Reviews, tudors and soggy escapades

I’m back into the swing of blogging regularly again, but am still really behind on reviews, with 16 to catch up on for the last few months! But, thankfully my 7-month book buying ban (aside from a week in Seattle when I was allowed to buy USA titles difficult to get over here) is now over, and I celebrated by buying three books (oops), although they were on special offer and already on my TBR list! So hopefully now I shall finally get round to reading The Catcher in the Rye, which I shamefully have not yet read. Aside from that though, I am going to try and be good, though it doesn’t help when Waterstone’s keep sending me discount offers by email! The world is against me!

Somehow it is August already, and a year since I took an office job! I am still making the most of being onshore most of the time, and can’t shake the mentality of trying to fit it all in before I get sent away! Last weekend I travelled to London with a few friends, to take in the Henry VIII exhibition at the British Library. It was an absolutely fantastic exhibit and great value for money as we spent over 3 hours investigating every portrait, book, document and hand written letter, including a hand written love letter to Anne Boleyn, locked away in the Vatican for 500 years.. Excellently put together, even this history buff learnt a fair deal about the most infamous of Tudors.

After the exhibition and a delicious late lunch at the consistently wonderful World Food Café in Neals Yard, we trundled along the river to Shakespeare’s Globe for a performance of As You Like It. Possibly one of the best Shakespearean productions I have even seen, I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who can make it to London before the run ends this summer. Our visit was somewhat marred though by the persistent rain that began shortly before the play and ended long after we returned home, complete with torrential downpour that filled the yard with water, drenching everything in reach, destroyed my phone, and soaked us to our very bones. Not the most pleasant walk to the station afterwards I can tell you. My history passion knows no bounds however, and I hope to catch the exhibits of Henry and his wives at Hampton Court Palace, and Henry’s armour at the Tower of London in a few weeks.

A great weekend was ended at Thetford Forest, with mountain biking through the trees (gaining an impressive array of bruises in the process) and camping at the Larling Beer Festival, where the evening mist creeped over us as we danced away with many a pint of ale in our hands. Needless to say, I am still rather shattered…roll on this weekend!

In the meantime, I am slowly savouring Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare, which I am thoroughly enjoying, and I feel the need to reread Shapiro’s 1599, to continue my Elizabethan theme.

What are you reading?

The evening mist at Larling