British Book Destinations Tour by Raimy from Readaraptor

Today I have a very special guest to the blog, Raimy from Readaraptor! She is one of the loveliest book bloggers I've come across and today she has very kindly offered to take us on a special Book tour of the UK.

Raimy has a regular feature on her own blog, Dream Bookish Destinations, please do click on the button below to find out more about Raimy, Readaraptor or her feature. You can also follow Raimy on Twitter!

Over to you Raimy...


When I was asked if I wanted to take part in this awesome British Authors themed month on Fluttering Butterflies I was really excited. I wanted to do a huge tour of the UK and places to visit and then I found that it probably wasn’t viable to talk about everywhere I wanted to visit. I mean, we don’t want this post to be huge now do we?! So I’ve picked a few places going from north to south with a quick stint over to Northern Ireland, for bookish people of all kinds to love and enjoy, so sit back and enjoy while I take you on a wonderful British Book tour.




First stop: The Illustration Cupboard, London.

The wonderful art gallery celebrates some of the top contemporary book illustrator’s from all over the world. I know they aren’t writers but who doesn’t love a great illustration when reading their favourite books?

I would love to visit this art gallery, especially if they repeat the awesome Mr Benn and Danger Mouse exhibition that was on when I was researching this post!




Next up: The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

This centre is dedicated to the fantastic storyteller Roald Dahl. It is in Buckinghamshire and would well be worth a visit to me. You can see original manuscripts of the author’s works and his ideas books which he was known to doodle notes in when planning his stories. I would really love to visit this place as it is actually where Dahl lived for 36 years until his death. This really is high on my destinations list.


Tintern Abbey, Gwent, Wales

This one is a weird one for me. I don’t really do poetry and the Abbey obviously has strong connections to William Wordsworth. But when I first saw an image of the Abbey well, let’s just say I don’t write poetry but if I were to visit that place it might just inspire me!


The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction, Bowness-on-Windermere

I was fascinated by Peter Rabbit and his friends when I was younger and at this amazing attraction in the Lake District you really do get to see them come to life. This one’s definitely a place to take the kids and I’m planning my visit there now (it helps that my sister actually works about a ten minute drive from this place… I really should have been there by now!)


Stint to Ireland to partake in: The CS Lewis Tour from Literary Belfast

This tour sounds brilliant. You get to tour the life of CS Lewis and his family as he was growing up. You take in the surroundings as they are now of his life and you see the influences of these surroundings on his work. There is also a statue of CS Lewis outside Holywood Arches Library in East Belfast that I would love to see in the flesh.


Then over to: Seven Stories, Newcastle

I grew up in the North East and I love my home region. But they had to go and open this fantastic children’s Centre while I was on my way out of the region didn’t they? The centre hosts exhibitions focussing on children’s authors, publishers and illustrators. As well as hosting events with authors and workshops for children. I know if I lived close enough to Newcastle I would well be there for every event!


Robert Smail’s Printing Works, Innerleithen

I found this little gem online when I was looking up literary places to visit one day. It’s a shop and office belonging to the Smail family. They ran a printing business, established in 1866, and even published a weekly newspaper from the building between 1893 and 1916. The building looks very similar now to how it did back then and is preserved by the National Trust for Scotland. It is a fully functioning Victorian Era letterpress printing works, I can just image stepping into the building and feeling like you’ve stepped back over 100 years!


And finally, not one for the kids: Trainspotting Literary Tour Edinburgh and Leith

I’m not one for adult authors, I generally read YA through and through, but put any Irvine Welsh book in front of me and I can’t resist. This is why I would love to go on the Trainspotting tour across Edinburgh and Leith. I know how disgusting it may be to actually visit some of the horrors from the book but I would love to see the places that Welsh saw and thought of Sick Boys pub and Tommy Youngers bar! I found the book mesmerising and walking down Montgomery Street would be awesome. I will have to tick this off my list soon!

So that’s my zig-zag of literary places to visit across Britain. Thank you Clover for inviting me onto the blog and I hope everyone enjoyed, please feel free to shout anymore awesome bookish places to visit at me!

Thank you so much for that Raimy! I haven't heard of several of them and all they all sound fascinating.