A Trip “Across the Pond” ~ to England!

North Yorkshire, England here we come! Yes, we are off and traveling… to the UK once again. With John’s family living in or very near to Skipton (an ancient market town in the North Yorkshire Dales), we usually make a trip at least once a year.

I thought I might share some of our older posts on our visits to Merry Old England so that maybe you too can take a vicarious trip. Included below are links to book reviews with pictures for each of the UK locations listed in the posts, and one post which just a travel post with some books included in it:

• Bath ~ links to John’s review of The Curse Maker.
• North Yorkshire (John’s native home) ~ see Shellie’s review of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre
• Whitby ~ see Shellie’s review of Dracula.
• Our “Magical Mystery Tour” where we visited Stonehenge, Avebury, Glastonbury and more.

Also here are some pictures from our last trip – in July of 2011, which I have not posted about yet. With the pathetic excuse being that we had “the messy year from hell”.

Please enjoy!

Ancient Castles and Churches  are everywhere. Here we have Windsor Castle, Exeter Cathedral and Skipton Castle. The last two boast Norman walls within their structure, making these buildings very very old.

And for something even more ancient, we went hunting for (and found) some hidden standing stones – on Dartmoor. Stone circles are scattered everywhere in the UK; this circle was out in a grazing pasture. We almost did not find it.

 

And another circle which was found by archeologists during the Victorian era in a local park. The stones were buried in the moors and then reconstructed, also on Dartmoor.

Then there was that elusive circle near Skipton that we could not find, due to John taking a BIG scary tumble. He bumped his head, broke some ribs, and was visibly beat up and bruised all over his body!

Above is a picture of the “goose egg” on John’s forehead before it developed into a black eye. And there I am, standing on the moor among the ruins of the stone age settlement while we were searching for the stone circle – minutes before John’s tremendously loud fall on a big pile of sharp boulders. I was terrified and had visions of attempting to run, fumble, hike down difficult moors (non-locals do not easily walk on these loamy and spongy hills) while screaming for help. With an American accent, in a panic, and being totally ignored as crazy.

We also came upon some local flora and fauna – foxglove and a rare and illusive hedgehog. John and I were ecstatic when we found this little guy (he was the size of a small dog or kitten) walking on the grass. You can’t see them, but he has skinny spindly long legs with which they walk extremely slowly. We even had to run back to the house to get the camera, 4 blocks away, and had enough time to get this picture of him.

And the best part of the trip is the “local folk”. Here we have John’s oldest daughter and two of our four grandchildren. If only you could hear the littlest ones’ English accents. Emily was so very cute last July, where she called me “grand-dad Shellie” (not grandma) in her little girl Yorkshire accent.

And then there is the lovely top picture: the spectacular moors near Skipton, decorated in their summer heather and balmy warmth. Sadly, it will be much colder for our visit this time, and of course the flowering heather will be gone. But it will be lovely, green, and much wetter.

So, our bags are packed, the house-sitter is set, and we are almost ready to fly! Posting will be at a standstill, as will all social media. Emails and commenting will be slow since I will have access to the computer for a short time daily. But when we return things should be back to normal just in time for our favorite celebration – Halloween!

Once again, cheers my dears. Till the end of October!

(All the pictures included above where taken by John or myself. Please, if you use any of them, credit Layers of Thought.)

To England ~ again!

 

A trip to one of our favorite places on the planet ~ England!

Our bags are packed and ready to go – with house sitters and the like all scheduled. We can hardly wait.

As many of you know about us, with family in England and California, John and I are a solitary pair here in the Arizona desert. We are also very fortunate to be able to visit both places at least once a year. With a wedding to attend and loads of family members including 4 grandchildren (the smallest just turning 1 year last month) it is a wonderfully necessary luxury. Posting will be at a standstill but we will have a variety of stuff to update here on our return.

Till then below are several links for posts which include pictures from our England travels so that you may have a “vicarious trip” if you so choose:

• Bath ~ here is John’s review of The Curse Maker.
• North Yorkshire (John’s native home) ~ see Shellie’s review of Wuthering Heights.
• Whitby ~ see Shellie’s review of Dracula.
• Our “Magical Mystery Tour” where we visited Stonehenge, Avebury, Glastonbury and more.

Hope you all read a five star book and have some fun in the meantime. Until we return home - “Cheers my dears” to all our readers and friends!

Review of The Curse-Maker: a mystery ~ by Kelli Stanley (and a little about Bath, England – where the story is set)

 

Review by John for: The Curse-Maker ~ by Kelli Stanley US|UK|Canada.

A noir thriller with the added twist of being set in Roman times – in the ancient English spa town of Bath.

About:    Arcturus is the physician and sometime investigator for Agricola, the Roman governor of Britannia. Sick of war, and with a beautiful but ailing wife, he is persuaded to take a break at the fashionable health resort of Aquae Sulis (Bath) – hopeful that the natural hot springs will help to rejuvenate both his wife and their marriage. But this is to be no holiday. No sooner have they arrived in Aquae Sulis than a dead body is found in the sacred spring. The man was a curse maker and was strangled before being dumped in the water.

Arcturus is asked to investigate the murder by the town council, but it soon turns out that neither he nor his investigation is welcomed by the local leaders. The more he digs, the more dirt he finds, and the number of bodies starts to mount up. Soon a local temple priest is murdered, and after that a necromancer. Then it becomes apparent that there were some suspicious deaths before Arcturus arrived in town. The whole town seems to be defiled and corrupt, and it soon becomes clear that both Arcturus and his wife are themselves in great danger.

If there is a silver lining in the cloud, it is that a tragedy brings Arcturus and his wife much closer together. Also, she proves to be a capable assistant and she helps him to start unraveling the clues. Feeling sullied by the corruption, he becomes ever more determined to uncover the truths.

John’s Thoughts:   Shellie and I visited Bath last year and it is a wonderful place. A lot of tasteful renovation work has been carried out on the old Roman baths themselves and the surrounding museum is absolutely fascinating. Combine that with my love of a good historical novel, and this book looked like a winner.

There were indeed a lot of things about the book that I enjoyed, but there were also some things that I had a bit of a hard time with. On the credit side Stanley clearly has a wealth of knowledge and does a really good job of recreating an old Roman town and society – warts and all. In fact it’s the many warts that make the place interesting and believable. The Romans might have created one of the greatest civilizations, but there was absolutely no shortage of squalor and you get a good sense of what it might have been like for regular folks. There are also some nice quirky characters in the book, and the story zips along at a good pace.

On the debit side, I really struggled with some of the language. It’s a bit odd really – Stanley works hard to use Roman names and words and she is clearly striving for authenticity, but then bits of American keep on cropping up. For example, I lost count of the number of “godamns” and each time the word really jarred with me. I also came to the conclusion that while I like good historic novels, “noir” is a genre that I often struggle with. I think it’s because the plots tend to become so twisted and intestinal that either they are unbelievable or I give up on trying to make sense of it all and just skim along the surface.

Anyhow, despite the drawbacks I did enjoy the read, and I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in historic novels, Rome or noir. I’d rate the book 3 stars.

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Now for a vicarious trip to ~ Bath, England. 

Last year on our most recent visit to England we took a side trip to Bath, as mentioned by John in his review. It was wonderful! 

An ancient town which dates back to pre-historic times, it was a sacred place that contains the only “hot spring” in England. Now it’s a small city with every modern convenience, many set within some very old buildings. The low lying areas of the city were once a huge lake/marsh (picture the Lady of the Lake’s hand rising up to grasp King Arthur’s sword through its misty/steamy waters and one can almost believe the myth) which has since evolved into residences, restaurants, and shopping areas.

During the Roman invasion of England the spring was taken over and a formal Roman bath house and temple were created. Interestingly they combined both the British and Roman goddesses honored by the spring into one.

What you see above is the renovated remnants of the bath house located on top of the water source. Over the centuries the ancient building was buried and forgotten by the local population. It is only in the past 100 years that it has been renovated by archeologists creating this incredible museum.

We were pleasantly surprised about the self-guided tour; we had envisioned it as only the bath house that you see above, but once inside we had the pleasure of walking beneath the building to view the excavations and the steam rooms, as well as daily paraphernalia. Below you can see the yellow sulfur remnants on the stone and the red from the iron as the steam floats up (from the spring source) to the left and the water ducts which supply the baths to the right.

Pictured below are a figure which was carved almost two thousand years ago that was found in the ruins, and a bronze/gold head of a Roman goddess. But most important to the story are the hammered bronze pieces with writing that were used to send curses requesting revenge or various types of retribution (sadly we did not get pictures of these). Translated, these curses are quite human, sometimes mundane, sometimes violent, and tell of a story that is very similar to human behaviors today. These provide the theme for the book and its title – The Curse-Maker. Most Romans could not read or write so a literate “curse–writer” was needed to scribe them.

 

The town of Bath is extremely lovely. Below left you can see the very old hotel where we stayed, with its rounded walls that make for interestingly shaped rooms.  It had antique furniture and poor plumbing (at least by American standards!). This was within walking distance of the serene river that runs through the town and its ancient rock bridge - as well as places to eat, small independently owned shops, and, of course, the museum. Bath is a definite “must see” when visiting England.

For more information on the Bath Museum – this text links to a recent article celebrating it.

The Curse-Maker was borrowed from our local library. We enjoyed sharing and hope you had a fun vicarious trip to Bath. John, as always, will respond to any comments around his review and or course England too.

Have a great Saturday!

Review: Wuthering Heights (in audio) ~ by Emily Brontë

 

Review by Shellie: Wuthering Heights ~ by Emily Brontë

A classic masterpiece that is an incredible work of horrific and tragic fiction. It is a shocking “page turner” that I could not put  down.

About:  A tale of a haunting, either imaginary or not. It’s also a story of love and a loss so obsessive that it creates a monster from a man, mangling him into a cruel character that manipulates those around him for revenge, power, and pleasure. His anger seethes into the lives of family and those who he should love and cherish. Sadly, due to the constraints of the time, those around him cannot escape his internal conflict, external tortures, and schemes.

The story unfolds within and around two houses or manors in the late 1700s/early 1800s, in the English countryside. Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are the names of the houses where the story takes place, among the rock strewn landscape of the bleak, damp and beautiful Yorkshire Moors.

The story is told from the perspective of a new border (Lockwood) who arrives to rent Thrushcross Grange in an effort to escape city life in London. Hoping for idyllic countryside and folk, he finds things are not at all as he had wished or imagined. He is appalled yet intrigued as to the reasons why there is such lack of normal civility at Wuthering Heights, so he consults the household’s servant, Nelly Dean. Through a series of conversations she tells him the horrible and convoluted tale. As they progress, Nelly’s strong character and moral sensibilities come through as she passes along the tragedy of the young Heathcliff and Catherine, spanning their childhood and beyond.

Thoughts:   Many of you may know that John is from North Yorkshire, growing up only several miles from where the Bronte’s lived, wrote, and died. So naturally I have visited the area frequently over the years. When visiting one can see the landscape is rocky and harsh with its boggy, peaty waters running through its craggy hills. It is generally damp and cold with summers that can be lovely and warm but only for a moment. This description of the moors is also a metaphor used throughout the novel; it mirrors a conflicted passion between the main characters.

It is accepted that life there was harsh 200 years ago, and still is for farmers working there today. They are known to be surly and cranky, so Heathcliff's temperament was no surprise, yet his extreme cruelty was. He is a character who is sadistic and that overshadows most of the other well fleshed out figures – even the wild, strong-willed, yet spoiled Catherine. I was shocked, thinking the book was categorized as a romance and it that would be light. Boy was I wrong.

You may think that through my description above that I did not particularly like Wuthering Heights. I loved it and think it is an incredible surprise of a horror story. It’s a harshly “romantic” tale and an enduring historical classic. It has a wonderful and deeply conflicted character with a chafing angst. It deserves a 4.5 stars and gets a big “Wow” in my humble opinion.

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The version I listened to is included below, as is a paperback I used as reference – the Yorkshire accent is difficult even today, let alone 200 years ago when the book was set and written. Even John as a native Yorkshireman had difficulty translating it for me. The best part of the particular version I listened to is that the narrator has a “proper” Yorkshire accent and sounds just like my sister in law (a native). It gives the reading an authentic feel.

Audio: Naxos AudioBooks; Unabridged; 11-CD Set; read by Janet McTeer and David Timson; 13 hours, 9 minutes; May 15, 2007; US|UK|Canada.

Paperback: Signet Classic; introduction by Alice Hoffman; copy shown above also includes an afterword by Juliet Barker; 352 pages; March 1, 2011; US|UK|Canada.

And now for some visuals - all are near Skipton, an ancient market town in the English North Yorkshire Dales and just a few miles away from where Bronte lived.

These were taken by John and myself in July several years ago:

You can see the rocky hills although most of the heather has been cleared for the cattle.

Here are portioned off areas used for sheep grazing. I would estimate the temperature was in the high 60s on the days these shots were taken, which is warm for the locals. Be forewarned that it can change in minutes to a windy rain-soaked downpour, yes even in July. And in winter it is much colder and often icy with occasional snow.

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Author Bio:   Emily Jane Brontë was born July 30, 1818, at Thornton in Yorkshire, the fifth of six children. Both of Emily's parents had literary leanings. Her mother died of cancer shortly after Emily's third birthday. Her primary residence and the rectory where she lived now serves as a Bronte Museum. Emily's only close friends were her brother Branwell and her sisters Charlotte and Anne. She died of tuberculosis on December 19, 1848 at the age of thirty, and never knew the success of her only novel Wuthering Heights - which was published a year before her death. She was purported to be a reserved, courageous woman with a commanding will and manner.

Wuthering Heights was first published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte. It met with mixed reviews by critics when it first appeared, mainly because of the narrative's stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty.

On our last trip to England I read a short bio on the family from one of the books in the cottage where we stayed. From what I read their lives were short and tragic.

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This book will be included in a variety of challenges – The Basics, Historical Fiction Challenges, Fill in the Gaps, and where ever else I can fit it.

I have to give a big thanks to JoV @ Bibliojunkie for motivating me to finally actually read Wuthering Heights instead of just looking at it on the shelf!  She read it this past April with a group in a “mini- read- a- long”. Now that I am finished (a bit late for the group), I can go and check out the conversations and lurk a little. *big smile*

Thanks for reading!

Short Hiatus, Seaside, and Steampunk

 

We are off traveling.

This time its off to San Diego for a short business trip.

The good news is that we will be on the Pacific coast with its lovely beaches, sea mist, and so much more. The weather promises to be warmly moist (maybe with a bit of rain), and a change of scenery will be more than nice.

We adore Carlsbad (links to post for our last trip from August of 2009).  Its beach side shopping area has some “local color”, small stores and independent restaurants - several that serve fresh sea food pizza (surprisingly tasty), and a used book store called Fahrenheit 451 (links to Yelp) which purportedly has some very old books – we are talking 500 years old.

The not so great bit is that we will be missing the Wild West Con - steam punk convention held in Tucson this weekend. We are very very sad.

It promises to be a blast with an interesting venue. Held on a Western style movie set here in the Wild West of Arizona with all those Cacti, dust, and dry weather. I am thinking the attendees just may believe they have stepped back in time. They are featuring several authors, one which we had planned on stalking (Cherie Priest was my first choice). The plan was to get all dressed up in steam”ish” Victoriana style, get some books signed, and afterward to share pictures and whatnot in a blog post. But business before pleasure, as they say.

Pictures included in this post where taken by John from the beach in Carlsbad, and these gorgeous steampunk”ish” Native American statues from Sedona below.  I cannot imagine how much they weigh since they are left out doors all night long and have not been stolen -  they are handcrafted from welded iron and located at the Village at Tlaquepaque.

Our bags are packed, the house/cat sitter is set, and posting will resume in our slightly less than normal fashion by the end of next week.

We have several reviews in the works –  Enough About Love (translated lit fic), The March by E. L. Doctorow (civil war hist fic), Home Fires by Gene Wolfe (sci fi), and a plethora of others we are currently reading, thinking and writing about.

Even though it’s early - never the less have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Anniversary ~ February 8th, 2005

 

 

It’s our 6 year anniversary today!   We got married on the Northern coast of California just near the lovely town of Mendocino. It was a wonderful day… one of the best. This picture is with our singing vicar – he was incredible!

Sealed with a kiss and auspiciously beautiful weather that day ~ we felt the fates had blessed us since California weather is notoriously moody in February.

 

I do have to say that happiness is marrying your best friend, and is highly recommended.  Here’s to the next six years!

Happy New Year ~ 2011 ~ Have a sane, safe, and hopefully not too sober celebration!

 

Yes for the Safe and Sane ~ but we can just leave the sober bit out! 

Lets toast to all life’s wonders ~ chocolate, love, a few I will leave out for decorum’s sake, and best of all books!

We are off travelling again. Yes its any excuse for us. This time to the Napa Valley (Shellie’s home). So naturally Layers of Thought will be on hiatus for a short while. We have not seen our California family in over a year. Our bags are packed the house/pet sitter is all ready to arrive and we are almost ready to go.

Please stay tuned since when we return there are a plethora of books, reviews, giveaways/announcements and more which are in the queue to share. Goodness knows what the “blog gods/fairies/fates” will bestow upon us in the up and coming year. Can you believe its almost 2011?  With a very special day tomorrow – 1/1/11. How cool is that?

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We leave you with a picture of the Napa Valley as it looks in winter. Perhaps we will be lucky enough to see a few yellow mustard flowers that are planted to add nitrogen to the soil at the base of the vines? They are fabulous!

In the interim in case you do not have enough to read *wink*,  here are a few links based around the new year for interest’s sake:

• Some very interesting ~ 2011 Science based predictions from New Scientist found via Kurzweil.
• A twitter new year literary resolution “hashtags” where you can share yours and find out about others - What's your literature resolution for 2011 ~ via Media Bistro. #litresolution.
• For the resolution dieter ~ We love Hungry Girl. She is amazing!

Cheers to our dear friends, readers, and fellow bloggers. See you next year!

Happy Halloween ~ to our Ghoulish Fiends and Readers!

 

Happy Halloween, Samhain,  All Saints, All Souls, and Dia de los Muertos! ~ One of the best times of the Year.

We love Fall; never mind that it’s still 90 degrees here in the desert. We can  still imagine the fall weather that exists almost everywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere.

And what a perfect excuse to dress up, party, eat candy, and make a grand fool of oneself whatever your age. So much fun and so many wonderful historical holidays revolve around this seasonal event with its most prevalent theme – DEATH, zombies, witches and more.

Which brings me to the picture on the left where I am if fact being courted by death. His fingers creeping upon my head and his wanton smile as I stand ignorant to his grasp. Yikes!  (I do have to admit he was a very cute death – with a nice English accent, so I did not mind too much. Shh,,,,Just don’t tell John. *giggle*)

The above picture was taken in the ancient market town of York, located in North Yorkshire England. John took this as we were standing in line for a horror tour on our last trip to the UK this August; and yes, it was raining! 

This spooky fellow lured us into descending into the recesses of the ancient underground bowels of an old building. It is common knowledge that York is loaded with them and  according to legend, torturing and all sorts of atrocities occurred in these tunnels.  During the tour one actor singled John out and attempted to use an ancient iron device which, shall we say, “removes” male body parts.  We were all in hysterics – except John!

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Moving on here we have some more scary stuff.

Below are a few pictures from our last year’s post and a link so that you can create one of  yourself.   Link to our 2009 Halloween post.

 

How would you like these two to chase you for their personal culinary enjoyment?  Gosh I look happy. Perhaps I just ate?

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Now for a summary of our creepy, scary, and horror-related posts for this season:

• Review of Haunted Legends ~ by Shellie
• Swamp thing with scary shorts and movie reviews ~ by Shellie
• The Spooktacular Giveaway Blog Hop ~ with tons of books to win! But ends on Sunday.
• Buying Time, a legal thriller ~ review by JD
• Review of Dracula with pictures of Whitby ~ by Shellie
• The Devil’s Star, translated crime fiction ~ reviewed by JD
• My Name is Memory ~ reviewed by Shellie

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We end this Holiday post with a bizarrely creepy song.  We have John to thank for it with his 1970’s/60’s rock and roll interest. It has a witchy theme.

 

 

Enjoy ~ Have a fun, horror filled, and safe weekend!

Review by Shellie: Dracula ~ by Bram Stoker (audio version)

 

"I am Dracula, and I bid you welcome . . . "

An enduring classic with an extremely charming, truly evil, yet almost human monster. I suggest leaving the lights on.

Synopsis:   With a Victorian setting in the late 19th century, a newly practicing attorney/solicitor from England is commissioned to visit a new client for his firm. He is to meet with this wealthy gentleman and stay at his castle in the mountains of Transylvania, while giving him advice on property acquisitions within the UK. The journey starts out decently for Jonathan Harker, but “red flags” pop up as he is warned by the locals and experiences eerie events during his journey to the Count’s country estate.

When he reaches his destination things are not as he was lead to believe. He finds that the Count himself is misleading and extremely intelligent, with a business savvy to match. Most disturbing is when Harker realizes the castle has no servants, parts are in complete ruin, he sees the count doing not very human things, and it appears that he is in fact a prisoner with in the castle. When he finally returns home, the young lawyer is beside himself, and worse yet it appears that he may have been followed. This scary story has only just begun.

Thoughts:   This is a wonderful tale which deserves to be read by anyone interested in classics, horror, and evil vampires. That it was written over 100 years ago and the emotions it incurs are still heart quickening, attest to the universal nature of this horror story and make it an enduring classic.

Set partially in Whitby, an amazing town on the East coast of England with iconic structures which still exist today, the story includes a variety of interesting and well developed characters, with our main character the Count, who is the evil embodiment of a sociopathic killer.

It is all told in letter format - epistolary or diary entries with each character well developed and interesting. Listening to the book in audio format, the telling is done via various voices and is close to perfect - old English accents, changing for each of the characters. I enjoyed it immensely. 

As for rating this classic I would say 4.5 stars. I recommend this version if you decide audio is the way to go for you.

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Some Information about Whitby via travel pictures.

Below are pictures which John and I took in 2009 on one of our many visits to England where he is from.  When experiencing this book in its audio format these images helped it come alive for me. I could not help visualize this setting as it was described by the author. Also included below are several links to festivals based in the area, and a picture of our brother in law in full Dracula regalia at one such event which occurred last year in the town.

Whitby is on the Eastern side of Northern England. Set on the North Sea. The water is wild and choppy and very cold even in summer. This picture was taken from the pier which is located at the bay/river mouth and is a Southern outcrop of highland. Making this a perfect spot to watch incoming ships or marauders in this ancient  port city. It is also the spot where the gorgeous abbey is located,

This was taken during the summer June 2009. It was truly cold and windy, the norm for the area. Further to right on the mesa  you can actual see the little bits of the abbey’s spires. It is a key feature in several of the settings described in Dracula.

Above are two pictures of the ancient abbey. They are described in the book exactly as they are pictured here. It was lovely walking through and inside the abbey, looking up at the architecture. Here is the historical setting for the spot:

The first monastery here was founded in AD 657 by King Oswy of Northumbria. An Anglo-Saxon style 'double monastery' for men and women, its first ruler was the formidable royal princess Abbess Hild. Here, Caedmon the cowherd was miraculously transformed into an inspired poet; here, the future of the English church was decided by the Synod of Whitby in 664; and here the relics of Northumbrian kings and saints were enshrined.

from the non profit site – English Heritage.org.

These are pictures of the hillside town walking down from on top of the plateau where the abbey is situated. We walked down on the cobbled streets from a very very old cemetery that is West from the abbey. On the left you can see across the channel and to the left the man made water breaker, which prevent the wild waters from coming into the river/bay. This water way is an  important setting within the book as well.

To the right is my English brother in law, dressed as Dracula at a local festival held in Whitby, which the entire family attended.

If you are interested further, there is a gothic blog called Dracula in Whitby which gives you up to date information on a variety of festivals happening in the area.

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Audio CD

Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged; Unabridged edition (September 25, 2005)

Genre: Classic Horror

Amazon purchasing links - US/UK/Canada or The Book Depository - AUD and Euro.

This book will be included in The Speculative Fiction Challenge, Fill in the Gaps, New Author, The Basics, and I am going to sneak it into the RIP V challenge even though it should have been included last year since I think all would love to see the Whitby pictures.

Happy Almost Halloween Everyone!