Blakeney Hotel by Mark McCrum

Set right above Blakeney Quay, on the edge of a narrow channel that winds picturesquely through the flat coastal North Norfolk marshes, the Blakeney Hotel has a superb position. From the panoramic windows of the first floor lounge you can gaze idly out as the tide ebbs and flows beneath. There’s always some kind of entertaining activity to watch, whether it’s dinghies heading out to sea on the gleaming meniscus of high tide or young families catching crabs from the quayside at low. Beyond, against the backdrop of the huge and often dramatic Norfolk sky, the birds arc and wheel magnificently.

This peacefully changing spectacle has clearly had excellent word of mouth among the Saga-reading SKI (Spend the Kids' Inheritance) crowd. In every blue armchair sits a neatly-coiffured grey head, and stagey whispers straight from an Alan Bennett play break the rustling silence, as the news is discussed, crossword clues solved, gossip exchanged, the activity below analysed in depth.

The staff, also, seem to have held firmly to the standards of a vanishing world. The green-waistcoated porters are helpful to the point of long-suffering, and reception is manned by a team of young women who leap up from an inner room to answer the call of a large brass bell on the counter. In the dining room, meanwhile, it's good to see familiar faces among the elegantly black-tied waiting staff, while a younger supporting cast of Eastern Europeans and others changes with the seasons. In an earlier review of this hotel, I moaned about inconsistent food quality, but on a recent trip was delighted to see that the a la carte has gone, to be replaced by an altogether more reliable table d'hote. This is cuisine of London standards with a Norfolk twist: generally tasty, fresh and unpretentious, tradition-lovers like me will be thrilled to see the splendid sweet trolley still firmly in residence, with a fine array of puddings to upset even the healthiest chloresterol count.

The rooms have undergone a revamp too and those with new balconies on the second floor must command some of the finest open-air views of the North Norfolk coast. A trip to the swimming pool also revealed a change for the better: the jacuzzi was working.