A few days ago I tried posting a literary mini-quiz via Notes. No one got them all correct so my humungous prize fund is safe until my next crazy idea. But to satisfy the hundreds who’ve been desperately yearning for the answers, here they are.1
1: Located in the remote north of the Hebridean island of Jura, Barnhill is about as far from the urban dystopia of Nineteen Eighty-Four as you can imagine. Given that Jura is already pretty remote, that puts it definitely in the 'off the beaten track' category. The story is that Orwell rented the place because he thought its clean air would help him recover from severe tuberculosis; the plan may have backfired, however, as according to some the damp of the house itself made his condition worse rather than better. A serious ducking in an attempt to navigate the notorious Gulf of Corryvreckan probably didn't help. (I've been through Corryvreckan in a modern RIB on a calm day and it was still pretty unnerving.) Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in 1949 and Orwell died early the following year.
The photo dates from more than twenty years ago, when I was working on a book (only the second of my career) about the Scottish Islands. It wasn't my greatest image even then, being a quick grabbed shot from the track at some distance, and a very quick and dirty scan hasn't done it any favours. But you can still get some sense of the setting.
Barnhill isn’t open to casual visitors, but you can stay there, and it’s little changed from Orwell’s day.
2: 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester, is a Grade II* listed house dating from 1838. It was home to Elizabeth Gaskell for the last fifteen years of her life, during which most of her major works were written. Today it’s a museum dedicated to Gaskell’s life and work.
To me, Elizabeth Gaskell is one of the more under-rated of the great Victorian novelists, and all too frequently seen only as the author of the (relatively) cosy Cranford, though this too is more substantial than it’s often given credit for. She deserves more. North and South is a pioneering industrial novel, while my personal favourite, Wives and Daughters, stands close to Middlemarch in its depiction of rural and small town life. Both books also throw a critical spotlight on gender relations in the Victorian period. Wives and Daughters received an excellent BBC TV adaptation in 1999, scripted by Andrew Davies.
Elizabeth Gaskell took many holidays at Silverdale in Lancashire (which still has direct trains from Manchester). It’s a place I know very well; one of the first outlets to stock my photographic work was Wolf House Gallery, just a stone’s throw from the Tower House where Gaskell often stayed. And the connections don’t end there; when I first met my partner she was working at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Elizabeth Gaskell Campus, about three minutes walk from the house (but since replaced by a modern hall of residence).
The photo of the Plymouth Grove House was taken during work on my most recent (and probably final) photographic book, Manchester and Salford in Photographs.
3: Not being a house, number three is the odd one out. This rocky peak in Wadi Rum, Jordan, is widely believed to have given T E Lawrence the title and some of the inspiration for Seven Pillars of Wisdom. As the phrase is also a Biblical reference, this may or may not be true. Lawrence doesn’t mention the peak specifically and if you asked a random sample of people how many pillars they see, I suspect most would say five or six.
What is certain is that Lawrence and his Arab allies used the area of Wadi Rum as a base for various operations against the Ottoman Turks during the Arab Revolt of 1916–1918. It’s harder to identify specific locations with clear Lawrentian connections, though many are claimed by the local Bedouin; we were shown one small secluded cave, clearly artificially carved out or enlarged, which was named as 'Lawrence’s house'.
Wadi Rum is now very popular with tourists, but it’s also an area of over 700 km2 with many secluded wadis and canyons. The best way to get a real sense of the landscape is on a trek on foot or by camel. For even closer engagement local guides offer scrambling and climbing outings through the canyons or onto some of the peaks. It’s also an internationally renowned area for rock-climbing. Many of its routes were pioneered by Tony Howard, a colleague from the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild. Tony and partner Di Taylor have done much to promote responsible tourism in Jordan and to empower local people in climbing, guiding, and associated hospitality.
4: The cottage is Low Ludderburn in the southern Lake District. Arthur Ransome and his wife Evgenia lived here from 1925—35 and it’s where he wrote Swallows and Amazons, along with three more of the five 'lake country' novels, as well as Coot Club (set on the Norfolk Broads). His actual work-room was in the barn on the left with the big south-facing window.
I’ve already posted on Substack about Arthur Ransome (both here and here) so I probably don’t need to say much more about his life and work, or his undoubted influence on me.
At the age of 45, Ransome turned his back on the political journalism which had been his bread and butter since almost by accident finding himself in Russia during the ferment of 1917. Finally, in 1929, he sat down to write the kind of book he had long yearned to write. In his Autobiography he described it as "a hinge year ... joining and dividing two different lives".
In 1958 he wrote an Author's Note which appeared at the beginning of subsequent editions, in which he said, "I could not help writing (the book). It almost wrote itself." If that was gilding the lily, there’s no doubt that the framework, at least, came almost without effort. He wrote furiously in the old barn at Low Ludderburn, begrudging time and energy demanded for other work; at night he kept the manuscript beside his bed so he could reach out and touch it.
Low Ludderburn is a private dwelling and not open to visitors.
And if anyone was looking for a deeper connection between the four locations… there isn’t one. Except that I happened to have photos of all of them that I could find without too much trouble.
Yes, there are a few exaggerations in this opening paragraph. Millions of them, in fact.
Thanks for sharing the posts.
Enjoyed this, thanks! Is the dunking in the whirlpool the harrowing outing that Orwell's son remembered doing with him, along with some other small children, in a small boat? That story sticks with one...