and then midway through supper it might be a quick pick-up (of a novelist) at the airport and then back to a glass of wine and make sure the guests are happy.
It is hard work. It´s the toughest stuff I´ve done, and I´ve been around. I´ve done a lot of physical work like on building sites etc but this is very demanding. However, if I didn´t like it I wouldn´t do it.
CD: What aspects do you enjoy the most?
LP: The whole thing. It´s just me in my element. Cooking is probably the heart of it. Sitting with the group getting our teeth into a novel or sharing a glass by the wood-fire at night. I really enjoy every hour of the day.
CD: What sort of people tend to come to 7daywonder holiday?
LP: It´s hard to say - but in general the people that come (and really do come back) are looking for something different. It´s people (initially) brave enough to move away from the big brands and the well tramped places. They´re looking for a real holiday. There´s usually quite a few singles.
CD: Have there been any amusing or interesting incidents?
LP: Running comedy holidays means there´s lots of amusement, and over the years there´s been a few missed flights, lost bags, burning trains, etc. I think the less said the better about inebriated guests but last September I hired a classical guitarist to do a little concert - he was absolutely great, it was an incredible musical evening - however afterwards he proceeded to drink the place dry and tell stories until 4am... way past my bed time!
General Questions.
CD: Do you have any connection with snails?
LP: Not really other than when I worked as a gardener I encountered a lot of them. And gruesomely when the eclipse occurred in 99 me and my pal were at my sisters in Devon - that same night we were stargazing (after a few ciders) looking for the perseids on a dark garden terrace, I just recall my pal Rob groaning with horror as yet another one cracked under his shoes.
CD: What is your proudest moment?
LP: I was very proud of the success of the first few 7daywonder holidays. I´m now very proud to have met and settled down with a Catalan (Carolina); I´m also proud that I still run 7daywonder after 7 not entirely always financially lucrative years.*
CD: Have you ever had a life-changing event - if so what was it?
LP: I think that things happen all the time that are life changing. But here, I´ll say it was reading "Catcher in the Rye" when I was about 21 - that is ultimately why this September I´ll be sat talking books with a dozen or so people in a Catalan mansion.
CD: What is the saddest thing you’ve ever heard of or seen?
LP: One only has to turn the news on to hear of really sad things. There´s a lot of things that conjure sadness in the world and I don´t think I can name one over another. It saddens me that some people really don´t care.
CD: If there was one thing you’d change about yourself what would it be?
LP: Oooooooff! My credit rating!
CD: What is happiness?
LP: When you´re not thinking about "what´s next?"; laughing with someone you love; the almost soundless track down a snowy mountainside on a snowboard.
CD: What is the first thing you do when you get up?
LP: Monday-Friday, read the FT; then coffee !
*Just over a week after this question I must add that now the proudest moment of my life is being a father - I can't tell you how proud (and the rest) I feel about this.
Mar was born on my 39th birthday at 4.30 am.
posted by Clare Dudman at 6:42 pm
4 Comments:
Sounds great! Such a pity that the week coincides exactly with the start of the school year....
Maybe next year, Maxine...
So you're doing this, Clare? It sounds wonderful, and the projector of all this alternative holidaying sounds interesting...
Yes, it is Marly and he is too...:-)
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