The Long Woman Land Song Tour, November 2004 (funded by the Arts Council of England)
Daily Diaryby Cathy Williamson
Launch! 1st November, Bath After months of preparation and building nervousness, The Long Woman was launched on the 1st November in celebration of the Celtic New Year, at the auspicious Building of Bath Museum at the Lady of Huntingdon’s chapel on The Paragon in Bath. Invitations had been sent out to friends and contacts and around 40 people arrived on the night to celebrate the launch. Cathy had a new dress and Kevan looked very dashing in his smart suit. After the meeting and greeting the evening got off to a celebratory start with champagne and an introductory welcome from Kevan, complete with special thanks for those who’d had particular influence over and input into the completion of the novel. Books were signed and purchased and Kevan read the Prologue (The Angel of No Man’s Land) to the book, which ends in the loss of Isambard’s plane (and seemingly his life) on the WW1 battlefield. More books were signed and purchased, more wine drunk and many of us then de-camped to the next door Star pub for more relaxing chat and drinking.
Eastbourne. Arts Centre. 2nd November
Early afternoon on the 2nd, Kevan and Cathy travelled down to Eastbourne and arrived after many hours at the Albert and Victoria guest house near the pier. Decked out in Victorian style attire, it felt very cosy for all of the five minutes they had to get changed and rush down to the Arts Centre where the book reading and signing was taking place that night. Friends and strangers were both in attendance, including Derek the storyteller, Seamus and Launi, Jerry and Denise plus seven other interested people and four staff members, all of whom sat to listen to the reading. One lady from North America purchased one book before the reading and three more afterwards. Kevan read with much emotion from Chapter 3: ‘A Séance at Eastbourne’ and portrayed Maud’s psychological state in true style. After fielding questions and signing books, alongside some deep discussions with two ladies in particular who felt moved by Kevan’s reading and by their interest of the book’s subject matter in general, we decamped to the pub with Pagan friends and finally fell into bed back at the guest house, subdued by the warmth of the evening and recognition that we would know if the USA was to have a new president when we woke in the morning.
Questions asked:
Was the word ‘yummy’ current in the 1920s?
Can you explain the word ‘Tallyessin’?
Is the Mabinogion available in print?
Do you intend writing books about other places as there is this kind of subject in the land throughout the British Isles?
Are any of the characters based on real people?
It seems poignant for a young man to write a book about a woman from a long marriage dealing with losing her long-term partner. Were tragic events in the news an inspiration for the story?
As two former residents of Bradford Street, I’m interested to know why you chose that street.
How long have you been working on the book?
Is this your first book?
3rd November. Eastbourne Wilmington. Giant’s Rest. After Kevan did some storytelling at a school, we had lunch on the sea front and visited Gardner’s books. We checked into our room at The Star pub in Alfriston and, after tea and biscuits, headed up the hill on the South Downs way to the head of the Long Man. It was a beautiful late afternoon with long shadows and a slight breeze and we felt the same magic in the presence of this extra special chalk figure as we have before. On the way back to the pub we stopped in at Much Ado books[1] in Alfriston and sold two books for £12, noticing a poster for the book reading at the Giant’s Rest that evening and that the bookshop contained many old books of interest, including a 1920s first edition copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses, from the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. A good omen?
After a couple of hours rest flaked out on our bed we headed to the Giants Rest for a delicious meal and the reading at 8pm. Kevan read appropriately from Chapter 7: Wind Smith, as the first chapter in the book set at the Long Man of Wilmington. The Giant’s Rest sits almost at the foot of the monument. Friends and strangers were again in attendance, including Dave, Kerry and their two sons plus eight others. Questions followed the reading and book signings. One South African lady, now living locally, bought four more copies after the reading, noting she would send them to Cape Town for Christmas. More informal discussions were held, about the stories surrounding the Long Man and about death and grief – one lady told us she has recently lost her son and talked of the overwhelming pain associated with that loss, which was only finally released in some way by her crying out in an animal-like primal scream, coincidentally in the same way that Maud does in The Long Woman.
The moon was bright in the sky as we left the pub and we went up the road to the start of the footpath that leads up to the Long Man. The chalk figure was difficult to make out in detail but emitted a magical glow in the moonlight, which only added to the feeling of spiritual presence at the foot of the hill, in the monk’s churchyard at Wilmington Priory. Kevan and Cathy both thought they see a ghost (which turns out to be an old tree stump) and Cathy thought she saw figures climbing the hill, below which a strange light is moving across the fields. We scampered back to our car, Cathy clinging to Kevan in fear, and talked about death on the way back to the pub where we are staying, where we are allowed to sit with a drink in the lonely sitting room, surrounded by old books before falling exhausted into bed, not looking forward to the long drive back to Bath in the morning, disappointed by Bush’s reappointment to the White House but satisfied with the connections made that evening.
Questions:
Is this the first book you’ve had published?
Does Maud find another man?
Was the story of Dru made up by you or is it a fable you heard?
Can you comment on the structure of the novel (i.e. the use of poetry, letters, journal entries etc)?
Why did you chose to make the heroine a suffraget?
Is there anything in the book about the Bloomsbury Set?
Did you enjoy writing the book?
For the poetry quotations, have you selected poetry carefully from the period in which the book is set?
Is this your first book?
What’s your favourite book?
Observation made in terms of poetry quotes and war poets and what impact they might have had if they had lived and, for example, what might have happened if Tolkien had not lived to write Lord of the Rings.
What do you think of Tolkien?
Re: Isambard’s antiquarianism – were they so scientifically minded in the 1920s? The description of Isambard musing over the origin of the Long Man was appreciated.
Did you chose the name Dru as short for Druid?
5th November Atlantis Bookshop, London
7th November Witchfest, Croydon
9th November Faringdon Library After checking into the XX hotel and a quick change, we headed up the road to the library, where the librarian was changing into a ‘flapper’ dress for the occasion and two other staff members excitedly busied themselves opening wine and rearranging chairs. We were hopeful of a good turnout as the library had a book club. The attendees soon started arriving, settling down with wine and nibbles, many knew eachother and caught up on local news. Kevan read XX - the chapter set at Faringdon, with Isambard and Maud overlooking the Uffington White Horse. After the reading there were many questions and discussion of local landmarks and history. We retired to our hotel tired but content and ended the evening with a delicious Thai meal and a pint in a tiny and very low-ceilinged room in an pub down the road. Kevan made Cathy giggle with his entrance into this pub, Kevan not realising how like Archibald he sounded: “Good evening, what ales do you have?”, he enquired in a booming, confident voice.
Questions:
Is this your first book?
How long did it take to write?
Why did you chose the name Isambard?
Was Isambard’s father on the railways?
What is the most important aspect of the book to you? Is it the landscape, history or the characters? Notes: different readers will warm to different aspects of the book.
Discussions:
Local history – e.g. the folly and whether the tower would have been there in 1923
Importance of local stories and of telling stories
Walking and women in the 1920s
Impact of WW1 and on the men in terms of death and then not wanting to talk about events that had occurred during the war, afterwards. Examples given from attendees of family e.g grandmother who thought husband was dead but he came back eight years later having been a POW.
10th November Faringdon
Following a very nice breakfast in our hotel, we trudged up the hill to the folly for the view across the Vale to the Uffington White Horse. We had been told that the folly had been constructed by XX for his male lover and it seemed to Cathy a particularly fitting phallic monument for such a gift. The hotelier had told us that for the Millennium (??) someone had constructed a ‘house’ for a lighthouse lamp so the searchlight swept over the valley at night and we imagined how bizarre and wonderful this must have been. Collecting our things from the hotel and avoiding the rain, we headed off to Oxford.
Oxford After exploring what seemed like the whole of Oxford’s city centre looking for parking space, we eventually parked up and went to the tourism office for information on the city’s tourist highlights. It was a cold day and we decided to concentrate on museums, first visiting the Natural History and PittRivers museums to marvel at collections of dinosaur eggs, shrunken heads, the red lady of Avalan find and live scorpions and locusts. After a quick venture into the cold and lunch, we then visited the AshmoleanMuseum, said to be the best in Britain. It was full of archeological interests but walking round we felt inexplicably tired and Cathy had to keep sitting down. After tea in the basement we went to pick up the car and park in the very dark backstreet behind the Friends Meeting House. We had dinner in the Eagle and Child pub (where the Inklings – Tolkien and C S Lewis - used to hang out), feeling slightly guilty about drinking beer before we went to the reading in the teetotal Quakers meeting house.
Friends Meeting House, Oxford The journalist from the Writers Services website who was supposed to meet us in the Eagle and Child had not turned up but came instead to the Friends Meeting House to interview Kevan about the tour. A lady regular attendee at the Friends Meeting House was also present and we served tea and waited for others to arrive. Eventually, Kevan read from Chapter X – about when they first met (??).
Questions:
Does the book go on to include Isambard in the war?
Does he die in the war?
As I thought during your reading you would break into verse, did you think of writing some of the book in poem format?
Are you planning to travel further north on your tour?
Lady explains she is very drawn to WWI and anything to do with it, including Rupert Brooks.
How long did it take you to write the book?
Did you have the feeling that you had been there (in WWI) before?
(this leads into a discussion about ghosts and different levels of life and afterlife)
Did you start writing when you were very young?
(this leads into a discussion about Kevan doing a reading in Yeovilton and that the lady learned to fly, including a bi-plane).
11th November, Remembrance Day FleetAirMuseum, Yeovilton
12th November, Lynton library Kevan and Cathy headed down to Devon early afternoon and reach Lynmouth towards late afternoon, checking into the Bath hotel on the sea front, an old-fashioned seaside hotel if ever there was one, with views of crashing waves from the bedroom. After a quick change they headed up the hill (via the long route, the steep short route jammed by cars) to Lynton, rushing into the library a little late.
Questions:
Do you write full time?
Did you visit Watersmeet to write the chapter?
Was Watersmeet open to the public in 1923? (leads to a discussion about the old spring being destroyed by a flood).
One lady suggests Maud could have taken the train from Lynton in 1923 if she’d wanted to go off on her own.
Did you do a lot of research?
Librarian notes there is a railway enthusiast in Lynton mapping the railway over the years (office next to Pure Retail Therapy).
Did you read history as a student?
Discussion about George Newnes who had a mansion on Hollerday Hill – was someone who put a lot of money into Lynton and Lynmouth and produced Titbits, which featured Conan Doyle’s stories (leads to further discussion about Newnes and the changing landscape over time in the local area, looking at old photographs).
Librarian notes many people visit the area to find places noted in famous novels, e.g. Lorna Doone. Suggests he can imagine people trying to find the places mentioned in the Long Woman (leads to more discussion about this).
You mentioned the book takes place in France – person notes they had read that Neolithic sites in Brittany have more in common with sites in Cornwall than the rest of France.
You seem to have put so much into this book, will you have anything left to write about in another book?
Have you thought about contacting BBC Radio’s Women’s Hour for a reading?
After a stroll on the sea wall in Lynmouth bombarded with the wind and the crashing of the waves, Kevan and Cathy had a very welcome pint in a pub on the sea front, followed by a huge dinner at the hotel and more drinks.
13th November Lynmouth After breakfast in the hotel, we decided to talk to Watersmeet. It was a long walk along the woods and steep drops with great views to the eddying and flowing river in the bottom of the gorge and good to walk off our breakfast. Many of the footpaths were cut off by landslips, likely the same kind of weather that hit Boscastle earlier in the year. We finally reached the meeting of the waters after a very brisk walk and kissed at the meeting point, then admiring the waterfall there. Rushing back to Lynmouth, pleased with ourselves, we got on the road for Clevedon.
Clevedon Pier It was a beautiful afternoon as we reached Clevedon, heading straight for the pier for a quick change before the reading in the tea room at the end of the pier. Peter Please met us in the shop on the pier and we walked down together with the boxes of books and wine. As more people turned up, including Skip, we settled down with glasses of wine and the afternoon sun streaming through the windows, to listen to Kevan’s reading of Chapter ????. It was wonderful to hear the scene read out at the location it was set and the seagulls seemed to enjoy the magic too, flying close past the windows, looking in at us.
Questions:
Was that the final chapter you read out?
What did you, personally, find for yourself in writing this book?
Is it the first book you’ve written or had published?
We came in late, can you give us a run-down of the book?
Have you got an interest in ley lines?
How did you chose Maud and Isambard as names for your characters?
Kevan provokes discussion about the local area and someone explains about an old church in the area where Coleridge used to go.
Peter suggests there is something special about words in the landscape.
Someone suggests the place comes alive in the story in your imagination.
Again Peter talks about how a sacred landscape has great history and we can’t fail to be touched by that.
Our trip to Clevedon ended with some hot soup and discussion with Peter and Skip in the café on the sea front and a stunning sunset over the sea.
14th November, Arts Centre, Hereford It was a quick and clear drive up and we had a nice lunch in the centre before the reading but unfortunately only Anthony and Kirsty turned up. They asked a few questions though and we then went for tea at the Green Dragon hotel before heading home.
Questions:
How is the tour going?
Re: Cearne Abbas giant – I wondered if that was the origin of the name Kearne used in your book?
Re: A.E from the Chapter The Lordly Ones – could you recommend some of his writings? Were the passages in the chapter taken directly from his works?
Discussion about the characters and whether Kevan had portrayed their accents well. Led to some discussion about accents and whether the reader should try a true or suggested accent.
15th November, Marlborough Library After a beer in a lovely warm pub near the library and some chips on a bench along the high street, we were pleased to see a good turn-out in the library and Kevan read from Chapter????
Questions:
Is this the first book you’ve had published?
Are all your books on the same rough theme?
Have you done that walk yourself?
How long did it take?
Are you aware of the Ridgeway 40 walk?
How are you going to introduce ancient landscapes within the book?
What was the book Maud took with her on her Ridgeway walk?
One lady said she liked the way Maud responded to the landscape and that it worked well. Some other ladies sympathize with this – referring to how we respond to different things happening to us as we move though the landscape.
There is some talk about Wayland Smithy and whether it’s a spooky place. And about other places in the local area which may be haunted.
Discussion moves to crop circles and mathematical alignments and the ancient landscape of the local area.
In reference to canals and the fact that Isambard’s ancestor worked on them, someone notes their family with Irish roots used to live on the canals too.
Do you always read the same chapter or read one set in the local area?
Is you don’t have an area set in the book but you go there, how do you chose what chapter to read?
How conscious or unconscious was the amount of time you gave to the different voices of Maud and Isambard?
Is Isambard only represented in journal form in the book?
If it’s not giving it away, where does the book begin and end in the landscape?
How long did it talk to write?
When were dog biscuits invented?
Someone observes that even walking with a dog women can still feel vulnerable. They suggest the woman’s perspective was well represented in the chapter.
Person who’s read the book suggests the woman’s perspective continues to be well represented through the book but also notes that he found the book very uplifting and notes he will lend the book to someone next week as a joyful read.
Someone else suggests that life has been and is always hard and that a lot of what is described in the book is timeless.
Someone else says the text reminded her of Hardy and another person agrees with this.
Person who’s read the book thanks Kevan for describing the landscape and the walk so well and portraying thoughts about the landscape so well and in a way he truly appreciates.
16th November, Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes After dinner in a pub in town claiming to be a real country pub but where a woman was an endangered species that got stared at as she walked to the bar, we met the friendly curator at the museum and was shown upstairs to the room for the reading, which we were told was once a school. It looked quite grand for a school classroom.
Questions:
When did you become aware that Maud was taking over the story rather than Isambard?
Anyway, wouldn’t Isambard have died too soon for the book for it to have been about him?
Are the characters in your novel completely invented or is there something of reality in all of them, of people you know?
Is there a message you are trying to get across by writing the book?
Certainly the landscape around here is inspiring but have you heard of the Gaia hypothesis?
Same person notes they like the ideas behind the hypothesis because it gives hope always to the future.
What’s next for you?
Do you like all the characters portrayed in your book?
How much do you feel that the development of the characters is under your control or how much are they leading you?
At what point in the creation of a novel do you chose your target audience?
Do you write purely while you have inspiration to carry on or do you set yourself time or word limits during your times of writing?
Someone notes that churches in this area are often built on prehistoric sites.
Have you read the book ‘the sun and the serpent’? – person notes she met the author dousing in a crop circle.
17th November, Pewsey Library Pewsey looked a little uninviting when we arrived on a cold windy night and could only find some takeaway Chinese for tea. However, the library had prepared nicely for our visit with posters on the walls and a few staff to serve wine and the turn-out was good, if all women! Kevan read Chapter ???
Questions:
How long did it take you to complete your research before you started writing the book?
Was it easy to speak in the voice of a woman and to vocalise a woman’s thoughts?
Is one of the reasons she goes on the walk because she is trying to get away from her brother-in-law?
Someone points out Archie ruined her freedom turning up on the walk and she couldn’t have gone off with him after that at Avebury.
What was the main inspiration in the book – the landscape or Maud’s journey?
Someone notes the underlying gentleness in the writing beneath the pain.
Did you experience anything sinister when you did the walk?
Did you stay at the Red Lion as it’s supposed to be the most haunted pub in the west of England?
Did you change the ending as you were writing the book? You say you were surprised by things that happened in the story as you were writing it.
Would her husband have gone to Paris on leave?
Do you mention the Angel of Mons in the book?
How much say did you have in the illustration on the front cover? Is it supposed to be Maud?
Someone notes that many people do, literally, judge a book by its cover.
Someone else notes that from the cover they thought it was going to be a book about a woman dug up from a long barrow, i.e. the long woman (the woman of the long barrow).
Another person notes they found the cover very striking and attractive and was drawn in by the mystery of it.
How do you write? Do you sit down for a certain number of hours per day, for example?
Do you keep going over each part you write or do you keep going until you get to the end?
Do you write by yourself without anyone seeing it as you are writing it?
Are you from the Wessex area?
NB: One lady said to me that I must enjoy spending time with you and that you must be very inspiring!
18th November, Northampton Library
19th November, Delapre Abbey, Northampton
20th November, SwindonSteamMuseum What a cold, wet day (it was snowing!). The platform scene at the museum seemed like the perfect place to do the Chapter One Paddington reading but it was a bit noisy and very few people showed up until we bribed them with tea and biscuits. One old couple and a middle aged man came along, though, and Kevan read the chapter. There weren’t any questions.
21st November, Red Lion, Avebury After a windy walk up on Windmill Hill, we were glad to come into the warm of the Red Lion for the reading in the front room with the well in it (where more than one villager had met their doom!). We cosied around pints and crisps for the reading from Chapter ???? A younger crowd than usual turned out, including friends Nigel and Naomi, a lady from the Marlborough reading with her friend, and a collection of pagan folk from the local area. Some tough questions and comments!
Questions:
Re: the main characters in the book, are they based on anyone who has existed before?
Listening to your reading, there seems to be an awkwardness between the words you use in conversation and words you might not. Can you explain why that might be? The person notes it was a very good reading.
Some discussion takes place about the English not dealing with things well, like death.
When did you bring the book out?
Do you think in 1923 anyone would have walked the Ridgeway and known what it was?
Someone notes the postholes at the Sanctuary were not put in until the 1940s.
Some discussion takes place about Avebury being intersected by roads.
Re: sites of interest in the book – have your perceptions of them been changed by you trying to see them though the eyes of a woman in the 1920s?
Someone suggests she doesn’t think a woman would have been walking by herself in the 1920s.
Do we find out what the lurcher might have been doing in the bushes when he came out looking all sheepish in the chapter you read?
How are you finding doing the readings in these places, personally?
What are the other books you have written?
Have you walked the Ridgeway?
Do you stop to write things down as you are walking?
Someone notes the Ridgeway is the oldest road in Europe and that’s why a lot of sites are here.
As you were walking the Ridgeway, did you notice there were different routes used during different seasons?
What’s next?
What’s the origin of the character Isambard?
Where does Maud stay in Avebury?
Where does the story end?
Someone notes that when they were at Wayland’s Smithy a funeral party came along with the ashes of their mother.
Where are you taking the book next?
We stayed on after the reading for some more drinks and to talk to people, which was great because we really connected with some of the local pagans who were really nice. We also had a nice meal under the mirror in the dining room where the Red Lion’s latest discovered ghost had been photographed!
22nd November, Red Lion, Swanage We arrived a bit late and stressed into Swanage (after taking the wrong road and stopping for chips) but were made extremely welcome by our friends from the Wessex Gathering in the warm and crowded Red Lion. Kevan must have felt like a Star, reading from Chapter ??? Many people were from the local pagan moot but there was also a nice article in the local paper about the reading, with Kevans’ photo, which had also attracted some people along.
Questions:
Why did you chose the 1920s to write about?
Some discussion about nine barrows down, what had been found there archeologically and how its farmed. Also about the wight – a half-man/half-beast – in folklore the wight guarded the barrow. And about Tolkien. And some ghost stories were told, about the wight.
Someone suggests that the WW1 survivors weren’t able to speak about what they had witnessed and went to the grave not speaking about it and that there is still something that needs to be said about it, that needs to come out.
We spent the rest of the evening at Phil and Nina’s house, where we were staying, in lovely company with lots of booze!
23rd November, Isle of Purbeck After waking up late and going for breakfast in Swanage, we dropped some books at Sara’s shop and stopped to chat to Sara and Rudi for a while, which was great. We then went up the downs overlooking Poole harbour for a walk to the Agglestone, where Kevan quenched his thirsty fingers and wrote a poem, and Cathy tried to sleep standing up. After lunch near Handfast point, we walked out to the cliffs, remembering our first time there and the Handfast Point chapter in the book. Then we headed off on the road to Eastleigh.
23rd November, The Point, Eastleigh, Southampton and 24th November, Winchester. A very disappointing evening. After dinner at Pizza Hut, we got changed at The Point but, for the first time, no-one turned up. We headed soon afterwards to our B&B in Winchester, which was a bit too posh, but we had a nice chat with another guest at breakfast the next day and he bought a book. We spent the morning visiting Winchester, including King Arthur’s round table, meeting a great street artist and having a nice walk along the river, before heading off on the road again.
24th November, Amesbury library. Between Winchester and Amesbury we stopped for a walk at ?? hillfort, which was huge and amazing. We also went to Stonehenge for walk along the cursus and saw an amazing sunset into the stones. After a greasy café and cold pub, we eventually found a roaring fire in another pub to sit beside before it was time to go to the library for the reading. They had done a very nice Long Woman display there. Some of the people who came to listen had seen Kevan perform at Witchfest. They were talking a bit about using their local sites for rituals and I thought about how nice it was to meet people all over the country who used these sites for rituals today and that these places that Kevan talks about in his book were still being used as sacred sites. Kevan read the Cursus chapter, set at Stonehenge.
Questions:
Someone notes that they felt they were being taken along to the place mentioned in the chapter from hearing the reading.
Did you have to do a lot of research to find out what Stonehenge was like in the 1920s?
Someone notes the road used to go right next to the Stones and an airfield.
Same person notes that the characters were so absorbed in themselves that they wouldn’t have noticed what was around anyway.
Someone notes how the sun rises above the heal stone.
Are you a personal believer in ley lines and other such things?
Did you start out with a plan for the book and envisage how it was going to finish?
Did the sites you revisited on the tour seem different to when you visited them before? Did you find yourself seeing them through the characters eyes?
Will you go to France with the tour?
After the reading we headed home through some very thick mist on Salisbury Plain, broken only by a burger in Chippenham!
26th November, Glastonbury Assembly Rooms
It was a bit noisy in the café in the Assembly Rooms with preparation for the night’s entertainment underway but Kevan read loudly from Chapter ???
Questions:
Who is publishing your novel?
What did you apply for the grant ‘as’?
Do all the places you’ve visited on your tour feature in the book?
Do you reach a conclusion about the ley lines, sacred sites etc? Is a theory of yours being put forward in the book?
Someone relates to Julian Cope’s book and talk and how he talks about having an expectation of a sacred site and experiencing something different when you visit it.
Does the Awen imprint come from the Druid?
What is the Awen?
What else has Awen press published?
After the reading we ate in the pub with Justin and some people from the moot and then headed back to the Assembly Rooms where Justin was playing some records and we were the only ones dancing! After a final pint in the pub we headed home with thoughts of Paris in our heads.
27th-29th November, Paris.
The visit to Paris was a present to Cathy from Kevan to say thank you for all the driving and ‘able support’, but Kevan also hoped to visit the Shakespeare and Company booked opposite Notre Dame, as featured in the Long Woman. After a long day travelling via London and the Eurostar and a mix up with our hotel, we finally found a warm, crowded fondue restaurant in Montmartre, followed by Le Progres, a bar on the corner of the street for many wines in the crowded and smoky (but lively and friendly!) atmosphere. Hung-over the next day we had breakfast in a bar down the road from our hotel and headed to the Ile St. Louis, where we wandered around the little streets looking at buildings pointed out in our guide book and going into a cheese shop for something to take home. We had lunch in the Quartier Latin and then went to the bookshop, only to find out their Sunday tea party was happening that afternoon, deciding to come back later. Meanwhile we visited the Crypt museum in the square at Notre Dame, where some of the ancient foundations of the city can be found.
We waited nearly an hour at the bookshop to be allowed upstairs for tea when we found out we were in the wrong place and headed next-door and upstairs to a crowded room with tea and cake and many young and budding writers and artists. Kevan was introduced to the legendary owner Mr Whitman and then given a seat amongst the crowd, having been crowned guest of honour. At one point Mr Whitman lost his temper while some people were trying to come into the room, the atmosphere broken for a few seconds, then settled again. At five O’Clock the tea party was announced “over!” and some guests, including Kevan and Cathy, invited to stay for dinner. Unfortunately, dinner was chicken stew, but we nibbled on some bread and cheese and Kevan glowed to be in such company of literary discussions, his book arriving home again. Mr Whitman disappeared soon after dinner, thought to have gone to bed, and we headed off to a Lebanese restaurant, ate too much and then rushed off to meet Paul Francis in front of Notre Dame to end the evening drinking Beaujoulais and hot chocolate back on Ile St. Louis, our heads filled with stories from the Troupadour, not wanting to think about getting up very early the next day to head back to London, the grand tour over.