Monday 21 November 2016

Sleeping with Books, by Anne Booth

Today is the 21st - and I realise that I haven’t written my blog post. I am so sorry - I had been wondering what to write, and mulling over various themes, but now the day has come and all I can say is - I am sleeping with books.


I am staying and working for a few days in Hawarden in Flintshire, just over the English border in Wales,in  the most beautiful library I have ever been to, the library Mr Gladstone left to the nation. It houses his personal collection of books and private papers, and it was deliberately sited in Flintshire rather than London so that the relatively under privileged area would benefit.

It’s nice to read about such a principled politician. I really like his sayings - to leave the world better than when you found it is such a good aspiration - and one it would be so good for modern politicians to follow. I also throughly agree with his positive views on tea.



So there you have it. I’m sorry I haven’t written a blog post - but maybe one of you reading this is meant to read all about Gladstone’s Library instead. You can eat delicious meals here, work in the library or the lovely lounge, walk in the park and woods he also left to the people, wander about the pretty village, go the the church next door with the Burne Jones windows. Basically - this is a wonderful place and every writer should visit! And members of the Society of Authors get a discount. Read about it and go!







6 comments:

Penny Dolan said...

Glad you are having a good time among the books, Anne.
It looks a lovely place on the website!

Lynne Benton said...

Sounds, and looks, great!

Anne Booth said...

It really is wonderful. The food is great too, and it is very well set up if you come on your own or with friends.

Joan Lennon said...

How wonderful - enjoy!

Becca McCallum said...

It sounds wonderful - and looks reasonably priced too. Now I am looking at all the courses and weekends they offer...

Penny Dolan said...

Lovely to see those photos!