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The journey from Palma to Soller on a lovely rickety wooden train and then by bus to Valldemossa is breathtaking. The Carthusian Monastery in Valldemossa is where George Sand and Frederic Chopin stayed in the winter of 1838/39 and George Sand wrote of their experiences in her book " A Winter in Majorca " The tour of the Monastery is not to be missed.
Google map: bit.ly/nAtVuq
The walk John Keats took when he was inspired to write his ode "To Autumn".
What better time than now to follow the route Keats took one autumn Sunday in 1819? You start out in the High Street where he lodged and end up at the Hospital of St. Cross which still doles out alms to the needy. It not only takes in many of Winchester's places of interest: the Cathedral (burial place of Jane Austen), Wolvesey Palace, Winchester College - but also passes along the beautiful banks of the River Itchen, which Keats described as "most beautifully clear". He also described the air as "worth sixpence a pint" - not sure how that rates after inflation!
www.visitwinchester.co.uk/site/keats-walk-introduction
Google map: bit.ly/nkMdDA
Start at the Linen Hall Library to travel in time from the Enlightenment’s United Irishmen to today’s award winning poet Sinead Morrissey; travel in place from Louis McNeice’s drawing room on the Malone Road to C S Lewis’s East Belfast (wardrobe optional) via Van the Man’s Cyprus Avenue. Poets and writers abound, stories still being told and written.
Enjoy 'pure bracing ventilation' on a windswept walk to Top Withens, thought to be the real Wuthering Heights. Choose a weekday and enjoy the 'atmospheric tumult' and watch the lapwings wheeling above you without the distraction of crowds. Or wander higher still to Withens Heights, surely the place uppermost in Emily Bronte's mind when she wrote her novel?
www.haworth-village.org.uk/brontes/places/top_withens.asp
Google map: bit.ly/or3Rm4
Visit grave of Alexander Rollo at Tynemouth Priory Graveyard, Tyneside. The headstone says he carried the lantern at the funeral of Sir John Moore at Corunna in 1809, as immortalised in Charles Wolfe's poem.
Not a drum was heard, nor a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.
We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning;
By the struggling moonbeam's misty light
And the lanthorn dimly burning.
www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/tynemouth-priory-and-castle/
Pier Road, North Tyneside NE30 4
+44(0)191 257 1090
Google map: bit.ly/pwkCQ8
Dunbeath Heritage Centre sits just off the A9, from Inverness to Wick and on the top edge of the UK. Here you can learn the history of Neil M Gunn (1891-1973), and immerse yourself in his books. Read the heartbreaking account of Scottish fishing folk devastated by the Highland Clearances in The Silver Darlings (1941). Or, while staying in Dunbeath, read Gunn’s Highland River (1937), climbing from childhood to manhood as he wanders further up Dunbeath River to its source, and then follow the path of the atmospheric novel at your leisure. This is not a well-trodden tourist track, with plenty of ancient sites, ensuring your time spent in Gunn’s company becomes a gentle and spiritual experience. Gunn's story can be found in the centre.
www.dunbeath-heritage.org.uk/
The Old School, Dunbeath, Caithness, Scotland, KW6 6D
+44(0)1593 731233
Google map: bit.ly/oYV2QP
Astrid Lindgren’s World in Vimmerby (about 225 km SW of Stockholm) consists of “a theatre and theme park where visitors can experience characters from Astrid Lindgren’s books in their true settings. Everyone can meet the characters, they perform scenes from the books and improvise situations involving the children in the park”. Pippi remains a childhood favourite and who could resist seeing her come to life? While nearby you can also visit Astrid Lindgren’s childhood home, Näs, also in Vimmerby.
www.alv.se/en
www.astridlindgrensnas.se/1153/Engelska.html
Prästgårdsgatan 24, 598 36 Vimmerby, Kalmar Län, Sweden
+46(0)492 76 95 82
Google map: bit.ly/qtVqJF
More details (and other children's literature destinations in Sweden) here: www.playingbythebook.net/2011/01/21/kidlit-destinations-in-sweden/
The Moomin Valley of the Tampere Art Museum is a museum devoted to original works by writer and artist Tove Jansson and can be found in the centre of the city of Tampere. A heaven for those who love Moomins!
inter9.tampere.fi/muumilaakso/index.php?lang=en
Hämeenpuisto 20
P. O. Box 487FIN-33101 Tampere
+358 3 56566578
Google map: bit.ly/oND9Sa
With it being Children's Book Week I can only encourage all families to get out and visit some of the amazing places here in the UK that have links to brilliant children's books. In Scotland you could visit the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh, JM Barie's birthplace in Kirriemuir. Crossing the border Harry Potter fans should visit Alnwick Castle before hitting Seven Stories in Newcastle, currently the only exhibition space in the UK dedicated to the celebration of British children’s literature. Crossing the Pennines you'll find the World of Beatrix Potter at Bowness-on-Windermere with the National Trust owned former home of Beatrix Potter nearby. Moving further south there are two delights for Dahl lovers - the Roald Dahl Children’s Gallery in Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury and The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden. London is home to a wealth of children's literature attractions: Discover – The story making centre in Stratford is a good place to start and a visit to the Illustration Cupboard (just of Regent Street), an art gallery representing contemporary book illustrators from around the world is a must. If you're looking for locations which feature in children's literature (although they may not have actual visitor attractions there) the website Storybook England is brilliant (www.storybookengland.com/). Pack a picnic, a good book or two to read together and visit a location from a favourite book of your childhood!
Chronic ill health led Robert Louis Stevenson, famous author of Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, to embark on a series of voyages around the South Seas. He finally settled along with his family in Western Samoa, where he became a well-loved figure, striding around like a “demented stork” according to one observer. He died in 1894 at the age of 44. It is still possible to visit his house, Vailima, and if you are fit and willing, to labour up the rough hewn path built by devoted Samoans to carry him to rest at the top of an extremely steep hill. When I was there I was alone in that uniquely peaceful spot, with a wonderful view down over the coastal town of Apia.
www.rlsmuseum.com/
PO Box 850, Apia, Samoa
(+685) 20798
Google map: bit.ly/qhqTnA
La Sebastiana - once the home of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda - is worth the puff up the steep hills of colourful Valparaiso. Evoking the poet's strong attachment with the sea in its wonderful details, from the port hole windows to the nautical paraphernalia and ship drinks bar. The view out over the cluster of brightly painted corrugated houses and sea beyond, leaves you understanding why Neruda loved Valparaiso and La Sebastiana.
Collado, 1, Valparaíso Valparaíso Region, Chile
+56(0)32 222 0092
Google map: bit.ly/q5oc5H
•March to December: Thuesday to sunday 10:10 to 18:00 hours.
•January and february: Thuesday to sunday 10:30 to 18:50 hours.
•Monday closed.
•General entrance: $3.000 each person.
•Students and seniors: $1.500 each person (presenting college credential or school pass).
The Tennyson Mile stretches from the delightful unspoilt beach at Freshwater Bay to Farringford, the home of the Victorian poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Fellow poets Robert Browning, Henry Taylor, Edward Lear and the American, Henry Longfellow stayed at the selection of holiday villas nestled beneath the downs. The lovely magnolia by the conservatory at Farringford was presented to Tennyson as a cutting by Longfellow in 1868. Other writers came too, including Darwin, Thackeray and Lewis Carroll.
All these famous people were photographed by the pioneer photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron. Dimbola Lodge, overlooking the bay, has excellent views across the Back of the Wight and is now a museum of photography. The tearoom serves delicious cream teas and excellent lunches that can be enjoyed on the terrace on a warm day.
This Victorian cultural circle was satirised by Virginia Woolf in her play Freshwater. Other 20th-century literary pilgrims include DH Lawrence, TS Eliot, John Betjeman, JB Priestley, WH Auden and Christopher Isherwood. Tennyson’s Gift, the novel by Lynne Truss, is set in Freshwater Bay.
The poets and pines walk (www.histreetrail.com) is a fascinating trail highlighting the trees that inspired Tennyson. It includes the Tennyson Mile but goes inland to Freshwater village passing the large property that the poet provided for his wife’s family. Hawkswood, now Freshwater Court, was built by Tennyson to complete his marriage vow. This stated that his in-laws could come and visit whenever they wished, for as long as they wished. But he did not want them under his feet at Farringford.
farringford.co.uk/
Bedbury Lane, Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight PO40 9PE
+44(0)1983 752 700
Google map: bit.ly/mTjB2I
No. 12 bus from Newport, Isle of Wight.
Though Virginia Woolf set her famous novel in the Hebrides it was inspired by childhood holidays at St Ives Bay in Cornwall
Pure white sand, hidden rock pools, a wooden cafe serving hot chocolate, and that view to the lighthouse - a timeless stream of consciousness
West of Redruth and the A£) take the road to Hayle, just before take the coast road to the village of Gwithians, signs to Godrevy and the National Trust a mile before the village.
Google map: bit.ly/o8kOqh
The ruin of Top Withens farmhouse is the perfect place to experience the fictional world that the Brontes created in their novels. Purported to be the location that Emily had in mind when she wrote Wuthering Heights, the farmhouse is reached by a well signposted walk across the moors from Howarth. Far removed from the touristy tea shops in the village, the isolation of this windswept ruin gives you a true sense of what it must have been like in the world of Cathy Earnshaw or Jane Eyre. The views are wonderful, but even on a bright summer's day, the loneliness and solitude of this moorland are an almost tangible presence, and you feel that the howling winds and harsh frosts of winter are never far away.
www.haworth-village.org.uk/brontes/places/top_withens.asp
Google map: bit.ly/or3Rm4
This is a fantastic memoir about a man looking back on his eventful life down and out traveling homeless through Greece, and other parts of Europe, while coming to terms with his present situation, a life threatening battle brought about by his past. Brilliantly written, engaging and informative. Can't recommend this book enough.
Robert Louis Stevenson, famous author of Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, was living in America in 1888 when his chronic ill health led he and his entire family to voyage around the south seas. This book describes how he came to settle in Western Samoa, build a home there, Vailima, and finally die there in 1894 at the age of 44. Years after reading it I struggled alone up the rough hewn path which devoted Samoans had built to the top of a steep hill to lay him to rest. I was alone with a wonderful view down over the coastal town of Apia, reading the inscription on his grave:
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you 'grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
Vailima Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson ed. Methuen
I was overjoyed to discover this book in the eighties, to find a kindred spirit, someone who not only found himself fired up by the sound of exotic destinations like “Hispaniola” and “Cathay;” but one who does not accept “it’s impossible, you can’t take a series of ships around the world” as a final answer. Well, he did it, by tanker, freight, dhow, junk, anything that moved, twenty-three vessels in all over seven months, encountering pirates, coolies, captains and admirals, always the best, most entertaining and enterprising of companions. “Slow Boats Home” is the equally exciting sequel.
Slow Boats to China by Gavin Young
Sara Wheeler travelled alone around the long skinny country that is Chile for six months in the early 90’s, and this is her account. She tells it like it is, and the truth is travel can be horrible: missed connections, sea sickness, squalid rooms and the frustrations of bureaucracy. We learn about the history, literature, geography and politics of the country, she mixes with everyone from the poorest to poshest, and there are plenty of detailed maps of her route. Best of all, the book is hilarious, with phrases like: “our room was made entirely of hardboard, the bathroom locked on the outside and we had to unscrew the lightbulb to turn the light off."
Travels in a Thin Country by Sara Wheeler
This is an extraordinary book written at a time and about a place, that means it will almost certainly never be replicated. Peter Levi and his friend the author Bruce Chatwin travelled through Afghanistan in 1970 to study classical influences on Buddhist architecture and sculpture. It was a wild and dangerous expedition undertaken by bus, foot and on horseback, and Levi comments perceptively "I remember thinking we were as remote from the world then as we should ever be in our lives". This book defines the difference between travel and tourism.
The Light Garden of the Angel King by Peter Levi
Laurie Lee, best known as the author of Cider with Rosie, set out to walk from the north to the south of Spain in July 1935. Why Spain? Because he knew enough of the language to ask for a glass of water. By the time he arrived in Andalucia a year later civil war had broken out and he was evacuated by a British destroyer. This is real adventure among the wild beauty and blazing heat of the countryside he trudged through, and the poverty of the people he lived among. He reflected afterwards: “I was perhaps never so alone and never so alive again."
As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee
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