Oh what a fun research trip lies ahead!
it’s been four years since the last trip to London, Paris and Tuscany, which was so worthwhile. This upcoming trip was planned for 2021 and, well, we all know what happened.
This time I will be following Chaucer’s footsteps as he travelled from London to Bordeaux and then to Navarre, Rioja, Castile and Aragon as he helped sway the outcome of a civil war raging in Navarre in 1366-7. This is research for the third book in the Storyteller series, The Storyteller’s War.
I am booked to fly on my birthday this May from Vancouver to London, a birthday present to myself. My first memories are of Battersea, and Kensington, where our family lived after moving from Ottawa. Old churches and stained glass. The Tube. Playing cricket in Hyde Park, with my grandfather bowling out my brother. The Queen in a parade. The accents were imprinted deeply. Probably why I loved Monty Python so much when we ended up in Calgary (via North Bay, Petawawa, Canberra, Australia and Tsawwassen) before I moved to the Wet Coast. I’ve been back to London many times since and each time I land I get a very special feeling of coming home. Odd that. Maybe I’ll live there again one day (but more likely Spain or Tuscany, as London weather is too much like that of Vancouver).
Back to the work at hand. So after downing a shandy or two it’s research at the British Library, British Museum, V&A, National Archives and hopefully Lambeth Palace Library, poking about in used and antiquarian bookshops like Skoob Books and Sotheran’s, and of course a walk along the streets of the City in the early morning before the crowds arrive. Then catching up with an editor friend who helped me down this path years earlier. And of course I’ll take in a show in the West End, or two.
Then fly to Bordeaux and the ‘Port of the Moon’. And take in the city that provided England much of its wealth for two hundred years (through the importation of wine), and by the time Chaucer sailed there in December 1366, was the seat of the Prince Edward’s (the Black Prince) power. I may sample a wee bit of Bordeaux wine, for research purposes only of course – for this is the wine that Chaucer’s father also built his wealth on.
Then after a couple of days I’ll take an early morning train to Bayonne and San Sebastian, and then a bus to Pamplona to hire a car. Then on to Olite, Spain, the medieval capital of Navarre, to spend the night at the parador in a medieval castle. This is where Chaucer would have met King Carlos II and received his pass to travel through Navarre.
From there it’s a short drive to Logrono, at the cross-roads of Rioja, Aragon and Navarre along the Camino de Santiago. What was once a cosmopolitan centre and religious and cultural melting pot. And then an even shorter hop to Najera, where the largest battle of the Hundred Years war was fought between King Pedro (backed by Prince Edward) and Enrique Trastamara, the bastard claiming Pedro’s crown, and some 60,000 soldiers – with Chaucer in the middle. I will be walking the land, getting a sense of the topography and envisioning what this battle looked and felt like.
Then on to Burgos, where Pedro had fled the year before and where Enrique was crowned king, then back to Pamplona to return the rental car. Then on to Zaragoza by train to take in Aljeferia Palace, before finally ending up in Barcelona. A bit more research, exploring the palace that King Pere the Fourth would have lived in, and then some down time to relax and take in the sights, including the Picasso Museum and all things Gaudi.
Then fly back to London for more museums, research, walking, used bookshops, beer, wine and all the rest in that great city. Then home.
Then it is time to look at my notes and photos and finish the draft of The Storyteller’s War before heading to San Antonio and the Historical Writer’s Conference in June. Here I will catch up with my peeps from my online writer’s group (some of whom I hung with in Surrey last October) and pitch to agents. And maybe, just maybe, be finally able to open that bottle of Vernaccia I bought on my last trip to Europe in 2019, when I vowed I would only drink it when I land an agent and/or get a publishing deal. Time is ticking, for while the Vernaccia can age well in the bottle (unlike most white wines), it’s a 2013, and nearing its best before date.
