This week’s short stories focus on several bright ideas for September 2020, and I’ve kicked off with a very tasty offering for the York Food and Drink Festival. Just under 2-hours north of London and easily accessible with Virgin Atlantic direct flights into the northern gateway of Manchester, it includes a class at the Cookery School at the 5-star Grand Hotel. Beer, tea, and wine-themed tours come next – followed by an absolutely fabulous garden tour to the Wisley Flower Show, the flagship home of the Royal Horticultural Society. Plus, for this year only folks, the floral extravaganzas at fairy tale Leeds Castle and in majestic Salisbury Cathedral. For fans of murder mystery novels, I’ve closed with a heads up for the International Agatha Christie Festival on England’s Riviera.

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As 2020 is the ‘Year of The Bookworm’, with 17 conversation-starting itineraries on my website, here’s a list of potential sources where your literary contacts may already be customers. Chapters of the American Library Association looking for literary/on location fundraisers; general and specialist bookstores and antiquarian book dealers; teachers and lecturers in English literature at schools, colleges, universities and continuing education colleges; Murder Mystery Book clubs/stores; Reading Circles; Fans of Masterpiece Theatre; North American Dickens Festivals looking for a UK Dickens Festival tour in the spring. These ideas are available for couples, 4 friends travelling together, families and small groups. Read the rest of this entry »

I often find that many travel planners like the sound of the words ‘The Cotswolds’, though many are unaware that the region covers an area of England with Shakespeare’s England (aka. Stratford upon Avon to the north), the Roman and Georgian city of Bath to the south and the university city of Oxford as the front door when travelling from London. By English standards, this is a large area of almost 800 square miles and filled with quintessentially English villages of honey-coloured stone, lively market towns and some of the country’s greatest palaces, castles, country houses, gardens, traditional country pubs and charming tea rooms. Read the rest of this entry »

Happy New Year!

If 2, 4 or 6 of your clients are planning to visit the UK this year, let’s talk about an itinerary that can be customised to meet their interests, time frame and budget. Being the home to some of the world’s finest Flower Shows, these internationally renowned horticultural extravaganzas make a very good focal point for tours that also include visits to stately homes, cathedrals, literary and on-location venues, ancient pubs for lunch and interesting places for English Afternoon Tea. This collection offers some imaginative starting points for a profitable conversation.
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