On a rainy London afternoon we were on a mission to welcome a friend who recently took a leap of faith and moved to our city in pursuit of love and happiness. Off we went wandering about town, walking, talking, and snap-snap-snapping with the camera. But it was no purposeless walking! We were exploring our capital’s literary connections through the Bloomsbury Trail – one of the four trails set out by Books about Town, a fascinating art project of the National Literacy Trust (a charity patronned by the Duchess of Cornwall) and Wild in Art. Each bench along the trail is shaped as an open book and colourfully decorated by a professional illustrator or a local artist. We walked our way from Peter Pan to Mrs Dalloway, stopping by James Bond to chat with tourists, taking a rest on the Sherlock Holmes bench, making circles around 1984, and posing with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The trail cast my mind back to the times I was binge-reading English classics and admiring their ability to remain immutable through the years and times when the rest of the world around us crumbled, changed, and reshaped. Join us for a walk – all of the pictures are taken by our new Londoner. I think I wanted to see my beloved city through his eyes, or maybe I was just being exploitative?

В течение следующих нескольких недель в Лондоне проходит интересная выставка под открытым небом: в разных точках города расставлено 50 скамеек, каждая из которых декорирована местным художником в стиле одной из книг английских писателей. Тут и комедия Оскара Уайльда «Как важно быть серьезным», и «1984» Джорджа Оруэлла прямо перед зданием, которое послужило прототипом Министерства правды в романе, и «Джеймс Бонд» с Пуаро Агаты Кристи, и «Питер Пэн» с «Миссис Дэллоуэй». Мне больше всего понравились «Лев, колдунья и платяной шкаф» — расположенная на старом кладбище скамья, на которой изображена сказочная сцена в запорошенном снегом лесу. Прогуляетесь с нами?