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Saturday Snapshots is a non-book related meme hosted by Alyce. I wanted to see what it would be like to participate in my very first meme and this looked like the most appealing option for this particular Saturday. I have, of course, managed to find some pics that relate back to my favourite topic - books!
Five years ago my husband and I travelled to the UK for 3 weeks to follow the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup.
In between games we visited many wonderful places and revisited favourite haunts from previous trips.
One of our new adventures was to Chesil Beach in the south of England. I had started reading Ian McEwan's 'On Chesil Beach' on the flight over in anticipation.
So I was prepared for the long strip of pebble beach with water in front and back! And I should have been prepared for the freezing cold southerly buster blowing in across the water the day we were there, but it still took my breath away!
The pebbles were huge and smooth from weathering, but still very hard and uncomfortable to walk and sit on.
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Curiously the inclement conditions did not hinder the many fisher folk...or my determination to have a photo op, with book in hand, overlooking Chesil Beach.
I couldn't imagine how any couple (book couple or real-life couple) could manage a romantic walk along this beach! I spent my time trying to picture where the book couple would have strolled as I caressed the different sized, shaped & coloured pebbles between my fingers.
Five years ago my husband and I travelled to the UK for 3 weeks to follow the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup.
In between games we visited many wonderful places and revisited favourite haunts from previous trips.
One of our new adventures was to Chesil Beach in the south of England. I had started reading Ian McEwan's 'On Chesil Beach' on the flight over in anticipation.
So I was prepared for the long strip of pebble beach with water in front and back! And I should have been prepared for the freezing cold southerly buster blowing in across the water the day we were there, but it still took my breath away!
The pebbles were huge and smooth from weathering, but still very hard and uncomfortable to walk and sit on.
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I couldn't imagine how any couple (book couple or real-life couple) could manage a romantic walk along this beach! I spent my time trying to picture where the book couple would have strolled as I caressed the different sized, shaped & coloured pebbles between my fingers.
As it turned out, 'On Chesil Beach' was not to be one of my favourite McEwan books - perhaps it wasn't a book that travelled well. I couldn't really give it the undivided attention it probably deserved.
When I finished it, I swapped it in a B & B in Northumbria for a wonderful old copy of 'Mary Jane' by Daphne du Maurier instead. Too bad I can't travel back in time to ye olde London to visit Mary Jane's world!
When I finished it, I swapped it in a B & B in Northumbria for a wonderful old copy of 'Mary Jane' by Daphne du Maurier instead. Too bad I can't travel back in time to ye olde London to visit Mary Jane's world!
I adore when on vacation somewhere I can read a book set in and/or written there. I have some lovely memories of doing that in Prague and Cape Cod in particular. Too bad the Chesil Beach novel wasn't more satisfying...
ReplyDeleteWell even if the book wasn't as good as you hoped, the beach itself looks fun! I would have thought that it would have been little pebbles too - those are much more of what I would call stones. I've only been to England once and it was so cold!
ReplyDeleteOh those stone beaches are awful! I read On Chesil Beach too, and it wasn't my favourite either.
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