I’m back!

For the past month or so my wife Adriana and I have been on a fantastic holiday in the UK.

As well as a couple of relaxing weeks staying with my sister and brother-in-law in beautiful Twickenham London and catching up there with our English nephews and their gorgeous families, we also spent a fortnight driving over 1400 miles around England, Scotland and Wales.

Along the way we visited many lovely towns and villages, as well as cathedrals, castles, landmarks, monuments etc and of course I took hundreds and hundreds of photos.

And here they all are!

No, I wouldn’t do that to you. You’ve suffered enough just reading my previous blogs.

But what I thought I would do is post some highlights of the trip that have some connection to WORDS, WRITERS & STORIES of various kinds.

Such as …

EEL PIE ISLAND MUSEUM:

Eel Pie Island is a small island nestled in the Thames near Twickenham not far from where we were staying with my sister in London.

The island gained fame in the 1960s as a legendary music venue. Many famous bands, singers and musicians played there often before they hit the big time. They included the Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Deep Purple, The Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, The Kinks and Cream.

We visited the Eel Pie Museum in Twickenham which tells the story of the Island and contains plenty of interesting memorabilia.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH:

We visited the Wordsworth Museum in Grasmere in the Lake District and had a look through Dove Cottage which is where Wordsworth lived and wrote most of his greatest poems.

I studied Wordsworth and the other Romantic Poets at Uni but I gained a new respect for, and interest in the man here.

THE BEATLES:

We had a couple of days in Liverpool, one of which coincided with the massive street parade for the all conquering Liverpool Football team. Of course for a Beatles tragic like me it was mainly a chance to visit all things Fab Four.

Those four faces will be forever branded into my heart and soul. As I’ve said before I think the world was a better place when they were around. Their music and words and ideas made it better. They will always have god-like status for me.

I really like this quote from Kurt Vonnegut, another of my favourite writers:

I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, ‘The Beatles did’.

HAY-ON-WYE LITERARY FESTIVAL:

The lovely Welsh market town of Hay-On-Wye is known as the “town of books” having well over twenty bookshops. It is the National Book Town of Wales.

Our trip just happened to coincide with part of their book festival which was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as “The Woodstock of the mind”. It is the largest literary festival in the UK and it attracts 300,000 plus visitors over 11 days and features a wide range of events with renowned writers, musicians, comedians, and poets. 

We dropped in on two slightly wet and very windy days and saw sessions featuring Stephen Fry, Michael Pedersen, Kathy Lette, Ruby Wax, Susie Dent, Julian Clary and Mark Haddon. All of which were great.

DON’T CALL ME ISHMAEL:

The Ishmael trilogy was published in the UK a number of years back now and although I sadly didn’t find any second-hand copies in any of the bookshops I explored in Hay-on-Wye, we were able to make a very fortuitous Ishmael connection in Scotland.

The planets lined up for us in terms of time and place and we had the chance to catch up with the lovely and very talented Michael Mandalios at our hotel in Glasgow.

Michael had the role of Ignatius Prindabel in Underground Broadway’s musical version of DCM Ishmael. It played to a packed and enthusiastic audience at the Schonell Theater in Brisbane in 2018.

It was wonderful to get the chance to catch up with Michael over a coffee and hear about his life in Glasgow.

WELCOME TO WREXHAM:

I’m a big fan of the multi Emmy award winning documentary series Welcome to Wrexham. Now in its fourth season, it follows the purchase of Wrexham Football Club by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny and their quest to get the team to win promotion to the higher leagues.

So far they have been promoted on each of three consecutive years – a feat never achieved before. It’s a moving, funny, fascinating and inspirational series even if you’re not a soccer fan,

So of course when I saw that our road trip was passing close by to the town of Wrexham, there just had to be a slight detour.

Here are some photos for Welcome to Wrexham fans like me. You’re welcome!

TED LASSO:

From one TV series about a real football team to another TV series about a fictional one – Ted Lasso and AFC Richmond.

Various scenes in Ted Lasso are filmed at locations in Richmond and around Richmond Green. As we were staying at nearby Twickenham it was a short and enjoyable trip to check them out.

Here are some photos for Ted Lasso fans like me. Believe!

THE FIFTH STEP:

In our last week in London we had tickets to a play at Soho Theatre called The Fifth Step starring Martin Freeman (The Office, Lord of the Rings etc etc etc) and Jack Lowden (probably best known for playing the character River alongside Gary Oldman in the fabulous TV series Slow Horses).

It was a brilliant five star production. Funny, poignant and dramatic. And our seats were so close at times we could have reached out and touched the actors.

But obviously, that is frowned upon.

We know that now.

ALEXANDER POPE:

Another literary connection on our trip is with the poet and satirist Alexander Pope. He lived and died in Twickenham which is where we stayed in London and his presence is still felt there in various locations and in street/pub names – and on benches.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE:

We also visited and had a look through the magnificent Chatsworth House in Derbyshire which was the location for Pemberley in the film of Pride and Prejudice (2005), starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden. It is thought Jane Austen wrote some of P & P in nearby Bakewell which we also visited.

CHAINED LIBRARY:

At Hereford Cathedral we viewed the Chained Library.

The library’s earliest and most important book is the 8th-century Hereford Gospels; it is one of 229 medieval manuscripts which now occupy two bays of the Chained Library.

The chaining of books was the most widespread and effective security system in European libraries from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, and Hereford Cathedral’s 17th-century Chained Library is the largest to survive with all its chains, rods and locks intact.

A chain is attached at one end to the front cover of each book; the other end is slotted on to a rod running along the bottom of each shelf. The system allows a book to be taken from the shelf and read at the desk, but not to be removed from the bookcase.

The whole library can now be seen in its original arrangement as it was from 1611 to 1841.

And thus endeth the WORDS, WRITERS & STORIES aspect of our UK adventure.

Cheers
Michael