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Hull, East Yorkshire: Philip Larkin
Hull, East Yorkshire: Philip Larkin ‘I like it because it’s so far from everywhere else. On the way to nowhere, as somebody put it. It’s in the middle of the lonely country, and beyond the lonely country there is only the sea. I like that.’ ‘A city that is in the world, yet sufficiently on […]
Westminster Bridge and Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, London
Westminster Bridge We start our walk on Westminster Bridge and pick an early Sunday morning to try and soak up the experience before the rush of the day. We lean over the parapet peering downstream and recite Wordsworth’s famous poem ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802.’ ‘Earth has not any thing to show more […]
Gough Square, London: Dr Johnson’s House
Gough Square, London: Dr Johnson’s House ‘Wherever I turned my view … there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated’ Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Dr Johnson’s House is a charming 300-year-old townhouse, nestled amongst a maze of courts and alleys just north of Fleet Street. In 1746, Dr Samuel Johnson agreed to […]
Inspiring Places: London, Bloomsbury – Books, Books, Books
‘I love walking in London. Really, it’s better than walking in the country.’ Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf The books that inspired this walk…too many to mention I worked in Bloomsbury briefly as a summer intern with Evans Educational Publishers, under the tutelage of the engaging Warren Knock, who to make ends meet or maybe just […]
Tintagel Castle, Cornwall: Lord Tennnyson & The Arthurian legend
What is it? History and legend are inseparable at Tintagel Castle. From about the 5th to the 7th century AD, it was an important stronghold and a residence of rulers of Cornwall. It was probably memories of this seat of Cornish kings that inspired the 12th-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth to name it in his […]
St Pancras Gardens, London: Thomas Hardy
‘The Levelled Churchyard’ “O passenger, pray list and catch Our sighs and piteous groans, Half stifled in this jumbled patch Of wrenched memorial stones! “We late-lamented, resting here, Are mixed to human jam, And each to each exclaims in fear, ‘I know not which I am!’ ‘The Levelled Churchyard’ (1880), an early poem by Thomas […]
Adlestrop, Gloucestershire: Edward Thomas
‘No one left and no one came’ What is it? The tiny, quaint village of Adlestrop, set in the Cotswolds, is the scene of the ‘unwonted’ stop that inspired Edward Thomas’s (1878-1917) much-loved poem of the same name, capturing an uneventful ‘moment in time’ and making it memorable forever. Sadly the old station no longer […]
Dover Beach, Kent: Matthew Arnold
‘You hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back and fling At their return, up the high strand’ What is it? Dover Beach is not necessarily where you’d choose to take the family for a day out. The harbour area itself is rather overwhelmed by the cross-channel ferry business. And, horror of […]
Inspiring Places: Malvern Hills, Worcestershire
‘There is no more English spot in all England, and few more beautiful’. Bernard Levin ‘If ever after I’m dead you hear someone whistling this tune on the Malvern Hills, don’t be alarmed, it’s only me.’ Edward Elgar ‘A unique crow’s nest of ancient rock.’ Geoffrey Grigson The main inspiration for this walk…Piers Plowman (1370s) […]
Kilburn, London: Zadie Smith
‘Where else could a writer hope to meet the whole world within a one-mile radius?’ KEY DATA Terrain: Pavements, hills Starting point: Queen’s Park, NW6. The nearest tube is Queen’s Park Distance: 8.5 km (5.5 miles) Walking time: 2 hrs 30 mins OS Map: can be found online at https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/route/9936654/Kilburn-London-Zadie-Smith Facilities: Pubs, cafés ZADIE SMITH (1975- […]
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