Not Derwentwater

What a gloriously sunny day to be down by the Lake. When I arrived this afternoon, I took many pictures across the water to the fells. I was quite pleased with how they turned out and one should probably have been my blip. However, this is my journal and, as such, I have always tried to keep to the idea of recording something that was important during a particular day, whether it is a good photograph or not.

And today I was way more inspired by this guy at Words by the Water, than I was by the beautiful views across the lake. So this is a picture, hastily taken with an awful lot of people milling about, of  . . . David Crystal.
 
I knew of his books about language and found a couple on my bookshelves, but I had never heard him speak before. I have always had a fascination with words, their meaning, origins, history and that is exactly what Crystal is about. His talk was called Words in Time and Place and he waxed lyrical about the huge Historical Thesaurus (that’s it on the table) for which he has written an introductory book; he explained how words, such as those used as terms of endearment, have changed, and often not changed, over centuries; he referred to the linguistic anachronisms in Downton Abbey (hilarious); he talked about  Shakespeare in original pronunciation (his rendition of a piece was amazing) and so much more did he ramble over. He was entertaining and truly inspiring and he seemed to impress the packed audience, if the queues to buy his books and to get them signed were anything to go by.
 
Earlier we had been to a talk by Juliet Barker about her book on the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. A fascinating talk, illustrating how she has overturned a lot of the givens about this event in medieval history. I rarely read history books, as they always seem to be about the ‘important’ people, but here the focus is on the ‘ordinary’ people, and ordinary people as individuals. So, I bought the book and she signed it!
   
We have been to a range of talks over these last few days and they have all been excellent. I have been inspired in all sorts of directions, as I am sure everyone who has attended has been. The events continue to the weekend, but this is it for us. Tomorrow we get on a plane at Newcastle Airport and head for Amsterdam.