Album Literary Grand Tour - Widow Historian

Jardin de Luxembourg or Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, where many famous writerly feet have trod. And… it was created in the seventeenth century by Marie de’ Medici, the widow of an assassinated husband.

Literary Grand Tour

Travel means nothing to me if it doesn’t include going to literary places. My husband and I read the literature of the place before we visit it and then we go looking for bookshops, libraries, houses of writers. And while we’re there, we look for things about widows (and widowers).

Northington Grange, Hampshire. The Merry Widow is one of the most famous operas with a widow at the centre of the action. This former stately home is a venue for opera performances and weddings.

In Rome. At. That. Fountain. It wasn’t working (Fendi was restoring it), so we couldn’t throw a coin in. But Rome has close connections with widows. And wealthy, influential ones too. Think of the Medici widows, particularly Catherine.

With Israeli playwright, Dani Horowitz in Orvieto. There are many Italian widows in this place.

Book of marriages, births and deaths in the northern Hungarian village of Hernádszentandrási. Don’t even try to pronounce it until you’ve had a glass of Veuve Clicquot (the widow champagne).

Inside the book of marriages, births and deaths in Hernádszentandrási.

VIP treatment at the mayor’s office in Hernádszentandrási, the place of my widowed grandmother’s birth.

“Of heat the express-train drew up there. Unwontedly. It was late June. The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat. No one left and no one came.” From Adlestrop, by the poet Edward Thomas.