A Bibliophile's Paradise!

 I went for a day and could have stayed for a month; Gladstone's Library (previously known as Saint Deiniol's) in Hawarden in North Wales had been on my list of "must-do" visits for a long time but I shall certainly be back there again before too long. It's the UK's only Prime Ministerial Library. The collections were gifted to the nation by the four times holder of the office, William Ewart Gladstone, and the building was funded through public subscription at the beginning of the last century. It's a glorious red sandstone neo-Gothic design, with three reading rooms, 26 residential bedrooms and a restaurant, all set in beautiful grounds. It hosts a lot of interesting talks, courses and workshops but you can also just visit to do a mini-tour (check their website for details). I was fascinated by the collection of Gladstone's own books. To say his reading tastes were catholic is an understatement - and, according to his diaries, he read between 21 - 22,000 books in his lifetime! A lot of them were brought together in the 1880s and the average book in the collection is 150 years old - but they're all available to read there in the library. It feels just such an incredible privilege to have access to them.

I was in North Wales undertaking a couple more of my mini-pilgrimages. As I'd expected, the good weather didn't deign to extend to my time away! But it had begun to pick up a bit for a couple of days this week when I was walking the Ann Griffiths Way, another long planned expedition. If you're from outside Wales, you may not have come across the poems and hymns of Ann Griffiths; although she died aged only 29 in 1805 she became an enormously important figure here in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The walk takes in places significant in her life and passes through absolutely stunning, almost deserted countryside. Most of the path runs by the River Vyrnwy; riverside walks are always my favourites, and at this time of the year the woods and hedgerows are alive with violets, primroses and bluebells. A very special walk to undertake.

But now it's back to the desk and back down to some serious writing - just as the promised heatwave materializes!