Travelling in the UK? Read these novels before your trip
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When organising a trip, it is more than natural that you will spend much time looking for deals online, booking tours, searching for cute spots, museums and monuments that you would like to visit and testing hacks for the best packing methods.
One of the best ways to truly get to know a place and appreciate its intricacies and its significance in the cultural heritage of the human history is by letting the world of words take the lead and allow writers that come from the specific place tell you about its unique character and reveal both the good and the bad parts of it through an engaging and unique story.
What book should you read? It depends on the city you are about to visit.
London
Let’s start with the most visited city in Europe, London. London is a cosmopolitan city where publishing is a huge field and arts in general are encouraged and supported. The number of books that take place in London and the writers from this city are numerous. However, a book that you should definitely read before visiting the city is Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. It is a classic book that deals with issues of poverty and classicism in London in the 19th century. Having read this or another Dickens book, your visit to the museum that is dedicated to his life and work in London will be much more impactful and interesting.
However, if you want something more contemporary, you should check Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other which talks about the life of British women in the United Kingdom in general.
Midlands
The counties in the middle of England are called the Midlands. The largest and most popular cities in the area are Birmingham, Derby, Leicester and Nottingham. It is worth hiring a car and touring around the Midlands so that you can see first-hand the brilliance of this underrated region. You can find the perfect car for your needs on Enjoy Travel and book it completely online at the best price. Where exactly should you go? You can tick off the places that the writer Jon McGregor pays tribute to in his short story collection This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You.
A bonus book that we strongly recommend to Gothic lovers who would love to know how living in a haunted mansion in Warwickshire would feel is The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.
Northern Ireland
Things get a bit complicated with Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom while the rest of Ireland, known as The Republic of Ireland, is not. A book that perfectly captures the confusion, the dichotomy and the anger that prevailed about making a decision to either remain a part of the United Kingdom or become an independent country is Anna Burns’ novel Milkman. The Museum of the Troubles and the Peace is a remarkable action dedicated to remind and educate people about that turbulent time while it promotes reconciliation and eternal peace.
Image by Freepik
