British Library

I wanted to see the Magna Carta, but became enthralled in the National treasures of other manuscripts, especially the original manuscripts of writers such as Jane Austen, Sylvia Plath, Lewis Carroll, Beatles, Handel's Messiah...

Here are some fascinating aspects of the original maunscripts especially for me the writer:

• the original page of Sylvia Plath's poem 'Insomniac' was handwritten in ink and lines were crossed out again and again
• Beatles- Lennon 'A hard's day's night' 'was composed and lyrics written on the back of a card to his son Julian who had recently had his first birthday'- and there was the card...
• Thomas Hardy- Tess of the D'urbevilles was a thick book, handwritten in ink and pen- beautifully written, the title 'A daughter of the D'urbevilles ' was crossed out to read 'Tess of the D'urbevilles.'
• ' Dodgson created his pen-name by translating his first two names, Charles Lutwidge into Latin and back into English.'
• Ada Lovelace (1815-52) daughter of Lord Byron was educated to be a mathematician because her mother feared she might turn out to be a poet like her father.'

Even a cup of tea had a character to chuckle at:

Master Punch

I had a good look in the Library's shop- unfortunately that was the closest I got to books-  to look in the collections one had to register to become a reader...

But great re-enforcement to write and cross out and change... Jane Austen was writing stories to amuse her family since the age of 12- all good practice for the wonderful classics written later..