A Medieval Town of Books: Hay-on-Wye, Wales

After our back-to-back sabbaticals in Tokyo and at Oxford University, I've been busy offline, settling back home in Maine. During our year abroad, my professor husband researched an academic book, and I gathered material for two young adult novels. At the end of our UK sabbatical, we visited Hay-on-Wye, which hosts a literary festival and has more used bookstores than I've ever seen in one location.

The Richard Booth's Bookshop has three floors of books, ranging from rare to new, including a large children's and YA section shown above. It's the brown woodframe building in the opening photo.

We found the best antique book selection at Hay-on-Wye Booksellers in a Tudor style building that felt appropriately Shakespearean. I chose an antique book featuring animals for our kind friends who hosted our dog while we were abroad.

To distinguish themselves, some secondhand bookstores specialized by genre. Murder and Mayhem is devoted to mysteries, crime fiction, and horror.

After a day of book shopping, we stopped at Shepherds for delicious local ice cream.

On a sunnier day, we walked along the River Wye and admired the wild swans.

We also learned how to say weak bridge in Welsh: "pont wan." Luckily said pont was strong enough for foot traffic and small cars. There were more challenging hikes in the nearby Brecon Beacons.

After our country walk, we enjoyed a cream tea (scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream) at Llangoed Hall, Laura Ashley's former home (above). Even in my hiking clothes, I felt like a character in Downton Abbey.

Back in England, we visited Highclere Castle (at left), where Downton Abbey was filmed. The tour was fun, featuring the amazing library, but they don't allow indoor photography.

It was such an inspiring year abroad! My young adult novel set in the UK is now with my agent, who loves it. I'm currently working on a new YA novel set in Japan, which I will blog about later. I update more frequently on twitter.

More about our Wales vacation here:
Carew Castle & Coastal Cliffs in Pembrokeshire, Wales

Carew Castle & Coastal Cliffs in Pembrokeshire, Wales

Tenby in Wales

I'm back home in Maine and already feeling nostalgic for our UK Sabbatical. In the last week my husband and I visited Wales. My mother-in-law's family originally came from Pembrokeshire, and since she died of cancer earlier this spring, it was a bittersweet vacation.

Our first stop was Tenby, a medieval walled city, where in 1471 the future King Henry VII supposedly escaped via a tunnel on his way to France. Exploring a back alley, I learned the Welsh word for bookstore: cafion. Most signs in Wales are in both English and Welsh. On a trash bin taught us the Welsh word for litter: sbwriel. Don't ask me how to pronounce it!

Bluebells on the Coastal Path, overlooking Tenby

From the Tenby train station is a free public trail that cuts across a golf course to the Coastal Path. My hometown in Maine is on the other side of the Atlantic, and I'd missed the soothing sound of crashing surf.

Most of the Tenby trail was an easy climb, but I couldn't resist scrambling down a rocky cliff for a photo of...

...wildflowers!

Another hazard was crossing a military shooting range, but warning flags indicated all was clear that day. Jet fighter practice flights occasionally break the idyllic quiet of rural Wales.

The next day we hiked another section of the Coastal Path, which abbutted a lily pond nature sanctuary,

...and a secluded beach.

You could hike for days on the Coastal Path. What I love the most about the UK is the public access to the coast and countryside with long networks of well maintained trails. We were lucky to have clear weather in Wales; it was the driest spring in 20 years.

Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire, Wales

After the hike, we drove just a few miles to Carew Castle. We arrived late enough in the day to have the castle all to ourselves to explore. It was built in 1270 to fortify the tidal estuary and was in remarkably good shape for a ruin. We were horrified to learn that a lord, upon installing larger windows, had razed the village for a better view.

Admiring the castle as we walked the circular river path, I was struck by how much Carew Castle reminded me of the young adult novel I had revised on sabbatical. A MATCH FOR EVE is a contemporary story about a year abroad at a castle-cum-school in coastal Cornwall, which is to the south of Wales but a similar landscape. Great Britain inspires great stories.

Like Cornwall, the country lanes of Wales are bordered by centuries old blooming hedgerows. The roads are often only wide enough for one car so you need to back up to a pullover spot to let another car pass...or to let me take more photos! I'll save Hay-on-Wye, the Welsh town of books, for another post.

As much as we enjoyed our time abroad, it's lovely to be home, catching up with family and friends.

Goodbye to Bluebell Season & England

Wytham Woods at Oxford University is used for environmental research and hosts art studios.

As eager as I am to return home after a year abroad, England is hard to leave during bluebell season. It's been a fun and productive sabbatical in two countries. My UK young adult novel is revised, and I've started writing a new YA novel set in Japan. We spent lots of time with our British family, caught with old friends, and explored new places. I will blog about last week's marvelous vacation in Wales soon.

Wild bluebells and rapeseed fields at Wytham Woods

This week I'll be mostly offline moving back to Maine. More later!

Bluebell woods at Pangbourne College in Berkshire, my husband's old school.

High Table at Magdalen College, Oxford University

Magdalen is my favorite college at Oxford University. The name is pronounced "Maudlin," and the grounds are open to visitors for a fee. It's especially beautiful now with all the daffodils.

My husband attended the neighboring Oriel College, but his great-great uncles were Magdalen alums whose names (the Cattleys) were carved into a wall memorializing graduates who lost their lives to war. The plaque is outside the chapel, which hosts a lovely candlelit evensong.

Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford University

Magdalen is known for its gargoyles.

Another personal connection is our old friend Stewart Wood from our Harvard years, who is now a Magdalen fellow and a politician. Stewart's service to the Labour Party earned him an honorary title and a seat in the House of Lords. The day after the horrific terrorist attack on Parliament, Steward traveled up from London to teach politics and to host us for high table. He spoke of the courage of the security team, who ran towards danger, and the camaraderie among friends, rivals, and strangers during the lockdown. We always enjoy comparing notes on American and British politics.

In front of Stewart's campus office building grows a mighty oak that hatched from an acorn in 1660!

Magdalen's extensive grounds include a deer park and a canal. It's hard to believe you are still in the city of Oxford. The campus was extra peaceful since the students are on spring break.

Had it been term time, students would have been dining at the lower tables. Only the senior common room and their guests dine by candlelight at high table, a step above the rest.

A different wine accompanied every delicious course, and I drank sparkling water from a tin cup forged in 1888!

By happy coincidence another guest, Matthew Skelton, wrote kid lit too. I felt like a character in a novel myself.

After a three-course dinner we walked through the cloisters... 

...to the senior common room for a second dessert of fruits and chocolates.

Our chairs were arranged in a semi-circle before the fire. By tradition, port and madeira are always passed to the left. In front of the fire was a contraption for ferrying the decanter to the other side of the hearth, manned by an Islamic Center fellow and by Stewart on the receiving end. Okay, this must be a steampunk novel!

Several famous children's authors hail from Oxford. Magdalen has a book of wagers including one by C.S. Lewis, who taught English and always won his bets, that time a bottle of port. You can tell who dined at Magdalen high table since guests are weighed on a jockey scale and their weights recorded.

At our last Magdalen high table, we walked across the cloister roof from the smoking room to the dining hall. The smoking room is currently closed for renovations, which were delayed after a medieval skeleton was found under the stairway. Archeologists believe the remains to be from the Jewish cemetery that predated the college. Oxford can be stranger than fiction.

On that chilling note, we bid goodnight to Magdalen College. I may revisit in a novel set there.

Literary Highlights of Christ Church College, Oxford University

Christ Church College at Oxford, founded in 1546, has a rich literary history. The majestic front quad and fountain recall scenes from Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. The movie adaptation of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass was filmed on this campus too.

Christ Church was also the model for Hogwarts' dining hall in Harry Potter, making this Oxford college the most popular tourist destination. Visits are limited to afternoons and there is an admission charge.

According to Oxford legend, the fireplace andirons inspired the trippy neck extending scene in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll was a lecturer of mathematics at Christ Church, which was his alma mater too.

The entrance to the dining hall (above) is nearly as grand as the adjacent cathedral. Christ Church is the only Oxford college with a cathedral, instead of a smaller chapel, and visitors can attend Evensong without paying admission. The colleges of Oxford University were originally founded as religious institutions.

On a rare clear day, the limestone glows as gold as the setting sun. Although Christ Church is one of the wealthiest colleges, it ran out of funding to complete the cloisters so the front quad is open to the rain. The arches on the walls show where the covered cloister would have been attached had their patron Cardinal Wolsey not lost favor with King Henry VIII.

Despite its posh history, the rainbow flag in back quad shows that the student body is open-minded now.

The back entrance leads to...

Merton Street, which has hardly changed since medieval times. You can see how living in Oxford inspired me to write a novel about an American at a British school. This is my magical home away from home.

A Winter Walk in Maine vs. England

Between sabbaticals to Japan and England, my husband and I returned home for the holidays to see our family. We have a tradition of welcoming the New Year at Popham Beach. This three mile state park is a half an hour drive from our house in midcoast Maine.

The easiest place for a winter walk in Maine is a beach since the tide washes away the ice and snow.

Our family motto is: There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. L.L. Bean started in Maine for a good reason. My blue Bean coat is perfect for subfreezing, windy days and has lasted since college. The company is a big local employer, especially of African immigrants.

It was hard to say who was happier to be back at Popham: our daughter or our dog.

Dogs are only allowed at Popham State Park offseason. We had to leash Scout to keep her out of the frigid sea. For most of our walk, we had the beach to ourselves.

As a photographer, I'm drawn to the winter light and empty landscapes.

The days are short this far up north, but the colors are intense.

Sunset is my favorite time at the shore, despite the chill.

Even the dune grass seemed to shiver in the wind.

Only in winter do you see such dramatic sunsets.

We stayed until the sun had burnt down to embers.

A week after the Popham walk, Henry and I flew to England, where the temperature rarely drops below freezing. University Parks is a fifteen minute walk from our sabbatical home in Oxford.

The crocuses and snowdrops were at peak bloom on February 20th, two months earlier than Maine.

As much as I'm enjoying an early spring, I miss skiing out our back door and the winter light. Most days in England are overcast and often wet. Still, it's good writing weather so I'm making good progress on my novels. I brought waterproof layers and boots. A winter walk is always welcome.

Blogwatch: this post is part of Les @A Tidewater Gardener's annual Winter Walk Off.