Lord Young of Acton - also known as the journalist and commentator Toby Young - has been extolling the virtues of Hunstanton Tennis Tournament, which is held annually in the Victorian resort.

Writing in the Spectator magazine, he described the week-long event, known as Wimbledon-on-Sea, as a gathering of the like-minded that embodies values of public service, quiet patriotism and social cohesion that are now being knocked clean out of court in an era of rapid change.

"It’s easy to sneer at Hunstanton - the tournament, not the town - and I’ve been guilty of that myself," admits Mr Young, whose 2001 memoir How To Lose Friends & Alienate People became a successful film of the same name, starring Simon Pegg.

"Most of the older attendees, with their Land Rover Defenders and burgundy gilets, could have walked straight out of the Sloane Ranger Handbook, while their teenage children drink too much and terrorise the town at night, only to show up on court first thing in the morning and play beautiful tennis.

Toby Young pictured with his wife Caroline at the 2008 premier of How To Lose Friends & Alienate People (Image: PA Archive/Press Association Images)

"There’s a sense that everyone belongs to the same social........

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