Helga's Folly travel guide

Helga's Playground From the moment I arrived and was invited to pick my bedroom , staying at the Folly was like having all the excitement of being a seven year old diva again. After being shown five or six rooms, all harlequin-coloured but quite different in feel, I chose an elegant room with a garden terrace and with yellow walls covered in jungle stripes, mirrory mosaic and drawings that reminded me of early Picasso. Mahatma Gandhi and Vivien Leigh stayed there in the past and it proved a wonderfully inspiring place in which to write. The private cinema was directly opposite my room and raiding Helga's cabinet of DVDs for Hollywood classics to watch with a nightcap before bed felt like an illicit treat! The swimming pool is also a delightful spot, with its mythological statue and its imposing backdrop of jungle vines and trees that must be over a hundred feet high. Leopards come to drink at night I'm told, but I didn't hang around to find out. The genius of the place is the lady who inspired the Stereophonics to write their hit 'Madam Helga' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH2SBbJezIY) . Although her bohemian but impeccable chic and her deep English voice seemed a little formidable at first, I've never met a warmer or a more generous hostess. Listening to her stories of her childhood in the jungle and of high jinks in the English countryside over cocktails in the sultry drawing room was a heady experience.

2009-09-30 / follow PosieRider45 / report abuse