Have you ever visited the settings of your favorite novels?

If you can…do.

It’s a déjà vu sort of feeling.

The last two weeks of my recent trip, I was in England with my daughter.

As you may know,many of my favorite children’s books are set in England.

I felt like I’d come home.

In London, before my daughter arrived, I wandered away from my hotel to find Portobello Road.

If you’ve read any of the Paddington Bear books, you’ll know that Portobello Road is where Paddington and his friend Mr. Gruber have their elevenses (tea and marmalade at 11 am).

Mr. Gruber runs an antiques stall on Portobello Road, which is, in real life just as in the books, a very long street lined with antiques stores.

I could definitely picture the two characters holed up in the back of the antique store chatting over tea and marmalade sandwiches.

My daughter and I traveled through the busy Paddington Station.

Michael Bond (author of thePaddington Bear series) was inspired to create his charming bear because of his memories of the lines of children at this railway station during the second world war.

They had been sent there by their parents from warring countries to find a safe haven with an unknown family until the war ended.

Paddington, of course, had been sent to England from Peru by his loving aunt who could no longer take the best care of him.

As for me, in the station I found the Paddington Bear statue, directly under a clock: a small, Peruvian-sized bear in bronze.

His nose and foot were shinier than the rest of him from fans rubbing those spots.

I might have shed a tear at finally seeing this bear in his station, a bear that I’ve loved since I was ten.

Continuing, we went to the Tower-of-London end of the city and visited the Dickens’ streets, including Leadenhall Market.

Could I imagine Scrooge sticking his head out of any of the windows in this area and hailing the boy below with a hopeful greeting: “What’s today?”

“Why, it’s Christmas Day,” replies the boy.

Yes, yes I absolutely could imagine it.

From there we walked to the Bank of England where Mr. Banks (Mary Poppins) worked.

Earlier, we had walked to the Chelsea neighborhood of London which is supposedly the inspiration for the neighborhood where the Banks family lived.

If so, it would have been quite the hike for Mr. Banks to walk to work.

From London, we headed south to visit Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Woods—which is called Five Hundred Acre Woods.

Being October, the leaves were turning yellow and falling.

It was serene and quiet.

We saw Eeyore’s house, Pooh’s house where he lived under the name of Sanders, and Piglet’s house.

None of this is a museum.

It’s open to everyone. (Christopher Robin’s actual animal toys are in the New York City Public Library.)

We played Pooh Sticks at Pooh Sticks Bridge.

A neighbor’s dog playing in the water kept fetching the sticks, so we’ll never know who won.

Could I imagine young Christopher Robin playing in the woods with his animal friends?

Absolutely.

From there, we headed up to Oxford, to visit Christ Church College and the dining hall from Harry Potter.

It’s the most impressive college dining hall I’ve ever seen: dark wood paneling; oil portraits of Christ Church members including founder King Henry VIII, gazing down on the long tables; a large fireplace on either side of the room.

Oxford was also home to the real Alice (in Wonderland), as well as C.S. Lewis.

It’s a beautiful city, nicknamed the City of Dreaming Spires, which can be viewed from Carfax Tower.

Edinburgh, Scotland, gave me Big Drama vibes with its imposing black and cream stone buildings, the castle perched on top of a craggy hill.

Edinburgh is where Robert Louis Stevenson lived when he was young.

His house is now a Bed and Breakfast, not a museum.

But I could imagine sickly Robert lying in bed watching the feet of the passersby from his below-ground window as he imagined playing with other children, being well, dueling with pirates.

At some point, we walked by Elephant House Café where J.K. penned her Harry Potter novels.

Back in England, we traveled to the Lake District for Beatrix Potter.

The Lake District is a large area, encompassing small villages/towns/hamlets.

We stayed in a hotel in Bowness on Windermere, which was once a holiday home where Potter often stayed with her parents.

Potter eventually bought it for her widowed mother.

In Ambleside, we saw another of Potter’s houses (she was quite wealthy) which she purchased for herself and her fiancé.

He passed away before they married and she couldn’t bring herself to live in it.

But she did use it as her writing office, mostly writing from the kitchen table.

This is where she wrote The Tale of Tom Kitten and The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher.

The yard had a vegetable garden, (hello, Peter Rabbit!), and the gate she illustrated in Tom Kitten.

From a distance, we could see the house where Potter lived, next to the post office where she mailed her manuscripts.

She was self-published.

Near Potter’s home, in Grasmere, we saw William Wordsworth’s grammar school.

It was just sitting there without any fanfare, just an oh-by-the-way sort of thing.

So where do your favorite stories take place?

I urge you to go visit, if you get the opportunity.

Watch your stories come alive.

Until next time,

~ Gail

Countdown: 6 weeks left of 2024

Before you go, don’t forget to sign up for my mailing list, below: