Saturday, 28 March 2009

Barter Books

Simon had asked if we could stop by Barter Books in Alnwick on the way home. Also in Alnwick is another castle, but it's not a ruin and in any case we had all visited the gardens on one of Jane's previous visits.

Barter Books is always worth dropping in. In a former Victorian train station, it's one of the coziest places in the world.
Across from the station is a park with the Percy Lion on a column. Percy is the surname of the Duke of Northumberland and it is a family with a long and amazing history.

On the benches outside were quotes from 2 members of a Moore family from Charleston, Missouri:



This made me curious about these people as they apparently had an interesting mother. I looked them up and found only that the Moore family was prominent in Charleston, MO. Margaret may have written children's books and Paul was Mayor of Charleston at some time.

If the outside of Barter Books is wonderful, the inside is even better. A person is invited to sip coffee and lounge in front of the coal fire


or at the back of the shop


or in the old waiting room.


Jane was more awake than I and took these pictures of the Writers Mural. This interactive link is definitely worth looking at.


She also noticed that the poem on the archway over the aisle.


Chris and I were worn out by walking in the wind and sun and so we waited until the others were ready to go.


I slept a good bit on the drive home. Later in the evening Bill shared his research on the family tree with Jane and I took the rare opportunity to snap a lovely brother and sister photo.


Later on, we all went for a meal at the Gate of India in Tynemouth.





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The book store looks like it would be interesting to look through. Can't believe you sat like a bump-on-a-log in a book store.
Joanne

Shelley said...

Bump-on-a-log, indeed... That was only after I'd done the whole tour, checked out the needlework and poetry sections. Due to moving Ella's stuff into our house, I was feeling rather claustrophic at home and couldn't bring myself to buy one more thing to add to it. Funny things was, I was tempted by a little book about patchworking and Jane ended up with it without my even pointing it out to her.