cambridgeshire – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com author | illustrator | digital designer Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:44:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://shepline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-shepline-white-on-green-square_512-32x32.jpg cambridgeshire – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com 32 32 Flat East https://shepline.com/2008/01/27/flat-east/ https://shepline.com/2008/01/27/flat-east/#respond Sun, 27 Jan 2008 22:12:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/flat-east/

Flat East

Flat
Flat with odd little lumps.
But still flat.

East Anglia
Flat.
East Anglia is flat.

Flat is not derogatory
It’s not even an insult
Or a voice of contempt.
It’s the truth;
East Anglia is flat
(and the Fens are the flattest of all).

But now honestly
Would you want it any other way?
Do you really want, mountains
And valleys,
Gorges and ridges
To disrup those gentle, undulating slopes
(and those Fens, the flattest of all)?
Tell me, what is wrong
With a Flat East Anglia?



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 9.06pm GMT PST.



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 9.17pm GMT PST.



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 9.24pm GMT PST.



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 9.27pm GMT PST.



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 9.13pm GMT PST.



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 9.10pm GMT PST.



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 8.56pm GMT PST.

]]> https://shepline.com/2008/01/27/flat-east/feed/ 0 The Ebony Mouse https://shepline.com/2008/01/26/the-ebony-mouse/ https://shepline.com/2008/01/26/the-ebony-mouse/#respond Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:05:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/the-ebony-mouse/ I’ve been to Hemingford Grey a few times in the last year, and not realised that the manor house overlooking the river there is actually the former house of Lucy M. Boston and the setting for the Green Knowe stories. Not that is, until Emma saw an article about it in a magazine that came free with her Christmas issue of BBC Wildlife. So when we arranged to up and see the family, to see round the house was a must – and what a magical house it is too!



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 9.00pm GMT PST.



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 9.03pm GMT PST.

Formally a Tudor manor, it is the oldest, continually lived in, private house in the country. Moated, it is filled with history, including the three-foot gable wall still visible inside that was pulled down in order to build a new frontage along with an extension that later burned down leaving a rather curious arrangement of brickwork where the upper-floor windows would have been. This house, the actual setting for The Children of Green Knowe stories, it was not, in actual fact used in the stunning (and much under-repeated) BBC adaptation of 1986. Feste’s name plate though was ‘borrowed’ and actually hangs in the hall, and the ebony mouse is in the real attic bedroom where Tolly sleeps and sees the children.



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 9.02pm GMT PST.



Originally uploaded by shepline on 28 Jan ’08, 9.04pm GMT PST.

One of the really special things about this visit is just how special it was for all of us. The series is one of my favourites, and one of Emma’s too, and we watched it again recently (on my ebay bought dvd – ripped from a Betamax recording complete with Andi Peters in the broom cupboard) and see the actual place is almost to be part of the story itself. Wonderful. 🙂

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