Somerset

We are back in London for all of one day before we fly off for a week in Corfu. I hope we will have wi-fi there.

In Somerset, we visited two manor houses, both used in the filming of Wolf Hall, Cothay Manor and Barrington Court. Both were located miles down single-lane roads with tall hedges to either side. If you have driven in southwest England, you know what I mean. Occasionally a slightly wider place in the road allows cars to edge past at 0.5 mph and 5 cm clearance. I was grateful our friend John Hare was driving.

Cothay Manor was hard to find, but well worth it. Most of the fabric has been little changed since the 16^th century. The walls in many rooms had wall paintings. Ariel gave us a thorough 90-minute tour. Photography was not allowed inside, so I include a photo of the entrance with its lavender bushes.

Barrington Court had cool chimneys, but no interior furniture. It did have eight or nine costumes from Wolf Hall. Here’s Holley, looking over a costume for Anne Boleyn.

Apart from all this architectural research, we shared lots of laughs with Paula Gosling and John Hare, slept in a four-poster bed, and we stopped at the Discworld Emporium in Wincanton to pay our respects to Terry Pratchett and buy gifts.