September

The consolation on returning to England is the food. As soon as I get back I have to have at least one grouse. Apart from the beginning of the game season – wild duck and partridge start on the 1 September – this is the time for native oysters, for the ripest, richest sort of vegetables – aubergines, peppers, squash – and for plums – English and French – and raspberries from Scotland. And, if we are lucky, there will be ceps.

If August is a lazy, almost torpid sort of gastronomy, the pulse quickens in September. It is no longer ‘too hot to eat’, although I admit that is a sentiment that is alien to me. The weather becomes more temperate and the appetite revives. The merest sniff of a cep or whiff of a native oyster are enough.