Childish inspiration

Some places that inspired children's stories 

Rudyard Kipling's house where he wrote Puck of Pook's Hill.  He moved to Bateman's the year his Just So Stories were published, 1902

A tiny door in the wall of the Oxford college where Lewis Caroll (really a Mathematics professor called Charles Dodgson) wrote Alice in Wonderland 

Boats at Pin Mill harbour on the banks of the River Orwell where Arthur Ransome set some of his children's sailing adventures  

The woods near Great Missenden where Roald Dahl lived and wrote stories such as Danny the Champion of the World and Fantastic Mr Fox 

The windmill from the children's classic movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

The steep slope of the real Watership Down in Hampshire

The River Thames where Mole, Ratty and Toad shared adventures in Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows

 The house from Lucy Boston's classic, The Children of Green Knowe

An unbirthday birthday for Lewis Carroll

Today, the 27th January, is the 180th birthday of the great mathematician and writer Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll.


As a tutor at Christ College Oxford, Carroll befriended the daughters of the Dean, Henry Liddell, and made up stories to entertain them. These grew into the now famous and cult book, Alice in Wonderland. 

For those who don't already know: The story is of a little girl who falls asleep by the riverbank and disappears into a  fantastical world. She falls down a rabbit hole to a place peppered with extraordinary animals: the White Rabbit, the Dodo, the Mock Turtle, the Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Queen of Hearts.  Brimming with strange creatures, nonsense games without rules, rhymes and songs, logic and illogic, death, madness, drugs and dreams.  

Why not celebrate with a walk along the Thames at Godstow, where Carroll and Alice used to row up stream to picnic on the riverbank and tell stories.  Take a rug and make up silly rhymes, run Caucus races, look for rabbit holes, collect swan feathers, feed the ducks and geese, spot herons and the occasional kingfisher and watch boats floating serenely up and down the river. 




For details of our Alice in Wonderland walk that takes you to all the key Alice places, a couple of excellent pubs, the nice tea shops, the shop where Alice used to buy her barley sugars and where to hire a boat, turn to Chapter 18 of Adventure Walks for Families, In and Around London, by Becky Jones and Clare Lewis. To buy a copy, click here.

Festive Fun this Christmas

Get into the Christmas spirit..

1.  Brave the cold and take a bracing walk to gather holly and ivy to make a wreath.  Wrap it round a circle of florists' wire, decorate with baubles and hang on the front door.  


2.  Light a lantern and go carol singing down your street to raise money for a local charity.


3.  Fill the house with seasonal scents and make a pomander. Take an orange, stick it with cloves and tie it up with pretty ribbon.


4. Wrap up warm and set off on a winter scavenger hunt for animal tracks, pine cones, berries, seed heads and different coloured leaves.


5.  Make some star shaped biscuits to hang on the tree.  Make a hole in them for the ribbon before they are baked.

Bumper Book of London...coming soon

Hurrah. We've got a launch date for our new book The Bumper Book of London. 7th April 2012 since you are asking. 


Busy scratching our heads trying to put together a party plan and all the things we need to do to get the book on the shelves.


Just designing a freebee book mark with it's funky new hi-tech QR....we are feeling very modern!

On your marks get set go… sneak a peek at the London Olympic Park

Sneak a preview of London's amazing Olympic Park and shop ‘til you drop at Europe’s biggest and best shopping centre: Westfield.

Start:  Hackney Wick Overground
End:   Stratford Overground and mainline

Come out of Hackney Wick station and turn left. Take the first turning on the left, White Post Lane, opposite Mr Bagel’s warehouse and follow the street as it bends to the right and then left.  You are walking through what remains of down-at-heel Hackney, pre-Olympic rebuild.

When you reach the canal, cross over the bridge and turn right onto the towpath. You are now along the River Lee Navigation, past tugs, narrow boats and old warehouses. The Hertford Union Canal peels off to the right. On your left you can soon see the first glimpses of the construction work at the Olympic Park.

On the opposite bank is the famous east end smokehouse and restaurant, Formans Smokehouse. It was one of the last buildings on the Olympic site and had to be winkled out  at great expense and relocated here on the canal.

Keep going past Old Ford Lock and turn left over the bridge, crossing the River Lee. Turn right along the towpath, towards Bow.

After a low bridge over the water, take the path up on the left. This is the Greenway Path. It covers a gigantic sewage pipe called the Northern

The Lights of Broadway

Here's one of our new adventure walks....  

.....along the Regent’s Canal to the coolest Saturday food market in London, have a swim in a stunning heated outdoor at London Fields, then run through the glorious Victoria Park and discover a London secret.

Feeling Hungry?

Walking down the Bethnal Green Road the other day we stumbled into what turned out to be one of the best Italian cafes we’ve ever been to in London.  We couldn’t believe we’d never heard of it before.  Squeezing between the crowded tables, we were taken to a