There are few places more enchanting than England’s Peak District in summer, and among the Derbyshire national park’s many treasures, Dovedale has long held a special place. The limestone gorge, with sheep scattered across its rugged slopes and a river slipping gently through lush green banks, has for generations embodied the quiet beauty of the countryside.

Arrive at first light and the valley can still seem almost untouched by time, a haven for tired walkers and seekers of calm. Its appeal has inspired writers, poets and artists for centuries. Victorian essayist John Ruskin described Dovedale as “an alluring first lesson in all that is beautiful”, while in Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet tells Mr Darcy of her own restorative trip there.

Yet Elizabeth might hesitate before making the journey today — particularly if she glanced at the recent Tripadvisor reviews.

Those complaints paint a bleak picture of how what one visitor called “one of England’s most spectacular stretches of countryside” became, over the summer, a disorderly “no-go zone”. Reviewers describe overcrowding, rubbish, barbecues, “Third World toilets”, people washing pots and pans — and at times themselves — in the river, along with the occasional smell of marijuana.

“It has become an overcrowded, dirty place,” wrote James, from Sheffield, after visiting last month and leaving his verdict online.

‘Used to be a tranquil spot… unfortunately it’s now a hotspot for a new type of crowd who ignore a lot of the signs there (saw multiple BBQs, toilets absolutely rancid, a complete lack of space… and not much consideration for other people who use the site).’

His sentiments are echoed by dozens of others. One woman said: ‘Did not feel safe as a solo female hiker… I was very intimidated and overwhelmed by the people that were dominating the place.’

Another review said: ‘It has been destroyed like so many places in the UK. If you haven’t been for 20 years you will think it’s a different place.’

And a tourist from Southampton said that having last visited several years ago ‘our good memories soon faded and I’m sitting here writing my review with tears in my eyes… we are truly disgusted.

‘Absolute chaos in the car parks, roads impassable, toilets disgusting, hundreds of people with food, tents, rugs… This experience will stay with me for a long, long time. Hopefully, my childhood memories will suffice to remind me what Dovedale used to be like. A beautiful place ruined.’

Certainly anyone perusing social media videos of Dovedale during the heatwaves would have noted its resemblance at times to a festival. On a Saturday afternoon not so long ago a huge fight broke out at its celebrated stepping stones over the River Dove, which marks the boundary between Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

Had the evidence not been posted online, it would scarcely seem conceivable. Yet it is there for the world to see, a brawl featuring men clobbering each other with sticks in a valley described by Lord Byron as ‘Little Switzerland’ and used by generations of artists to illustrate the power of nature over mankind. 

As a retired solicitor who lives in a nearby village told me despairingly last week: ‘What have we become? We used to treat our national treasures with respect. It sometimes strikes me that we don’t deserve them.’

Police said of the incident that a caller reported an ‘altercation between two groups’ and that ‘a child in his party was hit during the disturbance and that an attempt was made to steal his wife’s purse’.

Suffice to say, it wasn’t what our Victorian forebears had in mind when they laid the stepping stones in the late 19th century to stimulate tourism.

Violence and anti-social behaviour are not all. As The Mail on Sunday has discovered, there is something else disturbing about Dovedale – as it has become an unlikely racial battleground.

Earlier this year, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs outlined diversity plans to make the British countryside less of a ‘white environment’. It said in a report: ‘We are all paying for national landscapes through our taxes, and yet sometimes on our visits it has felt as if national parks are an exclusive, mainly white, mainly middle-class club.

‘Many communities in modern Britain feel that these landscapes hold no relevance for them. The countryside is seen by both black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and white people as very much a “white” environment. If that is true today, then the divide is only going to widen as society changes.’

Dovedale, owned and managed by the National Trust, has no trouble attracting minority groups, however, and has been popular with Muslims in particular for some years.

If only it could be celebrated as a model of harmony. For Dovedale now seems to be attracting the attention of far-Right groups, apparently unhappy with online videos of families enjoying the scenery and picnicking by the river.

Only last month a group of activists, draped in England flags, held up a banner in front of the stepping stones bearing the words: ‘Mass deportations are necessary.’ On a video, one of the men is heard saying as he films an Asian family in the background: ‘They say it isn’t a takeover… We’re literally the only white people this side of the river.’

On another day a man turned up and recorded a video of himself spouting white supremacist tropes, which he later posted online.

Thankfully, their distasteful views aren’t widely shared. But locals and other visitors are not without concerns. In 2021, Shaykh Mohammed Aslam, a Muslim cleric from Birmingham, planned a religious gathering for 600 people in Dovedale to celebrate Mawlid al-Nabi, a Muslim holiday marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.

Free minibuses were laid on for the hike that aimed to ‘increase brotherhood, strengthen bonds, relax the mind, help rejuvenate the soul, and allow us all to truly appreciate the creation of Allah…[in] a renowned beauty spot’.

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As it transpired, it was called off at the last minute because of Covid restrictions but not before stirring unease among nearby residents. A local newspaper reported that the ‘event had alarmed locals, who have been growing increasingly frustrated by hour-long traffic queues and huge gatherings’ in nearby villages.

It added: ‘In many cases, the influxes have led to mountains of litter being left.’

A villager said at the time: ‘I respect everyone has a right to come and enjoy the countryside, and of course I accept that it’s part of living in a beautiful area, but recently it’s just getting too much.’

One group, Muslim Hikers, has been credited with successfully making the countryside more inclusive. Started by Coventry-based rambler Haroon Mota, it describes itself as ‘a trailblazing organisation committed to promoting diversity’.

More than 150 people took part in one of its hikes to Dovedale, which was organised in conjunction with Strava, the fitness app.

Of another event, Mr Mota said: ‘The Ramadan Retreat is probably one of my favourite Muslim Hikers events to date.

‘It felt incredibly enriching and powerful to share breaking the fast and praying together, against the backdrop of the green peaks of Dovedale.’

Meanwhile, in response to the protest by far-Right activists last month, a UK-based Palestinian ‘influencer’ posted a video from Dovedale in which he pretended to have persuaded the local authority to declare the area ‘Britain’s first Islamic national park’. He also joked about plans to build a mega-mosque on a nearby hill.

As ever with social media, his stab at satire rebounded. Predictably, many took him at face value and expressed outrage.

Two weeks later, for instance, Paul Porter, another influencer, solemnly warned his 14,000 Facebook followers about the ‘Islamic national park’ plan, urging them: ‘Take your dogs and family. Make noise, claim your land.’

And with divisions becoming further inflamed, so the cycle of hate continues.

Still, when the MoS visited Dovedale last week everyone appeared to be rubbing along just fine. What was undeniable though was that it was overcrowded, uncomfortably so, with not even grey skies and frequent downpours keeping the day-trippers away. The car park was jammed, so too the overspill.

‘You think this is bad now, but I was here in the heatwave when it was bedlam,’ says Keith Gould, 64, a former warehouseman from Birmingham, visiting with his wife Julie. ‘We wanted to come back when it was cooler.

‘Too many families stay by the stepping stones where they spend the day cooking and eating and don’t venture into the hills. If everyone spread out it wouldn’t appear so rammed.’

As we talk, we pass a recently erected National Trust sign appearing to reflect the concerns of recent weeks. It warns: ‘No BBQs, No fires, No cooking, No shisha pipes, No gas stoves… This is a nature reserve, thank you for helping us look after it.’

At the stepping stones at a bend in the river, at the foot of Thorpe Cloud, a large flat-topped hill, queues of 20 to 30 people form on each side. People seem to cross ten at a time before the other side gets a turn. Some take dogs. Others struggle with pushchairs. One woman, dressed as if for a wedding, tentatively moved from stone to stone in kitten-heel slingback shoes and a long, elegant dress.

Inevitably things get fractious. ‘For the love of God, why does everyone have to stop in the middle of the river to have their pictures taken?’ exclaims one man queuing. ‘We’ll be here all day.’ Others mutter in agreement. This is how fights start, but thankfully the moment passes.

An angler among the day-trippers tells me that it’s the perfect spot for trout fishing. It’s hard to imagine anyone catching much these days. The noise around the stepping stones is deafening.

As we wait to cross, children play with inflatable dinghies and paddle boards.

Many are critical, meanwhile, of the National Trust’s role in what they see as the area’s decline. The Trust, incidentally, charges £6 for the car park. And it costs 50p to use the loo.

‘I hope the NT takes heed of the negative reviews because this beautiful landscape is being progressively ruined. We visited today and were shocked by how eye- wateringly overcrowded it was,’ wrote a woman on Tripadvisor last month. She went on to call for a ban on picnics ‘as many families were clearly taking the mick’, and condemned the whole atmosphere as one of ‘unmanaged chaos’.

And then there were the toilets. ‘I paid the obligatory 50p to use the public toilet but gave up before I’d even gone because they looked like something out of the Third World… Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this. It’s a shame as it could be a breathtaking experience. Instead, I just felt my blood boiling.’

The National Trust told the MoS that it had reported to the police the presence of far-Right activists at Dovedale, but recognised the problems that high visitor numbers bring.

‘Our rangers, welcome team and volunteers work hard to care for Dovedale, doing regular litter picks and talking to visitors about ways to enjoy the space responsibly,’ a spokesman said.

‘We encourage everyone to take their litter away with them.’

But such toothless advice will satisfy few visitors to Dovedale who despair at the beauty spot’s decline.

Tammy Hembrow has once again set tongues wagging over possible engagement rumours after sharing a very affectionate moment with her younger boyfriend, Grayson Te Moana, at Sydney Airport.

The 32-year-old fitness influencer appeared smitten with the 23-year-old model as the couple spent time together at their departure gate ahead of a Saturday flight to Adelaide.

In exclusive images, Tammy was pictured leaning closely into Grayson as the pair shared a passionate kiss while sitting side by side before boarding.

The loved-up duo looked fully absorbed in the moment, with Tammy tenderly cradling Grayson’s head as they packed on the PDA in the busy terminal.

For the airport outing, Tammy opted for a sporty yet polished travel look, wearing a navy-and-yellow striped tracksuit with a coordinating cropped top and a sleek black crossbody bag.

Grayson, meanwhile, kept things low-key in a black hoodie and grey sweatpants, pulling his hood up as the couple enjoyed their intimate moment away from the crowds.

When asked by the Daily Mail if an engagement was in their future, Tammy cheekily responded with ‘maybe’.

Tammy was later spotted walking through the airport alongside Grayson, who towered over her as they made their way through the terminal with their luggage. 

It looked to be a low-key but loved-up airport outing for the couple, as they appeared completely smitten.

But when asked what had prompted the pair’s trip to South Australia, Tammy was coy, joking it was a ‘surprise.’ 

The loved-up outing came after Grayson recently sparked a frenzy by appearing to joke that Tammy was pregnant with their first child.

The aspiring influencer shared a photo of Tammy filling in a waiver form on her phone, with one question asking whether she was pregnant. 

Tammy appeared to select the option indicating she was in her first trimester.

But Grayson quickly appeared to pour cold water on the idea, captioning the post: ‘Fun waiver joke’.

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That did little to stop fans from wondering whether there could be more to the story.

‘She’s pregnant whaaaat?’ one follower wrote.

Another questioned whether the whole thing was ‘rage bait’.

Tammy has three children from previous relationships.

She shares son Wolf, 11, and daughter Saskia, nine, with ex-fiancé Reece Hawkins, and is also mother to daughter Posy, four, whom she shares with ex-fiancé Matt Poole.

But these days, Tammy appears firmly focused on her romance with Grayson. 

The pair first sparked romance rumours when they were spotted locking lips on the Gold Coast in March, shortly after publicly confirming their relationship.

They had already ‘hard-launched’ their romance at the Australian premiere of Wuthering Heights in Sydney in February.

Grayson is the latest in a string of high-profile romances for Tammy, who previously enjoyed a short-lived interstate relationship with footy star Bailey Smith.

A fresh free speech controversy has broken out after new figures showed that more than 60,000 people have been arrested in the UK over the past five years for alleged “communications offences” — including cases critics say were as minor as watching disparaging videos on TikTok.

The scale of the arrests has prompted fierce criticism from civil liberties campaigners, who have branded the numbers “Orwellian” and warned they risk creating a “chilling effect” on what people feel able to say and share online.

The figures, due to appear in a hard-hitting report this week, also point to striking inconsistencies in how laws covering “malicious” communications are being enforced, with some police forces making 14 times as many arrests under the powers as others.

According to the report by campaign group Big Brother Watch, at least 62,199 people across the UK have been arrested for such offences in the past five years. Of those, 18,510 were charged and 12,292 were convicted.

Campaigners acknowledge that some arrests will be warranted, particularly where police intervene to stop threatening messages in domestic abuse cases. But they argue the breadth of the legislation has encouraged an overly aggressive approach to policing ordinary digital communication.

The report cites the case of West Midlands Police visiting the home of a vulnerable teenage girl to accuse her over a TikTok post containing a teacher’s image with negative comments. 

They demanded that the girl hand over all her devices and either attend a voluntary interview or face arrest – even though she had not created, shared or commented on the video.

The investigation later concluded with the child formally told that no further action was taken. The force defended their actions on the grounds that they were ‘investigating alleged malicious communications offences’.

Writing in today’s Mail On Sunday, Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said: ‘Why are the authorities spending so much time policing our tweets when they could be policing our streets?

‘Shoplifting, mobile phone theft and sexual offences are all on the rise, yet the police seem increasingly obsessed with catching thought criminals.

‘The sheer number of people being arrested for online offences, even though only one in five end up being convicted, cannot help but have a chilling effect on free speech. 

‘People up and down the country daren’t say what they think about a whole range of issues for fear they’ll get a knock on their door at four in the morning by a couple of plainclothes officers wearing rainbow lanyards.’

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Last year, a Hertfordshire couple were arrested after they made complaints about their daughter’s primary school on a WhatsApp group chat.

Rosalind Levine and Maxie Allen were held for 11 hours on suspicion of harassment and malicious communications. 

They later received £20,000 in damages following a public outcry. 

Big Brother Watch says ‘the elasticity of vaguely defined speech offences’ in legislation such as the Online Safety Act has also led to wide divergences between arrest rates across the country.

While Cumbria Police arrested 25.7 people per 10,000 over five years – around 2.5 times the national average – neighbouring Northumbria did so for just 1.9 people per 10,000.

The laws have also been used to shut down or age-restrict internet forums on political parties, British history and even famous artworks. 

Analysis of communities on the Reddit website showed that discussions as diverse as horror film posters, advice on supporting a friend through chemotherapy, 1970s punk bands and ‘annoying papercuts’ were all placed behind digital age barriers.

Big Brother Watch is demanding an independent national review into the laws affecting freedom of speech in the UK and for action to ‘restore Britain’s free speech laws and culture’.

In another high-profile case, Lucy Connolly was jailed after calling for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire in the wake of the Southport murders in July 2024. She was sentenced to 31 months in jail.

Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, said: ‘There is mounting concern among the public that speech policing is out of control in Britain and it’s long overdue that the government takes action. 

‘Andy Burnham must now launch a free speech reset and order an independent review of our laws and police training around speech, in order to fix this Orwellian mess.

‘Thousands of people are being arrested for controversial speech, online jokes and non-violent protest. People have even been arrested for holding blank pieces of paper, and urged to take ‘online thinking skills’ courses by police. Enough is enough.’

Two simple words have achieved more for my sex life than mood lighting, expensive lingerie and a generous sampling of the Kama Sutra ever managed. Unfortunately, they are also the exact phrase I use when my friend’s Labrador proudly drops a tennis ball at my feet: “Good girl.”

I realize this confession may make me sound unbearably self-involved — possibly even a touch narcissistic. But there it is. I have a praise kink, and frankly, I have no intention of apologizing for it.

If the phrase “praise kink” has somehow passed you by, here’s the short version: it’s the particular thrill of being complimented, encouraged or told how irresistible you are, especially during intimate moments.

In other words, if a perfectly timed “You feel amazing” has the power to send you into another dimension, you are far from alone. The subject has become a major talking point online, with TikTok videos about praise kink drawing more than 60 million views at last count.

My own realization came courtesy of a French man who excelled at unhurried foreplay and seemed to know instinctively which words would undo me. At one point, he held my gaze with impossibly blue eyes and said, “That’s my good girl.”

I lost my mind.

I mean, it certainly helped that he was French and looked deep into my soul as he said it, but further research has confirmed that nope, you don’t need an accent for me to unravel under those well-timed words.

‘Good girl’ is the most famous praise kink phrase, although a breathy ‘You’re doing that so well’ or the disgustingly effective, ‘You have no idea what you do to me’ will also get the job done.

All of a sudden, I’m going gaga for top marks in the bedroom.

Now listen, there’s no denying that some women get off on being tied to the bed and called a filthy little tart – hey, I never kink shame. One person’s yuck is another’s yum.

However, the rest of us have discovered that a glowing performance review is what really gets us going.

Praise kink has been quietly steaming up TikTok and romance novels for years. Online reading communities now compile enormous lists of books based almost entirely on whether the male hero knows when to deploy a well-timed ‘good girl.’ One Reddit thread dedicated to the kink attracted almost 1,000 upvotes.

And men, please take note, because some of you still think peak dirty talk is loudly asking, ‘Do you like that?’ every 30 seconds.

Snore. Spoiler alert: usually, we don’t.

The more I looked into praise kink, the more I realized that men have been talking dirty to women all wrong.

Porn has handed them a very particular bedroom script, and it’s a bad one. It’s heavy on commands and degradation, using words most women would slap a stranger for saying anywhere else.

Again, yes, once again plenty of women genuinely love that. Godspeed to them.

But I suspect many others have politely endured some wildly aggressive pornographic dialogue because they didn’t want to embarrass the man delivering it.

There is nothing quite like lying naked beneath a perfectly pleasant accountant named Simon as he suddenly begins speaking like a recently paroled nightclub bouncer.

One moment he’s asking whether you’d like another glass of pinot and the next he’s calling you names that make you mentally go, ‘Eww, what?’

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We’ve spent so long discussing the way porn has shaped men’s expectations of women’s bodies that we’ve overlooked what it has done to their vocabulary.

At its most simple, feeling intensely desired is sexy. Of course, there could also be a slightly darker explanation for our collective weakness.

Daddy issues.

Yes, I know. Ick. But stick with me.

Could a well-timed ‘good girl’ feel so powerful because some of us grew up desperate for approval? There are therapists who believe a praise kink can occasionally be connected to the affirmation we lacked earlier in life, particularly from our fathers.

If you spent your formative years chasing gold stars from someone who rarely handed them out, perhaps approval carries a little extra charge in adulthood.

How very Freudian.

Then again, sexual experts are also quick to point out that enjoying praise doesn’t automatically reveal some great childhood wound. You can have loving parents and a perfectly healthy sense of self-worth and still find a low, well-timed, ‘That’s my girl,’ outrageously hot.

Sometimes a kink is simply a kink.

And if I’m being completely honest – because heck, why stop now? – part of the appeal is the cheeky little power play tucked inside those otherwise innocent words.

‘You look beautiful’ is a compliment, but ‘That’s my good girl,’ contains a hint of possession that really makes things interesting.

Sorry, my feminist ancestors. My kink has done you dirty.

But that, dear gents, is why you need to tread carefully, because ‘good girl’ is astonishingly divisive. Say it to one woman and she’ll melt. Say it to another and she’ll wonder whether you’re about to reward her with a dog treat.

I put a poll on my Instagram, asking if other women found it a turn on, and the answers surprised me: 54 percent said it was an instant turn on, compared to 46 percent who said: ‘Please don’t speak.’

The safest way to test the waters is to begin with some sincere praise. Tell her what she is doing to you. Tell her how incredible she looks. Who wouldn’t love that?

And to be fair, we women have spent years faking orgasms. Men can manage one enthusiastic compliment.

As for me, I have accepted my diagnosis. Perhaps a little too eagerly.

Call me ‘good girl’ and I’ll be checking my phone every six minutes like you’ve placed me under some sort of horny little spell. If that desire can be traced back to a murky psychological need for validation, I’m sure a therapist and I will have a fascinating chat about it one day.

Until then, I’ll be over here wagging my tail.