The Tower of London.  Scary!

I’m an Anglophile.  Even before I went to Great Britain for the first time in 2008, I considered myself an Anglophile.  I’m not sure how others come to love a country before they’ve even stepped foot in it, but for me my Anglophile tendencies were awakened by certain special people.  Jane Austen and Will Shakespeare, to start.  Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier, Charlotte Bronte, and Thomas Hardy.  Then, when I already knew I loved Great Britain, Anne Bronte, P.G. Wodehouse, Dorothy L. Sayers and Charles Dickens confirmed it.  My introduction to England came between the pages of books.  And while I can read and love a book from anywhere in the world, my heart belongs to English literature.

When I travel, I like to take with me books that call to mind the particular place I’ll be exploring – either because they’re specifically set there or just because they’re reminiscent of the area.  In 2008 I was headed north – to Yorkshire, to start – so I brought Wuthering Heights with me.  This time I’m traveling with a Nook, which means that I have the luxury of “packing” as many English novels as my heart desires without worrying that my backpack’s zipper will break.  So, while hubby has been concerning himself with things like GPS coordinates and hiking socks, I’ve been brainstorming a book list that will cover every stop in our upcoming circuit of southern England.  (I probably won’t download all of these.  But it’s still fun to think about the characters that I’ve loved as I’m walking in their footsteps.)

Bath – For the first stop on our trip, I’ll be in full-on Jane Austen mode.  Austen lived in Bath periodically and the town currently houses the Jane Austen Centre.  Although Rick Steves only recommends it for “fans,” I’m a rabid Jane Austen fangirl and hubby is stuck to me, so we will certainly be visiting and paying homage to the giant Colin Firth poster.  Obviously.  So for a visit to Bath, the books of choice are clearly Jane Austen!  I’ll be taking Persuasion, and possibly Northanger Abbey, since Bath is a major setting in both books.

Stonehenge – On the way from Bath to our next stop, Cornwall, we’re planning to stop at Stonehenge.  When we do, I’ll be thinking of poor, mistreated Tess from Thomas Hardy’s tragic Tess of the d’Urbervilles, one of my high school favorites.  In the climactic scene, Tess stretches out across a Druid altar at Stonehenge and makes a terrible confession.

Cornwall – I’ve been wanting to visit Cornwall ever since I first read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.  It’s still a favorite, and I recommend it to everybody.  The brooding estate of Manderley, still haunted by the outsized personality of its late mistress, Rebecca de Winter, and the Cornish coast where she met her demise have called to me since I read the iconic first line, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”  For more Cornwall, pick up any other du Maurier novel – I also love Rule Britannia and Jamaica Inn.  Or, if you want to be really ambitious, try Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory.  (King Arthur is believed to be a Cornish king, and the castle of Tintagel – which we’ll be visiting – is considered by many as the seat of Camelot.)  But if you bring Malory along with you, don’t expect to read anything else!  900 pages of Ye Olde English is quite the commitment.

The Cotswolds – This is the quintessential storybook England, of thatched-roof cottages and rambling rose gardens.  While in the Cotswolds, I plan to treat myself to some of the quintessential English sense of humor… through P.G. Wodehouse.  Wodehouse wrote some 90+ novels, many of them focusing on two of my favorite literary characters of all time, the dopey aristrocrat Bertie Wooster and his devoted and brilliant valet, Jeeves.  Bertie often finds himself sent out of London to the country by various domineering aunts, for the purpose of proposing to wealthy young women whom he can’t stand, or stealing bits of china or silver from his unwitting hosts.  Bertie invariably ends up either engaged, on the run from the law (sometimes in the form of his old pal Stilton Cheesewright, sometimes the bumbling Constable Oates), or both.  But not to worry: Jeeves always gets him out of his scrapes.  Although the generic countryside of the Wooster and Jeeves novels isn’t identified as being the Cotswolds, with town names like Steeple Bumpleigh, Totleigh-in-the-Wold and Market Snodsbury, it can’t be anywhere else in my imagination.  My favorite Wodehouse novel is The Code of the Woosters, where Bertie is sent to pinch a cow-creamer from his Uncle Tom’s arch-nemesis, Sir Watkyn Bassett, and finds himself dodging the dippy daughter of the house, Lady Madeline, as well as Sir Watkyn’s aspiring dictator friend Roderick Spode.  Good stuff.

Stratford-Upon-Avon – While in the Cotswolds, we’re going to nip over to Stratford for a day-trip to see Shakespeare’s birthplace.  Yes, I know it’s touristy.  No, I don’t care.  I love everything Will has done (except for Titus, yuck).  I’ll be giddy all day, thinking about my favorite Shakespeare plays – Macbeth, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew and especially A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  In high school I participated in a Shakespeare competition and recited one of Helena’s monologues – good enough for second place, wheeee!  Later, for my sixteenth birthday, some friends got me tickets to see Midsummer on my birthday.  We sat on stage and I recited along with the actors.  Happy times.  So yeah, I’ll be excited to see Will’s pad!

Oxford – There’s plenty to choose from when it comes to Oxford lit.  You could try Mr Verdant Green: Adventures of an Oxford Freshman, which I picked up in London in 2008 when I ran out of books to read on the plane home.  Or you could go with A Discovery of Witches if you want something more recent and bestsellery.  But my favorite Oxford book has to be Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers.  I love the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries – especially the ones that include Lord Peter’s paramour, the mystery writer Harriet Vane, and Gaudy Night is almost all Harriet, as she visits her alma mater and helps solve the mystery of who is sending “poison pen” letters to the Oxford faculty.  Such fun!

London – As befits a big city, there are so many choices!  You could try the Sherlock Holmes mysteries – I’ll be downloading those for sure.  Or if you want some children’s lit, how about Peter Pan?  When you finish it, you could drop by the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and see if he’ll fly off to Neverland with you.  Or drop by King’s Cross Station to visit Platform 9 3/4 and think of Harry Potter… or stop to watch the Changing of the Guard and recite A. A. Milne’s poem “Buckingham Palace.”  (“Do you think the King knows all about me?”  “Sure to, dear, but it’s time for tea,” says Alice.)  And you can shop for books vicariously with 84, Charing Cross Road.  On this trip, I’m planning to pay tribute to London with some Dickens – Great Expectations, probably, or maybe Bleak House.

Where do you like to travel via literature?