This week I walked up Glastonbury Tor, which it turns out is quite a significant effort on a climate crisis-infused summer’s day in England. The hill is taller than I’d realised, offering astonishing views across Somserset.
The previous week we’d watched the final episode of the classic BBC TV series Merlin with the 9 year old. Given the way Arthurian legend goes, it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that the Tor features towards the end of the show’s run. Having only just seen it on screen in a mythological context, it was exciting and peculiar to be standing in front of the 100% real version.
Have you ever visited somewhere after first encountering it in fiction? I’d love to hear about it!
Several, which I'd have to rack my brain for, but what immediately comes to mind is Laura and I spending a good 20 minutes walking around the fountain across from the Millennium Centre in Cardiff until we decided THAT square of concrete was the elevator into the Torchwood complex, then posing for pictures.
One of the oddest for me was in reverse. Mid-way through the second book in Kim Stanley Robinson's epic (and thoroughly researched) Mars trilogy, the story unexpectedly returns to Earth, and one of the main characters visits a town in Kent called Faversham. Which happens to be where I lived as a young child. It's an entirely ordinary English town, so it showing up in an epic sci-fi novel (written by an American) was unexpected. That it was entirely underwater in the story was also notable!
Several, which I'd have to rack my brain for, but what immediately comes to mind is Laura and I spending a good 20 minutes walking around the fountain across from the Millennium Centre in Cardiff until we decided THAT square of concrete was the elevator into the Torchwood complex, then posing for pictures.
You can bet the locals watch lots of tourists doing a similar walk. :)
I'm sure - since Cardiff still has an Ianto Jones Memorial.
Well, New York, LA, London. But I suspect that's not what you are asking about. Off the top of my head:
* Alderley Edge after reading The Wierdstone of Brisingamen
* Mow Cop after reading Red Shift
* Buffalo, Wyoming after reading the Longmire series
* The Navaho reservation after reading the Leaphorn and Chee series
* Not sure if I first visited Windermere and Coniston Water after reading Swallows and Amazons or before, as both were in childhood
* Paris after reading Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris and doubtless a dozen other things
* Monterey after reading Cannery Row
* Route 66 after reading The Grapes of Wrath
* Cape Canaveral after reading The Right Stuff
I'm sure there's several more.
You're well travelled!
One of the oddest for me was in reverse. Mid-way through the second book in Kim Stanley Robinson's epic (and thoroughly researched) Mars trilogy, the story unexpectedly returns to Earth, and one of the main characters visits a town in Kent called Faversham. Which happens to be where I lived as a young child. It's an entirely ordinary English town, so it showing up in an epic sci-fi novel (written by an American) was unexpected. That it was entirely underwater in the story was also notable!