This is NORFOLK WEEK on my blog. Maybe I’ll make it an annual event!
I’m challenging myself to read SIX books this year set in Norfolk, UK. This is where I live. You could challenge yourself to read books set in the area you live. We could get a really good title for it. For example:
- Home is where the Heart is Reading Challenge
- On the Street Where I Live Reading Challenge
- Write about Here Reading Challenge
Does it sound at all interesting? Well, once I started doing some more research, I found quite a few books set in Norfolk. I’ve deliberately added some to my Goodreads shelf just because they had (potentially) a Norfolk connection. Some are MG, some not; some are stretching, things I wouldn’t normally consider. These are some of those I’ve listed so far. Watch out for some fun ahead!
- Floodland by Marcus Sedgwick (read in 2011)
- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (although it’s not obvious, it’s true – the farm where Beauty grew up is based on one at Stratton Strawless)
- The Rings of Saturn by W G Sebald (we’re trying to get my book club to read this)
- Coot Club by Arthur Ransome (the Swallows and Amazons were not just in the Lake District)
- Norfolk Folk Tales by Hugh Lufton (pretty safe with this)
- The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (crime/paleo-forensics set in Norfolk)
- A Thousand Perfect Things by Kay Kenyon (a fantasy Anglia)
Of course, the Princelings trilogy is set in Norfolk, too!
Now THAT is a good idea – and I love the potential names…I can’t pick a favourite (although write about here is suitably punnish for my tastes!)
Maybe I’ll do it, then 🙂
Somehow failed to come here when this was first posted. When thinking about books about my place it’s either too easy–a bazzilion books set in San Francisco/CA–or too hard–I think there’s maybe one picture book about the actual burg where I live. But I wonder. I’ll have to do some research.
Alternatively, I could do books about the places where I grew up. And therein lies a key issue for us Americans–so many of us are from all over the place! Maybe I could find one from each area where I’ve lived.
But in any case I like the idea, both the year-long reading challenge and the “old home week” on the blog.
If it’s “home is where the heart is” I’ll be reading books about the Sierra Nevada, the Rocky Mountains, and the deserts of the US SW 🙂