He was extremely unkind to coastal Britain in "the Kingdom by the Sea" -A book which I love and I will re-read, and frankly a lot of what he says about the un-endurable "greyness" of british sea-side towns in the post-industrial depression era is true.

I think he was in a giant "grump" when he wrote it. No passing cloud gave him joy, no chipshop met his exacting standards. Everything was a bit less than he hoped for, crumbling concrete and wet jeans and all.