Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Places from books you wish you could visit

82 replies

antimatter · 14/05/2015 18:29

I saw this tweet from goodreads and thought I would like to visit several non-fictional places (I hardly read fantasy).

I would sit next to Theo and ride across the country from Las Vegas to NY in Goldfinch.

Visit 1930s Moscow as described in Master and Margherita by Bulghakov.

Prague of The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Botanical garden where Paulette grew in Kolkatta as described in Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh.

Horse stables somewhere in East London where Henri Lachapelle was teaching his granddaughter dressage in Horse Rider by Jojo Moyes.

And many many more!
Share yours here please.

OP posts:
tulipbulbs · 15/05/2015 16:32

Always wanted to be in Heidi's grandfathers' barn, looking out the window at the snow covered mountains. Wouldn't have minded the secret garden either.

I'd love to be in the tudor court of Wolf hall and see Ann Boleyn in action.
I think my brother was in the house on which Manderly is based.

Lambbone · 15/05/2015 15:48

I want to indulge in a bit of property porn, and have a look at Woods House after Jason and Irene had done it up, having bought it from the Pinhoes.

I wouldn't mind a shufti round Chrestomanci Castle too.

WeeMadArthur · 15/05/2015 14:47

The island that Pi and Richard Parker visited and were nearly eaten by in Life of Pi.

Ankh-Morpork, Lancre, anywhere on the Discworld.

Darrowby/Thirsk in James Herriots time.

Dreamiesrcatopium · 15/05/2015 14:44

I'm reading "Us" by David Nicholls at the minute. I really want to go inter railing across Europe..

NetballHoop · 15/05/2015 14:40

Corfu as it was in the days of Gerald Durrell

Magmatic80 · 15/05/2015 14:35

Sorry, I mean it was A September when I went, not last September. It was 6 years ago.

Magmatic80 · 15/05/2015 14:35

PEI was fantastic. I went alone in September and it was brilliant. I wrote on here before about it. I will copy paste as I'm meant to be working....

I've been to PEI. I went to the 'theme park' and marilla took me in her minivan to a burger bar for lunch because it was the end of the season and the lunch place on site was closed. I went to the actual house, the haunted wood and lovers lane. I saw herons on the lake of shining water. I went to LM Montgomery's grave and the nearby post office/museum of her life. I had my picture taken in a straw hat with red braids and a pinafore dress.

I cannot recommend it enough. Charlottetown airport is basically one room. Every single person you encounter on the whole island says hello. Charlottetown itself is totally clapboard buildings. The soil really is red.

I'm welling up now remembering it all. It was wonderful. You worry that places won't be like in the book, but PEI was everything you'd hope.

LauraChant · 14/05/2015 21:58

Cross post Pollyanna!

LauraChant · 14/05/2015 21:57

Green Knowe. Apparently it is a real place and you can visit - I would love to.

221b Baker Street

Hogwarts

PollyannaWhittier · 14/05/2015 21:56

Prince Edward Island, Green Knowe, the mountain where Heidi lives.

tripfiction · 14/05/2015 21:50

Ah, well...

India: via Alexandra Potter's The Love Detective (oh, and Shantaram was inspired)

Greece: Afternoons In Ithaka by Spiri Tsintziras

Orvieto + Umbria: The Umbrian Thursday Night Supper Club by Marlena de Blasi (and I did visit!)

And a marvellous book that I took to Rome: A Day In the Life of Ancient Rome by Alberto Angela, just brought the ancient ruins to life!

blueshoes · 14/05/2015 21:42

The Secret Garden
Different lands in the Faraway Tree
Brideshead

MythicalKings · 14/05/2015 21:30

Narnia, Rivendell, Xanadu, Brigadoon.

unicornspecial · 14/05/2015 21:22

Manderlay for sure.

DuchessofMalfi · 14/05/2015 19:54

I think Manderlay was based partly on Caerhays Castle near Mevagissey and the grounds are open to the public part of the year. It fits my idea of Manderlay - it's very beautiful and has its own beach Smile

Original poster
antimatter · 14/05/2015 19:32

Yes. Fictional and non fictional.

OP posts:
CtrlAltDelicious · 14/05/2015 19:23

Westeros! Specifically, King's Landing.

meandjulio · 14/05/2015 19:22

doesn't have to be fictional Magmatic.

The Shropshire house in The Happy Prisoner by Monica Dickens. I think I have visited somewhere very like it though, for about 30 minutes 20 years ago. The memory remains green.

Narnia as it was at the beginning of Prince Caspian.

I'd like to visit the Cairngorms one day because of The Living Mountain.

ErinBlockerBitch · 14/05/2015 19:16

St Mary Mead , where Miss Marple lives

Takver · 14/05/2015 19:14

I'd like to visit Ursula le Guin's Anarres (as per my username :) ) - also, sometimes, the planet Eleven-Soro from Solitude where women live in houses on their own very quietly spending their time meditating and gardening Grin

IamGrimalkin · 14/05/2015 19:12

I'd love to visit Hogwarts and the Faraway tree. I'd love to have a ride down the slippery-slip and visit the lands at the top :-)

Remembermyname · 14/05/2015 19:11

Another one for Manderlay here!

HindsightisaMarvellousThing · 14/05/2015 19:03

The Night Circus for me, just for one night.

HindsightisaMarvellousThing · 14/05/2015 19:01

Magmatic what was Prince Edward Island like? I've just re-read Anne of Green Gables and it seemed full of flowers, woods and trees blossoming in the spring!

defineme · 14/05/2015 18:59

I have wanted to go to Florence ever since I read Room With A View as a teenager, I want to be Lucy Honeychurch with a baedecker!

Swipe left for the next trending thread