I have got anxiety coming out of my ears, and though I love my house very, very much sometimes I have to escape it, in order to escape myself. So when I woke up to a beautiful morning, I knew there could be no better day than this one to take a bookish little jaunt into Liverpool
And so I washed my hair and wrapped a flowery scarf around my neck and took the train into town. I was settled in my seat and took reading Tapestry of Fortunes on my Kindle, when I found myself chatting to the man who used to clean my Mum’s windows and then leaning over to tell the man facing me that my little boy would adore his rather crazy dalek jacket. It is new, this urge to talk to strangers. Where once I would have shied away from talking to anyone other than my closest acquaintance now I find myself eager for conversation. For acknowledgement and tiny kindness’.
We pass railways banks splendid with a thousand cheerful Primula and the urban wilderness that is now the dock road, home to the dilapidated grain silos and
It is all horribly loud and I practically run to the Bluecoat Chambers to discover my favorite, closed down Southport antique
Then it is next door to
On to wander around Paperchase and Kiehls and the new Harvey Nicholls Beauty Bizarre. Into Lush to sniff things and on to John Lewis to prowl around the haberdashery. Then a cup of coffee on Bold Street, the bohemian end of the city, before disappearing into the Oxfam bookstore and coming out with this, and this and this: all procured for mere pennies.
Home time. I sat on the train next to the oldest lady in the world. Her Miss Marple suit a vision of lavender tweed, and her hand shaking as she clutched on to my arm as we chugged through the outskirts of Liverpool. I read and listened to the extra-ordinarily loud mobile phone conversations people hold on trains and then I was in Ormskirk again, lugging my bags full of books to the car and driving home to an evening of lovely inspiration, an indian takeaway and a bottle of wine.
Anxiety be damned. There will always be books.
As one who went to uni in Liverpool, cough, cough, quite a few years ago and now lives in Oz … so lovely to have a virtual revisit of the city. I too loved the Bluecoat Chambers and Bold Street and used to live off Lark Lane in a flat overlooking Sefton Park with geraniums on the kitchen window sill. Love your blog by the way and your writing especially x
Alison you always write very well but “We pass railways banks splendid with a thousand cheerful Primula and the urban wilderness that is now the dock road, home to the dilapidated grain silos and tea merchants of Liverpool in its Victorian hey-day, and then the train pulls into Liverpool Central and I am plunged into a city alive with entertainment on every corner” is pure literature. I have never seen that part of the world but I’m sure I saw what you saw.
Anne’s House of Dreams and Rilla are two of my utmost forever favourites. I have two complete sets of the Anne books ( greedy I know, but I found myself in Australia for a year and simply needed to read them again). Enjoy them! I just finished Bath time and Nursery Rhymes by Pam Weaver on my kindle.