Customer Reviews

A Reader's Guide to Writers' Britain

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought the British edition of this book while visiting Jane Austen's house. Lavishly illustrated throughout in full color, it's a wonderful book to peruse. Background information is given on houses and places with literary connections throughout England, as well as biographical tidbits on the authors themselves.

It isn't a practical travel guide, being difficult to navigate and lacking reference materials such as maps, addresses and contact information of many of the places. However, it is a good place to get a general idea of places to visit, or just to educate yourself before a trip (or do some armchair travelling). It is also the most comprehensive and only recent book on British literary travel I've been able to locate. The only other title that comes close is ONCE UPON A TIME IN GREAT BRITAIN by Melanie Wentz, which focuses on children's authors.

Despite not being a travel guide, it is still a beautifully presented book packed with information and illustrations.

I bought Sally Varlow's book in 1997 in a bookshop in Groningen, Holland. It gives me, everytime I read it, very much pleasure. The beautiful pictures and illustrations makes it even nicer to read it. Very recommendable!

If you're a literature geek like me, and your travels involve paying homage to great writers, then you might want to consider picking up a copy of A Reader's Guide to Writers' Britain by Sally Varlow. I came across this gem of a book by happy accident, when I spied it on a bookshelf at the school where I work. I rushed right home that day and ordered it.

This extensive book mostly concentrates on England, which Varlow divides into regions in order to organize the vast amounts of material. She has one section on Wales and one on Scotland at the back of the book. The Gazetteer in the back of the book is also a great resource, as it lists places of interest that are open to the public, and the authors who are associated with those places.

The opening chapter on the The West Country and the tales of King Arthur is enough to get you immediately sucked in. This chapter was nice for me, because it allowed me to revisit Glastonbury, otherwise known as the mythical Isle of Avalon. I also got to reminisce about Bath, which was the setting for Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey", in addition to being a haunt of Austen, Wordsworth, Dickens, Pepys, and other notable writers.

London, of course, is another chapter that interests me, because of its significance to literature. In one relatively short chapter, Varlow is able to cover several hundred years and the many writers and locations that contributed to London's literary legacy. The obvious are included here: Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Bloomsbury Group, and Sherlock Holmes, but there are many other sites that people might overlook. Did you know, for example, that the London Zoo is a literary site?

Of course, I can't begin to explain everything that is so great about this book, as it would take up too much space. But this is the most informative and comprehensive book on literary places in Britain that I have ever seen. It will serve me well in planning my future excursions to England.

Even if you are never able to travel to Britain, this book does a great job of taking you there. Not only does it cover the places where the writers lived and worked, but it also covers the locations that were brought to life in their works. Photos, maps and illustrations are liberally sprinkled throughout. This is the ultimate resource for anyone who dreams of taking a literary pilgrimage to Britain.

I'm planning a vacation to the UK, this fall, so on a whim I took this book out of the library. After all, I'm an avid reader and professional writer, so a literary view of the country was appealing.

I do like the premise of the book: that, as you travel around Britain, you can soak up the writer-centric people and events at the places you travel. It'd be cool to learn about Steinbeck's exploration of Stonehenge, for instance. So, in a section about London's Whitehall and Westminster districts, you read short essays about Pepys, Donne, and Peter Ackroyd, all of whom had connections to the area.

And, indeed, there are a few sections that generate "oh honey I have to read this to you" delight. One of them, set in Oxford, connects William Morris (in his Icelandic translation guise, not his Arts & Crafts persona) to JRR Tolkien; apparently the latter was seriously inspired by the former.

But, ultimately, I found the book unsatisfying. I've read a little bit about Tolkien in Oxford (see The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends). That book obviously went into far more depth, but the snippet here tells so little that... well, so what? It didn't inspire me to read more, and a mention of the pub frequented by Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the Inklings doesn't give me the sense of place that might bring the anecdotes alive. (It'd help, too, if I saw a map where I could actually *see* the shrine.)

In the end, I'm glad I looked through this book, but I'm very glad that I took it out of the library rather than purchasing a copy. I do note that Amazon has another version available from only a few years ago; perhaps that one addresses the problems.

I liked this book. It was okay. But it was just okay.