Small world. The day after we returned from a four-day break, one of the weekend glossies produced a property supplement looking at the very same little patch of south Cornwall.

It dismissed the Talland Bay Hotel with faint praise as possessing “a reassuring whiff of 1970s stuffiness” which is not only mean-spirited but historical claptrap.

In an age when so many places are owned by the same chains with the same identikit rooms and the same predictable “continental cuisine”, Talland Bay Hotel is an independent hotel which epitomises the best of quiet, understated British hospitality.

This is not stuffiness. This is style.

If Talland Bay echoes to any decade it is not the rowdy 1970s but the charming, eternally fashionable 1930s of Agatha Christie and Daphne du Maurier.

It’s the sort of place where you might find Hercule Poirot looking for clues in the library, and where dressing for dinner is fun but certainly not obligatory.

Looking out over the croquet lawn and two acres of sub-tropical gardens and the glittering little bay beyond, you wonder how far back in history you’d have to go to grab a slice of real estate as perfect as this.

The answer is about 1,000 years.

There was a manor house in Talland Bay when the Normans arrived in 1066 and the view has been enjoyed by generations of visitors since then.

Looking south over the Channel, the busy town of Looe is about four miles away to your left on the coastal footpath while the pretty fishing village of Polperro is about a mile and a half to the right.

The hotel, an easy four-and-a-half hours from the Black Country, lies at the end of a long single-track road beyond Looe. But this is a place where you can leave the car in the hotel car park and not feel isolated.

Our most energetic day involved a walk into Looe where we caught the bus to Polperro and walked from Polperro back to the hotel.

On another day we drove seven miles to the little estuary port of Polruan, taking the foot-ferry across the river to Fowey.

The town was drenched in autumn sunshine and bustling with life in every tiny tea shop and pavement cafe.

There is a grave temptation in lazy, easygoing Fowey to settle down beneath a sunshade, behind a cool cider and watch the world go by.

Back at the hotel, service was perfect. We returned to our room at various times of day and never once found the room unmade. Tea, complementary, was served in the afternoon.

Talland Bay prides itself on its food and we were not disappointed. Dinner was immaculately presented, not in belly-busting portions but in neat, exquisite productions that demanded plenty of time to relish.

The pink roasted duck breasts and grilled sea bass were memorable, as was a very reasonable Lebanese red wine from a fascinatingly diverse and imaginative wine list.

This sort of style does not come cheaply. Rooms and suites at Talland Bay can cost up to £235 per night including breakfast.

But a seasonal offer of four nights for the price of three brought our total bill (including breakfast each day and dinner on two nights, with all drinks) down to just over £500. It was money well spent on a memorable holiday.

By Peter Rhodes