 |
| ego4u.com |
Greetings from England! While I normally would
be updating with some amazing summer news regarding contests in America, I’m on
a study abroad programme here in the UK living in Islington, London at King’s
Cross and don’t have as much access to that information as I would have liked. So,
instead, I’ve decided to give you all some interesting news from the publishing
and literature world here in London. After all, if we want to be part of the
publishing industry one day (whether it be authors, editors, marketers, etc.),
it’s good to get an idea of what’s going on around the world both historically
and presently. So, here’s your limited time dish of literature news from
London!
The first bit of news I would like to comment on, however, has to do with our home in the
USA. For those of you who didn’t know, Natasha Tretheway was recently named the
Poet Laureate of the United States. Congratulations, Tretheway! Be sure to pick
up some of her work this summer for some light reading.
Anyway, on to UK literary news. One of the most
interesting things I think that I’ve discovered here in London is how
literature is perceived. The world of fiction here seems to be embraced in a
way that I haven’t quite noticed in America. Sure, we have all probably heard
of the Sherlock Hotel on Baker Street and how the tube stop there has the tiles
in the shape of good old Holmes himself, but there are so many more nods
towards fiction than I first realised. The Sherlock Holmes get up on Baker
Street is definitely an interesting one, but so is Platform 9 ¾ here at King’s
Cross Station (which I’m sure everyone has also heard of). But, what about some
of these other fantastic literary acknowledgements? Let’s see how many you have
heard of before:
- Sherlock
Hotel, tube stop, and Holmes statue at Baker Street (Sherlock Holmes)
- Platform
9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station (Harry Potter)
- Wardrobe
to Narnia statue at Belfast (The
Chronicles of Narnia)
- Peter
Pan statue at Kensington Park (Peter Pan)
- Hamlet,
Lady Macbeth, King Lear, etc. statues at Stratford (Shakespeare’s works)
- Oliver’s
Wharf near Greenwich (Oliver Twist—
on location where Fagan and his gang lived)
- The
Tardis at Liverpool Street Station (Dr.
Who)
- And
many, many more!
If you ever get the chance to travel to jolly
old England, looking for some of these fictional characters is quite an
adventure. My personal favourite was on Fleet Street, looking for the number of
the building that Sweeney Todd (String of
Pearls or the play adaptation Sweeney
Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) had his barber shop. Sure enough,
to the right of the building, there was
a barber shop… and the building to the left? It was a meat pie shop. Certainly,
literature has touched England in many ways!
But, that’s not all. Like billboards that we
have around for upcoming movies or just ads altogether for car insurance, etc.,
London has them for novels! Right
outside my flat window is a giant billboard promoting the new novel Thirty One. Even all around the city,
when tours are given, it’s the authors and poets and playwrights that are the
ones that seem to get the most praise and attention. England truly is a country
of fictional influence and literature. They’re very proud of their writers, and
it certainly is an uplifting experience as a writer myself to see such interest
in the world of literature. Even the university that I’m studying at has a
major in Novel Writing. We only go as far as “Creative Writing”. And our MFA in
Creative Writing? Turns out City University has a P.HD in Novel Writing.
Perhaps I should start rethinking my choices for grad. school.
And, just to stay in tune with the literary
world outside of the statues and past, I picked up the Literary Review magazine put out by Oxford University Press at a
local Waterstone’s (England’s version of Barnes and Noble). It’s full of
excerpts from longer works, tips for writers, and reviews of authors/books.
There are ads for writers, as well, such as for the Royal Literary Fund which
provides financial assistance to writers who are struggling with money. Come on,
America! Can’t you lend your authors
a helping hand? (Just again showing how dearly respected writers are here in
England). And, of course, there are some fun facts about writers in history
sprinkled throughout. I think my favourite was about writers during the
Victorian era in England. Back then, a writer’s journal was considered part of
his attire, and therefore he had to carry with him a journal matching the
colour of his waistcoat. How interesting is that?
So, overall, as I mentioned before, England is
most definitely a country full of literature lovers and people who are devoted
to their authors, both historic and contemporary. They take pride in the
literary merits that they have carried for hundreds of years and continue to
embrace it in their up and coming writers. Who knows? Maybe if we’re all lucky,
one day, one of our works will have a statue built, honouring our literary
success. If not, I suppose we can ask America for just a plaque.
Written by Erin Sinnott
