This past week I've been in Northumberland, participating in the Berwick Literary Festival and visiting friends.
I'd been invited to interview the writer Midge Gillies about her forthcoming biography of six pioneering female aviators, 'Atlantic Furies'. It was part of the week-long programme of festival talks, but took place in a 'satellite' venue, at a stunning visitor attraction called Ad Gefrin, in the small town of Wooler.
Ad Gefrin celebrates the Anglo-Saxon heritage of the area (as well as being the most northerly whisky distillery in England!) and our event took place in the museum's 'royal' room, where the author and I spoke to our audience while seated on golden thrones. It's a first for me!
I'll be telling you more about Midge's book next week, but it was a lovely event and great to hear all about her research, and her passion and admiration for these incredible women.
My visit to the area was long overdue. Despite having very good friends living nearby, the journey from Suffolk had proved prohibitive for some time. In buying my train ticket on this occasion, though, I decided to embrace the five hour trek and use it as an opportunity to sit and read, to write and think with little other commitments or distractions.
Though the train home was busier and noisier, the extended period of these two journeys in which to sit and ponder, read a couple of great new books, and do nothing except wait to be delivered to my destination, all felt a real treat. And it's always fun to 'people watch'.
But I don't think I saw anyone carrying, holding or reading a book! I have to console myself in the thought that perhaps everyone was doing as I was - reading from my phone to save extra weight in my luggage. It still feels wrong though...!?
Thank you for reading.