Trip to Haworth, Bronte Country

Our trip to Haworth in Yorkshire to visit the home of the Brontes took place over the last weekend in April and we had a great time. We stayed in a B+B in Haworth itself, a quaint little town on the edge of the moors with a steep cobbled High Street made famous in the old Hovis adverts.
Most people visit Haworth because it is the main place that the Bronte family lived after their father was appointed Rector of Haworth church in 1820 with his wife and six children. Sadly he outlived all of them, but his three daughters acheived some of the greatest writing that England has ever known during their short lives.
The town itself is quite small but has a healthy dose of quirky shops, restaurants and decent pubs. There is a lovely second hand bookshop there too. You can be delivered by steam train on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (also famous for The Railway Children) at the bottom of the town and climb your way up the main street to the tourist information at the top. The major draw is the Bronte Parsonage, now owned by the Bronte Society and a museum celebrating its famous family. A beautiful house of Yorkshire stone set beside the atmospherically gothic cemetary and small church it does not disappoint. Emily and Charlotte are buried in the church, as are the other members of the family. Anne is buried in Scarborough.
The museum itself is excellent with many original artifacts, clothing, letters, possessions. Not only is it all authentic and informative, but it accurately sets the scene for Bronte fans to get lost in. I was also impressed with the deatails of how the Bronte society secured many of the articles to be brought back and put in their rightful place.
Haworth has quite a history apart from its literary connections, and a walk around the graveyard conveys this with the high mortality rate, especially with children, and even a stone for an executed highwayman. Indeed the graveyard probably contributed to the early deaths of the Bronte sisters because it was condemned as a health risk in the late 19th century due to its severe overcrowding and lack of trees to aid decomposition (the trees were added afterwards). The 'black ooze' the came up in the ground probably contaminated the water supply to the poorer end of town, and possibly the well in the Bronte garden.
Also recommended is the walk across the moors to Top Withens, an abandoned farmhouse that is said to have influenced the setting of Wuthering Heights, more for its bleak position than any exact replication. Nevertheless, it is a lovely walk (about 7 miles full circle) taking in the Bronte waterfalls, the moors (it was suitably windy and rainy when we were there), and also a Quaker buriel ground and other fascinating places with stories behind them. There is a pub on the last part of the walk which was good timing for a pitstop and a pint.
While we were there my friend and I had some discussion comparing Wuthering Heights to Jane Eyre, both of which we made sure we read before going which added to our weekend.
Haworth is an essential destination for Bronte fans but also highly recommended for literary fans generally, as well as anyone who enjoys a good starting point for walks on the Yorkshire moors.

Visit to Haworth

A friend and I are going to Haworth, home of the Brontes, in April, and some other friends may be joining us for one of the days too. I have been to Haworth very briefly some years ago but have never done the whole Bronte trail.

By the time we go I am hoping to have read Wuthering Heights and my friend hopes to read Jane Eyre so that we can have some discussion, while adding context by visiting the major sites. Our other friends have been invited to read something by the Brontes so that we can widen the discussion.

Haworth is a lovely village in its own right (remember the old Hovis advert, pushing the bike up the steep cobbled street...), and it will be good to get some air straight off the moors.

There is a steam train on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway that takes you right into Haworth if you want the full on Victorian experience. The Bronte Parsonage Museum is a major draw for Bronte fans, and there are lots of walks to locations used in their novels.

I have wanted to do this trip for ages so it is great to be able to share it with some friends.

Thomas Hardy holiday in Dorset

This years Novel Holiday took a group of 6 of us to Dorset to explore the haunts of Thomas Hardy while examining one of his novels - The Woodlanders. We also covered Tinkers by Paul Harding and On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan.

The cottage here (courtesy of an article in the London Evening Standard about Hardy's Dorset) is where Hardy lived, in Higher Bockhampton during his early life, and it really is as beautiful as it appears. It is just over a week ago since we started our Hardy exploration and this was our first destination. Right on the edge of Puddletown Woods it was a really lovely start. I had total garden envy.We also went to Max Gate, the house he designed and where he spent his latter years, and also Stinsford Church where his heart is buried (his ashes are in Poets Corner in Westminster Cathedral in London). All of these locations were very close together, on the edge of Dorchester (Casterbridge in nis novels) and do-able in one day.

We had spent about an hour and a half discussing The Woodlanders the day before, while sitting in the late summer sunshine, in the garden of our holiday cottage in Netherbury. We talked about so many things, including 'Did Giles even deserve Grace?' to 'Romanticism or Darwinism in the descriptions of the Woods?'. Of course we also talked about whether we loved it or hated it, and whether we would read any more Hardy. We unanimously loved Marty, and were frustrated with Grace, many of us feeling she needed a good slap. A few of us also wanted to slap Giles, but most of us elicited a sigh when he was mentioned, especially when Rufus Sewell from the film came into it. Sigh! It was a lively discussion and a great book to talk about.

We also visited Chesil Beach and almost got blown away, it was so windy, but quite atmospheric. It was difficult to walk on the shingle and we all agreed that there was no way that Florence would manage to run far along it in the novel. We had talked it over in the conservatory that morning. Tinkers also provoked interesting debate, being both a vivid and also an ethereal read.

Of course we did many other things during the week...Mapperton Gardens, Cerne Abbas Giant and many lovely walks around Netherbury.

It was an excellent week, Dorset was totally beautiful, as was our lovely cottage in Netherbury, and we ate, drank and talked loads. My thanks to my friends who made it a brilliant week.

We are currently looking into possible locations for next year! So many to choose from...

Thomas Hardy Holiday

After the success of last years holiday based around Jane Austen in Hampshire, there are 5 of us taking part in this years visit to Dorset in August and the landscape and places associated with Thomas Hardy.

We have a cottage not far from Dorchester which has several places to visit nearby including where he was born, Dorchester (known as Casterbridge in his novels) where the museum has an exhibition dedicated to Hardy, and his house Max Hill that he designed himself. There is also Stinsford Church where his heart is buried.

Our set book to discuss is The Woodlanders, plus we have a contemporary set book, Tinkers by Paul Harding. An additional place in Dorset of literary interest is Chesil Beach, the location of the title of Ian McEwan's book On Chesil Beach, which we may include during our stay.

There are of course loads of other things to do, beautiful coastline, walks, countryside, so that we don't get Hardy'd out.

Everyone last year said they enjoyed the Jane Austen holiday so I was glad to do another one and even though it is a while off I am really looking forward to going, and also putting it together.

Novel Holiday - Jane Austen in Hampshire

You may remember back in April I spoke about organising a holiday in Hampshire for some friends, our first Novel Holiday, with a set book in an area that included places to visit that celebrated either the book or the author. We got back just over a week ago.

We stayed in a lovely wood cabin in the New Forest. There were 4 of us altogether, myself L, and S, A and R. R stayed for 4 nights, and the rest of us had the cabin for a week.

Although Bath is heavily associated with Jane Austen, Hampshire is where she lived most of her life so it was perfect for this type of holiday.

Our set books were Emma by Austen, and also a contemporary novel, The Blue Fox by Sjon, which we were to discuss on holiday. I didn't know how that part of the holiday would go, but I needn't have worried because the discussions went really well.

We talked about Emma on the first morning after breakfast. Accompanied by a handout with some context, the conversation covered opinions about the book and the characters, and went on to include feminism and the rights of women, marriage, and also the historical contexts of the book. Not everyone had finished the book, but the discussion still went on for an hour and a half anyway. R, who had read all of Jane Austen's novels years ago, really enjoyed re-reading Emma so much, she said she wanted to read the others again. A had not read it but wanted to at the end of the discussion and started the book while on holiday. When we had finished talking, it seemed a good time to have our bookswap, where a number of books found new homes. I came away with 2...The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw, and The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.

The following day was our Jane Austen day. We visited Steventon first, where her father and brother had been rectors at the village church, and Jane lived her earlier years in a house that is no longer there. You can see her brothers grave in the church yard and the setting is really peaceful. We then drove to Chawton where her house in the village is now a Jane Austen museum. She moved here after living in Bath and there is a lot of memorabilia here, as well as information about her life. The table where she wrote her later novels, Emma and Persuasion, is still there. The gardens are also pretty, as is the village. We didn't have time to walk to the church but Jane's sister and mother are buried there. Lastly we drove to Winchester where Jane is buried in the cathedral. You can see her grave stone as well as the monument to her life and work. The cathedral has also exhibited a display about her life.

The following day we spoke about The Blue Fox. I had enjoyed it, as had R. S and A were more perplexed by it and A felt she hadn't understood it at all. Our discussion, which took about an hour, confirmed this to her. We examined the format of the book, the style, and also its 3 parts. As we did this, more meanings came to light. We also discussed whether the references to Icelandic legends enhanced or detracted from the book, with none of us knowing the background to them. Two of us thought that it added to the mysteriousness, but two of us felt they were missing out on some of it.

After talking we did our lucky dip book. I got Ines of my Soul by Isabelle Allende. We then talked about our recommendations and I compiled a list, as well as a list of all the other books that had come up during our discussions, to send on after the holiday.

Of course we did lots of other things that were not book related...walking in the New Forest, a visit to Salisbury, and also a day at Mottisfont Abbey (a National Trust property with beautiful gardens full of butterflies, including a Victorian walled garden). We also watched the excellent and very funny Lost in Austen series on DVD.

Everyone has said they really enjoyed the holiday and would be interested in doing another one next year. No one said that they were sick of Jane Austen at the end, mainly because we didn't overdo it and interspersed it with other things too. Hampshire and the New Forest were perfect for this. A beautiful part of the country. In fact A went back and immediately watched a film version of Emma while finishing the book, and wants to buy a copy of Lost in Austen.

I really enjoyed it. I thought the balance of stuff to do worked very well, the discussions went better than I could have hoped, and I loved the whole week. I also enjoyed putting the whole thing together.

I am currently researching our holiday for next year.