As someone who loves to travel, but doesn’t love to spend money on travel, I’ve become quite adept at the airline/credit card points game in recent years. With a little planning, it has allowed me to greatly reduce the overall cost of traveling to the UK, and I was even able to send my parents …
Read moreHow to Make the Most of Your Credit Card Points for Flying to the UK
When you’re as famous and successful as JK Rowling, it can be hard to move in a new direction. The lackluster response to her first published adult novel, Casual Vacancy, is a great example of that. Many brought their Harry Potter expectations to the table, and found the novel wanting in light of her past …
Read moreGreat British Reading Club #2: Cormoran Strike Series by JK Rowling (aka Robert Galbraith)
Around the United Kingdom, you’ll occasionally encounter the curious phenomenon of model villages. And no, I don’t mean something like the miniaturized version of Bourton-on-the-Water you can find in the Cotswolds. A model village was a largely self-contained community designed for the workers and families of a given employer, usually some kind of factory or …
The British Isles have produced some of the finest writers and novels in the world. James Joyce, William Shakespeare, J.K. Rowling, Charles Dickens, George Orwell, Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Neil Gaiman, H.G. Wells, Agatha Christie, Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming…and those are just a few off the top …
Read moreGreat British Reading Club #1: Maisie Dobbs Detective Series
Chief Mousers are specially-appointed cats who live and work in various official residences, most notably 10 Downing Street. Unlike the residents of Buckingham Palace, these cats are not of royal bloodlines. Chief Mousers typically come from animal shelters, most recently the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. In a society that still retains vestiges of strict …
Read moreThe Cat Politics of Downing Street: Chief Mousers & Their Issues