Tag Archives: Harry Potter

Margery Allingham by AS Byatt

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I thought you might be interested in reading this article by AS Byatt which was published in yesterday’s Guardian review. Although I’ve read quite a lot of Allingham’s books, I haven’t read Traitor’s Purse. Byatt is obviously a big fan of Allingham, as was John Le Carre apparently.

This week’s Review seems to be reminding me of how many books and authors I haven’t read. You might be interested in this article by Erika Johansen in which she celebrated life’s fighters. Ten uncompromising female protagonists – I haven’t read any of the books in which these females appear.

I’m always going to avoid reading Gone with the Wind and Stephen King, but I wonder if I’m missing something in not having read the others. Although I read children’s classics, I can’t see myself reading Harry Potter somehow.

Glenfinnan, West Scottish Highlands

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Glenfinnan monument

Last week we took a trip up to the Scottish Highlands which for us is a journey of about three hours by car. At last I was going to that west which I pine for! We were based in Fort William which is fairly well known for being rather wet and it was certainly wet when we were there but as soon as we started travelling north from there we always met the sunshine, as you can see when we got to Glenfinnan it was a lovely day. There is a tourist on top of the monument in this photo, as well as the statue of a highlander. This is where Charles Edward Stuart, better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, stepped off a boat on Monday, 19th August 1745 and started to raise support from highlanders, in the hope that he could reclaim the British throne from the German Hanoverians. Known as the Young Pretender, his father was the Old Pretender and he had counselled him not to rekindle the old Jacobite cause.

Mountains at Loch Shiel

This is a view from the top of the Glenfinnan monument. That Scottish baronial house has such a gorgeous setting, if a bit remote.

Loch Shiel from monument

This is Loch Shiel from the top of the monument and if you are fairly fit I would definitely recommend you to tackle the very steep spiral staircase which leads to the top of the monument, it’s worth it for the views, although it was a bit scarily windy up there so we didn’t stay long.

Glenfinnan viaduct from mon

Still on top of the monument though, these photos were taken in all directions and this is the Glenfinnan Viaduct which has always been famous in Scotland anyway but is even more so today, especially amongst Harry Potter fans as it is the viaduct which the Hogwarts Express travels over in the films.

Glenfinnan viaduct zoom from mon

And the photo above is just a zoom in on the viaduct. If you enjoy beautiful scenery then you might want to put Glenfinnan on your bucket list – if you have such a thing. It is really beautiful.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Durham Cathedral, Harry Potter

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We moved on from Newcastle to Durham which is just a hop and a skip away. It’s a vibrant, small city and it was noticeable that they didn’t seem to have any empty shops or even charity shops in the town, which is such a nice change from most towns at the moment.

Obviously the place to visit is the cathedral and although I haven’t been keen on places like that in the past, I have to say that Durham Cathedral has a much nicer atmosphere than any other such places which I have visited.

I’ve been to Canterbury, York and Inverness cathedrals before and to me they all had quite a scary ambience about them, as if they had been built by people who had a real fear of God and they worked that feeling into the fabric of the building.

Durham on the other hand felt really comfortable and friendly. I think part of it may be that the attendants were all very welcoming and helpful. They also have a memorial to coal miners which I thought was a really nice down to earth touch. Usually such places are really snooty and elitist, but not Durham.

Obviously they don’t allow you to take photographs of the inside, it is still a working church and while we were there worshipers were actually using the place and lighting candles and such which is all very foreign to me but no doubt they get comfort from it. I think it must be quite difficult for them to have troops of tourists going around while they are trying to have their private moments.

It’s so big I couldn’t get it in the one picture as you can see. Apparently it costs a shocking £60,000 a WEEK to keep the place going. They don’t have an admittance charge, which is good but on the other hand, donate whatever you can afford.

I hadn’t realised that Durham was used to film scenes in the Harry Potter films until I got there, they must have been paid more than a bob or two for that, which must have helped.