by Susan Branch, 2013
Neighbor Sara recommended this book. I started reading it soon after we sent Jojo to heaven and it was the perfect escape. She writes about a trip she and her beloved husband, Joe, made across the Atlantic from Martha’s Vineyard to England and back on the Queen Mary 2 (not a “cruise,” but a “crossing”). They went in May and June of 2012. They spent 2 months walking around England, visiting old homes and gardens, pubs and tea rooms, quaint country inns. The book is handwritten, as if it were her diary. It’s full of actual photos and also her drawings of all the quaint and charming things. She’s quite an artist! And she and her husband are chefs, too. She starts the book in the 1980’s describing how she met Joe, a man 5 years her junior, when she was recovering from a heartbreak and had sworn off men forever. She was in her 30’s. She was sitting at a bar with a friend, and Joe was there, too. They started chatting and hit it off from the start. She didn’t think she was going to end up romantically involved with him, but he wooed her and won her heart. He loved her at first sight.
Fast forward from the 1980’s to 2012: They decided to take this trip to England in their 60’s. It was a dream of theirs for a very, very long time. They had been there before but this time, Joe’s idea was to cross the Atlantic by ship and spend 2 whole months in the English countryside.
Although there was lots and lots of rainy days, they made the best of it. Once, they decided to board a small ferry and spend the rainy day on it. They chatted with the ferry boat captain and were charmed by him and by the countryside, even though it was pouring down rain.
They visited Beatrix Potter’s home and garden. Susan Branch absolutely loves all things Beatrix Potter, so it meant the world to her to see where she lived. Beatrix Potter donated her home and garden, and many farms and acres she owned (14 working farms and another 4,000 acres of the Lake District), to The National Trust, in order to keep them forever free from development and open to the public. They visited William Morris’s home (an actual manor named Kelmscott). They visited Jane Austen’s home. They were in the Peak District, the Lake District, and Yorkshire Dales.
She also describes “Public Footpaths.” They are all over England, some 100 miles long, all throughout the countryside. “It is possible to walk across England, stopping along the way at pubs and bed and breakfasts, making every day an adventure. You can find maps to these walk-routes at local shops in every region. We use the “OS Explorer Maps.” The paths are marked; you simply walk down an alley in any village, and right out of town, amongst farm animals – into serendipity; you never know what you will find.”
She describes so many wonderful, old, beautiful, quaint, flowery and green places. She provides maps and recipes: Pimm’s Cup (a gin drink her husband loves), Sticky Toffee Pudding, Hot Milk Cake, etc.)
She provides lists of her favorite books and movies set in England.
They rented a car and drove in England – that was the only thing that sounded challenging and nerve-wracking. I think having a tour that provides all the driving would be the way for us to go. Driving on the wrong side of the road and on the wrong side of the car – just too much!
This book was a delight! Thank you, Sara, for telling me about it! Thank you, Susan Branch, for sharing your love of England so charmingly with us!
Here are some of my favorites from these charming pages:
Books she loves: Enchanted April, Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim; A Room with a View and Howard’s End by E.M. Forster; All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot (whose real name was Alfred Wight), Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; Excellent Women and A Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym; Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding; Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (Yes!), Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Yes!)
Movies she loves: Miss Potter, Mrs. Miniver, Howard’s End, Random Harvest, Finding Neverland, The Quiet Man, Jane Eyre (2007), Brief Encounter, Young Victoria, Hobson’s Choice, Sabrina (w/Audrey Hepburn), Love Actually (yes!), The Secret Garden, Mrs. Brown, Emma (w/Gwyneth Paltrow), Ever-After A Cinderella Story, Cranford, Scrooge (1951), Shall We Dance (Astaire and Rogers).
Love how her friend described the wood pigeons cooing as, “MY-TOE-HUTS-BET-TEE.”
Hedgerows are nationally protected now; some were planted a thousand years ago. They marked the borders of farms. They are a part of what makes England so special. Mark Twain quote: “Rural England is too beautiful to be left out of doors.”
There’s an ingenious soap holder in one of the bathrooms: a decorative silver knob-type thing with a bar of soap hanging from it. She says they smash a magnet into the bar of soap and the soap hangs there above the bathroom sink.
The National Trust started in 1895 and they preserve open spaces and historical properties all throughout England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They use local volunteers to care for the properties. She and her husband joined the Royal Oak Society, which gave them free admission to all the National Trust properties. There is a National Trust map they used as they toured the country and they stopped at 25 houses, castles, and gardens.
They stopped at Rudyard Kipling’s home (manor), “Bateman’s,” which was built in A.D. 1634. Rudyard Kipling bought it in 1902. Rudyard Kipling loved Mark Twain. He got to meet Mark Twain on a tour in America at the age of 24. Mark Twain wrote about this in his autobiography. Twain quote about Kipling in this book: “He is a most remarkable man; between us we cover all knowledge; he knows all there is to know, and I know the rest.”
She recommends googling “vacation rentals in England” for virtual tours of the many places to stay. Questions to consider: Do you want WiFi, a garden, bathtub or shower, fireplace, parking place, three cushions on the couch for stretching out?
Recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding:
She describes wanting to take some flowers from Beatrix Potter’s garden to press into the Beatrix Potter books she had just purchased. They were there for the second time on a horrendously rainy day. Susan was all by herself in the garden. “But I was careful; I didn’t want to give Americans a bad name. I cased the joint first. (I have outlaw tendencies-Joe would NEVER do this!)
“…I got two, one for each of the books I had just bought, plus a purple Iris for my diary.”
“I tucked the wet flowers, gently, ever so carefully, into my raincoat pocket, moving nonchalantly, before anyone could say, “Excuse me,” (English people are so polite), “do you need help out of the bushes?”
They visit an old village called Hawkshead (10th century) and she says about it that she would stay in that village the next time they came to England.
Bibury and the Bibury Court Hotel sound and look like an incredibly old and beautiful place.
William Morris lived in a manor called Kelmscott – it is huge! “Have nothing in your homes you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” Wm. Morris quote.
Jane Austen quote: “Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”
Things to ask for on your birthday: “Good hand lotion, bubble bath and soap, a rosebush, candles, a pound of good loose tea, books, music, videos, Emma Bridgewater cups, a piggy bank to start saving for your dream trip.”
A Beautiful Trip with Susan Branch to England, throughout England, and back. Her home on Martha’s Vineyard looks pretty charming, too!
She’s an Anglophile – loves English culture.