At last month’s Chalke Valley History Festival, you could get your military training from men dressed as second-world-war Tommies, and then defend a pretend hill in Flanders. I met a chap who had driven up in a vintage Citroën van, though admittedly it had broken down en route. All this took place in a sun-dappled English meadow straight out of a Merchant Ivory film, with local ladies serving home-baked sponge cake.
在上個月舉辦的查爾克谷歷史節(Chalke Valley History Festival)上,你可以到裝扮成二戰時英國陸軍士兵(Tommies)的人那裏進行軍事訓練,然後去保衛一座模擬的法蘭德斯(Flanders)山丘。我還碰見了個小夥子,他開著一輛老式雪鐵龍(Citroën)麪包車,不過,誠然,它在途中拋錨了。這一切都發生在英國一片陽光斑駁的草坪上,就好像Merchant Ivory電影公司所製作的電影場景照進了現實,當地的女士們還在分發自制的海綿蛋糕。