Autumn imagination
Beech woods and a windmill inspired by Lolly Willowes.
Planning this walk gave me the excuse (not that I need one) to spend a lot of time looking at maps. Lolly Willowes (Sylvia Townsend Warner) tells the story of a woman who, on reaching middle age, leaves behind her safe and dull life in 1930s…
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‘Swing, tramp, and trudge’
Across London in the footsteps of Mrs Dalloway.
“‘I love walking in London’ said Mrs Dalloway.” And so do I. An urban walk can be packed with interest. And in London this is particularly the case; you can barely move for wedding-cake churches, obscure Victorians in togas, alleyways with fanciful names, commemorative plaques and a…
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A curious contrast
A coastal walk through the landscape that inspired Rebecca.
I have always been intrigued by the notion that the two wildly different Mrs de Winters in Rebecca are just two sides of author Daphne du Maurier’s own personality. Though the two women approach life very differently, their fates are ultimately similar. And I find myself…
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‘Over the hills and far away’
To the county boundary with Pigling Bland.
The first, and for a long time the only, Beatrix Potter book I owned was The Tale of Pigling Bland. I chose it from a shop somewhere in the Lake District while on holiday as a child. I can’t recall why I selected this particular tale, but I’m…
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