When I was a child, we spent a lot of time in the south of France, around St Tropez, and I still have this terribly romantic image of it. Everybody there seemed young and glamorous, topless and very tanned.
In the winters, though, we were up in Scotland — in Tomintoul, between Inverness and Aberdeen. We used to catch the sleeper train from London, which was such fun, and something I want to do with my kids. It was so exciting, going to sleep in one town and waking up to find you’re there, at your destination. I remember the motion of the train — like being rocked to sleep in someone’s arms.
My dad, a businessman, had a fishing and hunting lodge on the side of a mountain. It was a home from home for us. We stayed all through our school holidays, and we were snowed in every time. I was a privileged kid, and I think we had people in to help with the cooking. In my memory, we only ever ate haggis. When you’re seven, that’s a tough call.
I have a strange setup of stepbrothers and half-stepsisters, and we took our friends up with us, too, so there was always a gang of us in our big Scottish pile. It had many scary-looking attic rooms that we would go into, then run straight out of again. It was always freezing cold in the bedrooms, with creaky old beds and floorboards. I remember lots of ghost stories at night around open fires.
The views were incredible. You’d look outside and see a deer scoot past, and I remember hearing the River Avon rushing and raging below the house. We would run around for miles. It’s where my dad tried to teach me, unsuccessfully, to shoot. I didn’t become quite the shooting, gun-wielding daughter he was expecting.
Advertisement
I can’t do tents — not even caravans. It’s just not in me. I feel like I’m missing a gene and I need to have some kind of transplant to make me a bit more adventurous. Since having children, I’ve become quite a stressed-out traveller, whereas I used to be a bit more laissez faire about it. I’m a sort of nesting, domestic obsessive, and so my first instinct when we go away is to tidy the hotel room. I have a fear of being uncomfortable and I worry that I’m probably passing that down to my children. I’d like them to be more intrepid than I am. I hope they’ll rebel, put on a backpack and walk across the Himalayas.
I did get slightly intrepid once, three years ago, when I went to Tanzania for a week with ActionAid. First thing every morning, we’d drive for two or three hours in a 4WD into the rural outskirts of Dar es Salaam and go off road to meet people in the villages. I know this is a cliché, but it’s based in truth: people who had virtually nothing gave me the only thing they had, which in one case was the most beautiful handmade palm-leaf rug. I still have it in my house. It’s a big deal for them, because it’s the focal point of their home: they eat, sleep and give birth on it. Others would give me a watermelon or get a coconut down from the tree and split it open for me to drink. They treated me like a member of the royal family.
Sydney is one of my favourite cities. If I left London, it would be for Sydney. Life there is so focused on the beaches and the water, yet you are in this sophisticated urban environment. It’s the best of both worlds. The Opera House is fantastic. When Dan directed a Janacek opera there, I felt so proud. We lived in a flat in Bondi Beach, which was amazing — apart from the huge cockroaches.
We spent three months in Brisbane when my daughter was two. While Dan was directing a film he’d written, I sort of play-acted being an Aussie mum. It was their winter, which is hotter than our summer, and they were all in coats, while I was walking around in flip-flops and a little vest.
My favourite new discovery is Whitstable, in Kent. It’s so close to London and relatively undiscovered. We’ve got a house down there and we go whenever we can. That’s where our escape is. I’m not mad on the British seaside, but for some reason I’m in love with Whitstable.
Advertisement
The actress Fay Ripley, 45, had her big break in 1996, when she was cast in the ITV series Cold Feet. Her most recent role was in BBC1’s Reggie Perrin, and she appears in Jimmy McGovern’s Moving On, also on BBC1, later this year. She has also written a recipe book, Fay’s Family Food (Michael Joseph £20). She lives in north London with her husband, the Australian actor and director Daniel Lapaine, and their children, Parker, 8, and Sonny, 4.