London is so saturated in connections to writers and literature you can just walk around and see what the streets throw up at you. We did two trips this year and as well as multiple ads in the underground for The Miniaturist and books by David Levithan (Every Day) we gathered a nice haul of Random Writers. At the Pollock Toy Museum we spotted these toy soldiers belonging to E.M. Forster (Howards End, Room With a View).
Near our hotel we took a short cut through a cemetery – Bunhill Fields – without realising it is the burial place of many famous folk, including Daniel Defoe, John Bunyan, and William Blake. Mind you, they are a little vague about the exact whereabouts of Blake…
Baker Street is so full of nods to Sherlock Holmes I’m surprised they haven’t turned it into a theme park!
And this plaque to Beatrix Potter is one we stumbled over in 2011, it’s in Bolton Gardens, Kensington. The house was destroyed in the Blitz.
On our way to a pottery suppliers with our (pottering) friend Ann, we passed a house in Fitzroy Square where both George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf once lived, though not at the same time. While searching for a specialist paper shop near Victoria Station we spotted a former abode of Joseph Conrad.
Gatwick Airport threw up one last random writer – Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen). She was staring from the tail of a plane. I seem to remember from reading Out of Africa that she loved to fly so I’m sure she’d approve of this tribute from the Norwegian Airliner.
The Belugas are Watching 