3.07.2010

I've been very edgy today and if I said anything about England, I apologize

When you're planning a trip to England, you want to make sure you have a way to get there, so naturally you buy an airline ticket. And you want to make sure you have a place to stay, so of course you make reservations for a hotel room or flat or something. And you don't want to waste your time wandering around wondering what to do, so you make sure you have a sort of itinerary. Ticket, reservation, itinerary. They're all fine and good, but they are mere formalities. When you're planning a trip to England, what you really want to do is make sure you properly prepare your mind and your soul for the visit. Here are some suggestions:

1. Familiarize yourself with English history by reading English history:


2. Supplement your reading with some historical and biographical films. A few important selections covering the scope of English history are:

Origins of King Arthur

The naked truth about the Norman invasion
Who really defeated the Spanish Armada?

Origins of Jane Austen's plots

It's curtains for Keats

Pre-World War I English banking

English politics and labor unrest between the Wars

3. Choose the perfect book to take with you so you can have something to read on trains, on the Tube, or in the garden whilst you drink your cocoa.


4. Start using Anglicisms like 'whilst' in your speech and writing.

5. If you are going to Stratford, read up on Shakespeare.


6. If you are going to Bath, watch every Jane Austen movie or tv adaptation ever made after 1979.

7. If you are going to John Keats' house, read some of his poems (or have them recited to you).

8. If you are going to Charles Dickens' house, change your mind.

9. Every day leading up to your trip, drink hot cocoa from a Mary Poppins mug, which is so cool that it has not only Mary Poppins on it, but also Big Ben, St Paul's, and some kites.


10. And to all this you must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of your mind by extensive reading. (More about that later.)

3 comments:

Shannon said...

hahaha. I'm going to have all these inaccurate notions from reading "1066 and all that" and "twisted tales from shakespeare."
By the by, why does it say on that (creepy) video of a keats poem that he lived for like a hundred and thirty years? bizarre.

Jared and Megan said...

oh you make me laugh. I won't list all the things that made me laugh cause there are too many. I think one of my favorites was "it's curtains for Keats". =D

I am not a great reader and take pleasure in many things, but may I insist upon knowing your meaning when you talk about more about extensive reading later? Such a run-on, but I couldn't help myself.

Janeite42 said...

Shannon - it's a mistake. It should be 1695-1821.

Jared and Megan - You will hardly blame me for refusing to comply with this entreaty at present. But you will know it, when I have written my next blog post.