Because it was so hot while we were away, I spent a lot of time sitting in the shade in this small town garden (which I designed for friends) reading Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.
When we did venture out I found myself looking around York thinking that the characters in the book knew this city, walked these streets, Cardinal Wolsey would have arrived from London through that very gate. We visited Lincoln and the old part of that city too would have been familiar to some of the real people Mantel brings back to life so effectively. We went to Easton Walled Garden which may have looked much the same as it did in Tudor times and the Cholmeley family who have owned it for 14 generations were around in Henry VIII's time.
We went to a wonderful concert of choral music by the scholars of St Martin in the Field in an ancient church in York and I realised that some of the music would have been known to Thomas Cromwell, and would probably have sounded just the same.
I became more immersed in the book and the period than I ever have before with any book, and it was a lovely experience. I'm now reading Bring Up The Bodies....
All because it was 26 degrees.
We went to a wonderful concert of choral music by the scholars of St Martin in the Field in an ancient church in York and I realised that some of the music would have been known to Thomas Cromwell, and would probably have sounded just the same.
I became more immersed in the book and the period than I ever have before with any book, and it was a lovely experience. I'm now reading Bring Up The Bodies....
All because it was 26 degrees.
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