out to the saver on the day of the trip as spending money on the day. This day out would often be the highlight of the year for some workers and the only chance to get away from the smog and grime of the busy mill towns. Later, in the late 1960s and 1970s, as the mills prospered and things improved financially, the annual "wakes week" took over and a one-week mass exodus from northern mill towns during the summer months took precedence over the charabanc trips, and a full week's holiday at a holiday camp or in a seaside boarding house for the full family became the norm, instead of a single day out. Cultural references The French appears in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (1877) in part 6, chapter 17 in the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation (2000). The charabanc is notably mentioned in Dylan Thomas's short story "A Story", also known as "The Outing". In this piece the young Thomas unintentionally finds himself on the annual men's charabanc outing to Porthcawl. Within the story the charabanc is referred to as a "chara" in colloquial Welsh English. Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee features a 1917 charabanc outing from rural Gloucestershire to Weston-super-Mare. The first verse of “Maginot Waltz” by Ralph McTell starts: “All off to Brighton in a char-a-banc”. Vince Hill's A Day at the Seaside begins with the line "Climb up little darling, into the charabanc". The song, written by Les Vandyke, came fifth in the 1963 Song for Europe competition. A char-a-banc also figures prominently in Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Village that Voted the Earth Was Flat" (1913). Char-a-bancs are mentioned in Dorothy Edwards' book The Witches and the Grinnygog in the chapter entitled "Mrs. Umphrey's Ghost Story". In it, Mrs. Umphrey tries to reassure the ghost of Margaret that the char-a-bancs are not the chariots of devils. "Peaches", a single by the Stranglers makes reference to a charabanc, with vocalist Hugh Cornwell explaining to the listener how he will be stuck on a beach "the whole summer" after missing a charabanc. In Agatha Christie's "The Dead Harlequin", from The Mysterious Mr Quin series, the young artist Frank Bristow reacts angrily to the older Colonel Monkton's dismissive (and presumably snobbish) attitude towards charabancs and their use in tourism. They are also mentioned in the story "Double Sin" when the motor coach Poirot and Hastings are traveling on stops