Laurie’s wanders
I’m moving around England, using research as an excuse for seeing something of this gorgeous May countryside. Yesterday I walked all over Oxford, finding one new museum and another one that has closed down, leaving only a vestige in the corner of the Town Hall. Also bookstores, of course. I have been staying in the county prison, a place with a fairly dark history that has been converted into a delightfully quirky hotel–oh, the architects must have had such fun with this one! And since there’s a mention of the prison in Dreaming Spies, well, as I said: research.
However, since none of my machines want to talk to each other, you’ll have to wait until next week for all the lovely pictures I’ve taken. Just use your imagination: Oxford’s red buses and Cotswold stone, the dreaming spires and masses of tourists. Well, maybe you could leave those last out…
In the meantime, Kindle, Nook, and iBooks are doing a special offer on The Game until May 17, if you know anyone who might like a bargain copy, or if you’d like one for your e-reader.
I can picture it so well, Laurie. Be sure to have a good scone for me, raisins optional…
Have one for me too. Looking forward to those pictures, Laurie.
–Alice
I worked at the museum that’s now just a vestige in the Town Hall! It makes me so sad that the council has done that- it’s such a fantastic place and had so many wonderful little things. The best, of course, was the skeleton of the convicted murderer from Abingdon but if that’s not your style, there were so many lovely Alice trinkets and some original cobblestone streets from when they were made from the bones of animals. Also, we had the second of Oliver Cromwell’s death masks (the first is at the British Museum). Sigh. My friends who worked there too and I keep hoping that some rich benefactor will one day restore it to his glories…. Enjoy Oxford! I miss it so!
Hi Michal, yes, very sad about the mere vestiges of the museum, it was a delightful place. Maybe Mary Russell could help them with their fund raising…
Did you imagine yourself as Harriet Vane looking at the ivory chessmen through the window of the little shop, and singing with Peter while they were being packed up?
Tricia, I did see a fabulous chess set in the Ashmolean, although not Chinese ivory…
Sounds perfectly lovely. Would love to walk in Russell’s world a bit. But I did pick up The Game for my Kindle. Couldn’t resist. Good thing there isn’t a rule about how many versions of each novel a person is allowed to have…
Oooh, Laurie, I have such lovely (and also mixed) memories of Oxford.
I actually had the privilege of attending Encaenia on the arm of a visiting professor, ages ago, and caught glimpses of Watson, or was it Crick? of Nobel Prize legend, between nibbles of strawberries and cream. Such a great university, such a deep-in-history and tradition town.
Have a grand time. Glad the prison is ‘quirky’ now, not dark.
Laurie,
A huge thank you for “Touchstone” and “The Bones of Paris”. I love this new series. On another note, I am an avid Homes & Russell fan and have been since “The Beekeepers Apprentice” was first published. I have shared this book with many aficionados of Sherlock (and also, newcomers to the world of Holmes). Everyone I give it to falls in love with Holmes, and, of course, Mary Russell. One of my favorite female characters of all time! Thanks for your wonderful writing and stories. Karen Maki Varian.
Hi Karen, glad you’re enjoying Stuyvesant & Grey, and thanks for helping infect the world with the Russell & Holmes bug!
Welcome back to the sunny UK! (Can we tempt you north…?) And you’re in time to collect all the lovely new Russells! A truly impressive twelvesome.
Enjoy the trip – may the sun carry on shining!
Chris
You might want to run up to Chatsworth for their wartime exhibit: http://www.chatsworth.org/whats-on/events/chatsworth-in-wartime. (And I’d forgotten that Adele Astaire married one of the Cavendishes??)