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We frequently are asked for itineraries which include sites surrounding famous authors: Austen, Hardy, Shakespeare Brontes, even more modern ones like James Herriott and J.K.Rowling. It struck me recently that Virgina Woolf has never been requested. Indeed, as I sat watching the film The Hours (an excellent if dark film) which is roughly based around her life, I realised I knew very little about her. I happen to have her novel Mrs Dalloway on my bedside table waiting to be read.

She is probably more famous for the use of her name in the highly acclaimed play and film ‘Who’s afraid of Virgina Woolf?’

Virgina Woolf (nee Stephen) was born in 1882 and died, committing sucide, in 1941. Indeed she had a history if mental breakdown which started when her mother died when she was thirteen. Maybe this contributed to her genius. She had little formal education herself, however through her brothers who went to public schools and Cambridge, she met a number of intellectuals, including Leonard Woolf, and a group of friends who met regulary developed into the Bloomsbury Group, a society of bohemian intellectuals.

Virginia and her husband wrote for a living and started the Hogarth Press. To begin with her writing was conventional but then came the three great ground breaking novels, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and The Waves, which established her as one the great 20th century writers.

Visit the Virgina Woolf Society for more information.

For many years people have flocked to Loch Ness to see if they can spot the Monster, a huge prehistoric looking creature who is said to live in its’ depths. Indeed Loch Ness is the deepest loch in Scotland and is very deep – deeper than the North Sea.

The legend dates back to the 6th century. St. Columba, so the story goes, ordered one of his monks to swim across the loch and fetch a boat. Halfway across the monster appeared and rushed at the swimmer, roaring in a most frightening way! Columba cried out at the monster,” Go no further, nor touch the man! Go back! “. The monster it is said, fled!

The first photograph of the ‘monster’ was taken in 1931. It showed something with a long neck arched over a thick body. The photo caused a sensation at the time, and interest was renewed in the monster. Other sightings of similar shapes followed.

In 1961 the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau was formed, but expeditions involving submarines and sonar have still not located the creature, or family of creatures as they must be to be surviving.

However, sightings still occur of unexplained shapes, such as this latest one

Wishful thinking or evidence of an unidentified, if shy, species?

We are all familar with the words of the hymn Jerusalem

‘ And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England’s mountains green. And was the Holy Lamb of God in English pleasant pastures seen.’

From where did this legend spring? It is based on the possibility that Joseph of Arimathea came to Britain, first as a dealer in metal, then, after Jesus’ death, as a disciple spreading the Christian message when he founded a Christian community at Glastonbury, on the site of Glastonbury Abbey. It is speculated that as Joseph was possibly the uncle of Mary the mother of Jesus he could have brought the child Jesus here on his travels. If he was a metal dealer then it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to have expected him to come to Britain, which at the time was part of the Roman Empire and was reknowned as good source of tin.

To add to the myth it is further speculated that Joseph brought with him a vessel containing Jesus’ blood from the cross – or the Holy Grail – which he hid in the Chalice Well at Glastonbury.

Read the full story of the legend of Joseph of Arimathea.

The Magna Carta is hailed, rightly so, as the forerunner of many modern constitutions of state, including the American Declaration of Independence. It was the first time a monarch was subjected to the law of the land, just like any other citizen.

However when the errant King John signed the document on the banks of the river Thames at Runnymede on June 1215 neither he nor the rebel barons who challeged him saw it as more than an expedient move to temporarily curb his excesses. They could not have dreamed it was to play such a pivotal role in the forming of democracy. The BBC have the full story