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The ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, in the center of Glastonbury |
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| Wells Cathedral, Wells, on a rainy afternoon |
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| Stonehenge, on the day of the autumnal equinox (timing not planned in advance)   A familiar sight in downtown London |
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| The HNS London conference! We had a great time. Detailed reports, and video footage, available at the HNS site. |
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| The Tower of London. Mark and I had dinner with Andrea from the Queen's Quill Review on Monday night, then saw Margaret George speak there. |
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| And, of course, London book shopping! |
I'm still pretty jet-lagged, and caught a cold after we got back, so I haven't been able to do much for the past two days other than stare at the screen. Regular blog features will resume shortly.
Thanks for the images and what a gorgeous pile of reading ahead of you.
ReplyDeleteAhh, looks like a lovely time. Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for these images of some of my favorite places in England and boy, those books look good, too.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to give credit to my husband for the travel pics. (I'm still not quite with it here!) It's good to be back.
ReplyDeleteI just got back from London too.
ReplyDeleteThough my traveling outside was confined to Liverpool and Bristol (research on the slave trade).
I kept thinking of you and some others encountered here online, and the HNS conference. There simply was no time for me to attend anything with the obligations involved by the real reason for being there.
It was my first time there, and I just loved it.
Love, C.
Hope you had an enjoyable and successful research trip. We didn't get as far north as Bristol but were in Bath for two days. There was so much else we wanted to see, and didn't have time. We plan to be back soon (though will be hoping for better weather!).
DeleteAll I can say is to repeat: I just loved it. If you are an historian who began with my academic speciality, no matter how much you understand that this part of the world is not a museum (despite the fabulous fact that most museums -- unlike here in the U.S. -- provide free admission) -- for me personally the museums were huge for me and the history work I do. And behond that -- thought I don't have a granular or even good knowledge of many of the MANY eras of history in the British Isles, I do know a lot. And I do also have a Ph.d in English literature and history (one of those funny degrees they used to allow student to devise for themselves not so far back in the day). No matter where I set foot, there was stuff I actually recognized and knew. I didn't have to look it up! I knew all about Regent Park, for instance, and John Nash. I know all about Kensington Gardens and Queen Anne and John Churchill, blahblahblah. It's really hard for someone with this kind of literary and historical background not to fall in love with this country --even when, on the other side, one understands so well why we rebelled and went independent.
DeleteBoth John Adams and Napoleon understood it too.
Love, C.
I know what you mean. I felt similarly while walking through the National Portrait Gallery since I recognized the portraits of nearly everyone, just from books or online reading or from long-ago history classes. Yours sounds like a useful degree to have, actually! (I have an MA in linguistics which I use for essentially nothing at all. The library degree is another matter.) And the NPG did provide free admission. Which was very nice.
DeleteThat is some eerie lighting on the Tower of London--I think I could find the premise for a novel right there.
ReplyDeleteLove the pictures, thanks for sharing! And welcome back.
Thanks! And yes, the Tower by night was gorgeous in a macabre sort of way. We had some time alone on the grounds after the talk ended, which added to the eerie atmosphere.
DeleteThank you for sharing these beautiful pictures. Isn't it funny how pictures taken on a rainy day make for the best? I've noticed that I get better pictures of the waterfalls here in NC on rainy days. Maybe one day I will make it over to England/Wales/Scotland where my soul yearns to be.
ReplyDeleteIt's true - there are fewer lighting issues to worry about, and the pics come out looking atmospheric. I've never been to Scotland and wish we'd gotten to Wales on this trip.
DeleteSo you visited my home country, makes me homesick a little.
ReplyDeleteAnd I see from your profile that you're in Cambridge - which is where some of my family comes from... the part of it that was once called Hespeler. I've never been there but have done a lot of online genealogy research on the area.
DeleteI only got to see a small part of England but really enjoyed seeing the countryside around Somerset, especially.
Beautiful photos. Especailly love the one of the Tower.
ReplyDeleteThanks - that may be my favorite one too!
DeleteWOW...what a trip! My dream trip, in fact! Love this blog :) I have a giveaway for a good book going on at my blog, you're cordially invited to come visit!~ And I will look around here some more!
DeleteThanks, Heather, I'll take a look!
DeleteWonderfully evocative photos! And I know Big Ben has been renamed in honour of the Queen, but can't see it sticking :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Martin Davies' "The Year After"- very topically Downton Abbey-ish.
There are so many new books centered on the WWI era. The Davies never came out in the US so I figured I'd better grab it :)
DeleteAnd no, I didn't hear a single person call it other than Big Ben!
OMG - NIGHT FALLS ON THE CITY by Sarah Gainham has been reprinted - I have got to order a copy. Perhaps the next two as well??
ReplyDeleteSarah Other Librarian
May I take that as a recommendation? :) It came out in July, with an intro by Kate Mosse.
DeleteYes yes yes! It has the "feel" of the place and time so well; a unique perspective (post-war Austria). I see the next two haven't yet; they don't have quite the sweep but they continue the (postwar) story.
DeleteAnd now that I have gotten over the shock, may I say that your photos are lovely and I had better start planning for the 2014 conference. The books I see as "must-reads" for me are THE YEAR AFTER, THE FIRST BLAST OF THE TRUMPET, and THE KNOT. I guess I should add "16th century Scottish Reformation" as a codicil to my "17th century Britain" list . . .
I knew nothing about it when I saw it, but the setting was intriguing, and after seeing copies in three successive bookstores, I had no resistance left. I was trying not to buy too many books, I was worried my suitcase would be overweight, but you see how far that got me. TRUMPET was another one I hadn't heard anything about, and there's so little written about that period, either.
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