Phase Eight announces her wares in beribboned pink. Tasteful, elegant pink. White Garden, next door; expensive pink, flowers of rare and unusual beauty. The White Stuff: pink dresses, pink cardigans, spotted and striped.Buy me they shout. No buy me they cried. Gold Smith: pink birds, pink feathers, pink baubles in cones, pink decorations and pink paper but what? No pink jewels?

Pink shoes, pink hats, pink scarves, pink gloves, pink boots, pink Wellingtons even. Garish pink posters where there is no pink.

Pink faces in the cold wind, but it is not the wind of change. Smart people, purposeful people, a sense of movement and life, Flags flutter, balloons bluster leaves are the only litter dancing across the road. For this is Henley.

But what is this? A ragged hanging basket; the remnants of summer wafting in the wind. Surely not, this is Henley, They should do something about this.

Silver? A man’s shop, elegant, sophisticated but what no pink? And there it is, low down at the back, a deep pink hat, The finest quality hat, a hat with attitude. Beat the cold, weather the recession, Henley is in the Pink.

Elizabeth Raikes wrote this whilst on our ILM Executive Coaching course in Henley. Elizabeth is used to observing towns in her role as CEO of Torbay.