Origins of my literary UK adventure

I sold my first house (I'm only on my second, so settle down) in the fall of 2022. Well, I felt like a millionaire for about a year. Remember, I'm a public school teacher, so this was the most money I had seen in my life. Anyway, I was scrolling fb and saw one of my former assistant principals was taking a group of women on a writing retreat in Florence, Italy for (I think) about $3K. Since I was a millionaire, this was a no-brainer! I signed up and didn't look back! My gut said it was a must.

So, I went to Florence with four fabulous women in July of 2023. We visited museums, laughed, wrote, ate phenomenal food, gassed each other up, dreamt out loud, got tattoos, cried, held space for each other, and shared everything/anything we wanted!

One of the women I met was Sherry. She's an independent, smart, adventurous soul (I could do a whole post on her tail, but she's not the focus of this post. Sorry, Sherry). Well, her in laws live in England; her hubs, James, is a strapping Brit! So, in true Sherry fashion, she was already planning our next literary retreat in the winter of 2023 to the UK.

Fast forward to the winter of 2024. One of my besties I've been dreaming with since 2016 traveled to Italy, Turkey, and Greece that summer via a Funds for Teachers' grant. It's pretty neat because you create your own learning that you bring back to the classroom the following year. Anyway, she's amazing, but she'd be mad if I gushed, so I'll refrain (now, Sherry, on the other hand, will have the opposite feeling ;). So, KT (bestie who got the FFT grant) started gassing everyone up at school to apply in January 2025. She loved her travels and sharing it with the students, so I figured I'd give it a shot! She's so authentic and trustworthy that a few of us applied!

FFT offers up to 5K for individuals and 10K for groups. Even though I'm a teacher, group projects aren't my jam. I will be a team member if I have to be, but I'd rather do what I want, how I want, and when I want. So, an individual, summer travel project started to mull around in my brain.

Remember how Sherry had planned out a retreat for the five of us to experience? Well, I used that as my starting point. The pic above is the sheet I looked at a few months before I started my ACTUAL research and plan. I read Tess of the d'Ubervilles in college and fell in love, and if I see Knightley's Pride and Prejudice on the TV, that's what I'm meant to do for those two hours! I point those two out because they didn't make the cut. How crazy is that?!?!?! But, the more I read, the plan evolved and became its own adventure.

Turns out, 5K doesn't go as far as you'd like when you have to factor in airfare, lodging, food, and petrol. So, I had to modify my plan and settled on the following authors: Lewis, Tolkien, Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Lister, and Whitbread. Awesome, right? I GET to drive English backroads and explore the sights of these amazing authors?!?! So, I created a self-guided plan to explore the cultural sites that influenced all the authors. I had to research every author and create a plan that included reasoning for every single travel decision and how it would support my learning and (most importantly) my students' learning.

Okay, so I wrote the grant, and I got the acceptance letter on April 5, 2025!

Shout out to KT because two of us from our school got grants!

Then, my mission began. With the opening of an email, I was transformed into a literary nerd! (It's a whole other post to explore the expectations folks have when you say you're an English teacher. I'm an emotional nerd not a literary one) So, for the past month and a half, I've been reading literature, watching lectures/documentaries, tracking flights, planning travel, etc.

I met (via zoom) with Sherry, James, and Mom (James's mom) in early May. I was asking for help, but I was just worried about someone meeting me at the airport and driving my car and me to the country to get me comfortable driving on the left side. Well, these lovely humans offered WAY more than I asked for. Sherry is going to meet me at the airport, and she'll drive us to the Cotswolds. THEN, Mom offered for me to stay with her when I go visit Haworth and Halifax, AND she's friends with Helena Whitbread, so she's gonna orchestrate that!

Y'all, I had to tell these humans to settle down and remind them they didn't have to do ANY of this. Maybe they should discuss alone and sleep on it? They told me to hush it, and it would be their pleasure. If it's free, it's for me! Plus, they're all lovely.

That freed up money to add the Lake District to my itinerary, and a new setting means new authors!!!! So, I was able to add seven new authors and some of the most gorgeous countryside in England!

Okay, as of 5/29/25, here's my rough itinerary - with the understanding that: everything is always subject to change; I'm a visitor and not a tourist; my body calls the shots (this is a marathon not a sprint):

6/2-6/8 - Lewis, Tolkien, Shakespeare (MAYBE Austin and Hardy)

Bath

Oxford

Cotswolds - home base

Brockhampton

Stonehenge

Avebury

Stratford upon Avon

6/8-6/12 - the Bronte sisters, Lister, Whitbread

Halifax

Haworth

Huddersfield - home base

6/12-617 - Potter, Keats, Coleridge, D. Wordsworth, , W. Wordsworth, Southey, Shelley

Lake District

Keswick - home base

Jaunt to Scotland

Here's all I've read in preparation (everything underlined is still on my to-do list):

Brontë Sisters - Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey

Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, The Weight of Glory

Tolkien - The Hobbit, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Shakespeare - I taught Shakespeare for seventeen years, so here are the highlights: Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, MacBeth, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 104, Sonnet 130

Lister/Whitbread - countless documentaries on Lister, countless interviews with Whitbread, Lister diaries

Keats - "Ode to a Nightingale", "Ode to a Grecian Urn", "Ode to Autumn", "Ode on Melancholy"

Coleridge - "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", "Kubla Kahn"

D. Wordsworth - journal entries

W. Wordsworth - "My Heart Leaps Up", "To the Skylark", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", "The World Is Too Much With Us"

Potter - The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, the rest of The Peter Rabbit Library

Southey - "High in the air Exposed"

Percy Bysshe Shelley - "Ozymandius", "Ode to the West Wind",  The Necessity of Atheism

Whew! That's where I am now. My next two days will be dedicated to reading, researching, packing, cleaning, and all the administrative tasks that come with traveling.

Okay, I'm done writing for a bit. There's so much to do :)

See you next time!