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The last time I went to Wales it was awful. Pitch-dark, muddy and dangerous underfoot. Believe me, if you think you’ve had a bad week at work, you’re lucky you weren’t working in the slate mines at Blaenau Ffestiniog in the old days. Six 14-hour days chiselling away underground and compulsory chapel on the seventh day left precious little time to enjoy the pleasures of, well, anything much.

Happily Wales is altogether more fun today. It still has mud – I can vouch for that – but in the same way that the horrid existence once endured by slate miners has since been turned into a fascinating trip for tourists, so the mud has been gloriously democratised in the Wales Tourist Board’s autumn campaign.

Mud becomes something to play with (pottery), soothed by (spa treatments), excited by (rallying) and enjoyed through the sheer, simple pleasure of getting down and dirty on a mountain bike.

There is a very charming and inspired piece of planning-creative lock-up at work in this insert. Only the truly adventurous go to Wales for the Weather and, to my way of thinking, persuading ordinarily clean-living people to get dirty in their holiday time is a big ask.

But it has been done with an understated confidence here. Plus, you can win a sporty Honda MPV just for letting the Wales Tourist Board know that you’re interested in getting muddy.

It certainly cheered my evening as I emerged, blinking into the light after a 14-hour day in a meeting room

Neil Francis, Creative Partner
Stephens Francis Whitson