What I Love about Pubs: Emily Wright

Emily Wright, of Hampshire, on what she loves about pubs.A great village pub is one that people will keep coming back to - whether they still live in...

Emily Wright, of Hampshire, on what she loves about pubs.

A great village pub is one that people will keep coming back to - whether they still live in the village or not.

Take my local, the Plough in Longparish, Hampshire. Since my days of haring around the beer garden aged seven, only returning to the table for a five-minute chicken-nugget-and-chips-break, I have been away at school, spent three years at university and have now moved to London.

And although I have made the most of smoke-filled teenage haunts, grotty Bristol clubs and chic(ish) London wine bars, I always look forward to a pint back home at my local.

The best thing is that all my old village friends feel the same. When we come home to visit the parents for some TLC and a roast lunch we find ourselves naturally migrating to the Plough for a catch-up. And, every year without fail, we all pile in on Christmas Eve for pre-midnight mass drinks and then sway and slur our way through Once in Royal David's City.

I love this pub because it symbolises a timeline of my life - and the men in it. There was my first love, my actual first love, a number of teenage mistakes, the dreadlocked university boyfriend my parents disapproved of and the most recent gothic actor-type - who my parents really disapproved of.

Each and every one of these boys has been dragged along to the Plough at some point during our relationship to see "that pub" where I spent so much of my youth. Now that's customer loyalty.