The perils of HOLIDAYING WITH FRIENDS

Many years ago, a group of friends and I went on a winter holiday to France. While this might throw up glamorous images of us swooshing down the slopes at Val-d’Isère, we were actually staying in a rickety farmhouse deep in the Burgundy countryside. With its rattling shutters and leaking roof, it was charming in a condemned French cottage kind of way – and bitterly cold. But we’d get through it, right? We’d light the fire, drink wine and have a wonderful time.

That’s what we did, cheerfully making the best of things, apart from Jo, who was a good friend back home but seemed