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Wednesday 15 October 2014

#BookADayUK; A Reader Event For October. Day 15

Not my edition, but mine has lost its dust jacket and
a plain blue cover makes no sense.
What do we have for today, in the #BookadayUK promotion for independent book shops?
This event, run by the Books Are My Bag.com website, suggests for today the following: 'Best home in literature'

I could choose Bilbo's house in Lord of the Rings, I suppose, but I like to look out of the windows. There are many opulent homes in many of the novels I've read, but I'm not too keen on excess. Hundreds of different homes must've been described in the thousands of novels I've read over the last 50/60 years. But the one that sticks in my mind, possibly enhanced and romanticised by the passage of the years, is a house called 'Heronswood' (I think) in Howard Spring's novel, My Son, My Son. The house is set on the upper slope of a headland in Cornwall, with one side of the wooded land leading to the sea coast and the other leading down to a private quay on the River Fowey. So, this place has all the elements I would love in a house. It's surrounded, but not enclosed, by trees. It's in an elevated position. It's within walking distance of the sea, and it has a river frontage free from the danger of flooding. What else could a civilised human being require, except, perhaps, now I'm reaching that age when I feel the cold, a location in a warmer clime?
So, that's my choice. What's yours?

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