I love autumn. It is the most beautiful time of the year, with abundant colours and cooler, sunny days.
In the UK, autumn is the time for literary festivals, when new and established authors go on book-release tours.
This is always an amazing opportunity to meet your favourite writers, learn new things, and get your books personally signed.
Last Saturday, I took a ferry to Cowes, Isle of Wight, for an afternoon tea with a literary twist at the London Royal Yacht Club. The club was formed in 1838 and is one of the oldest and most prestigious private Yacht Clubs in Britain, and I was delighted to explore this wonderful venue.
It was a highly social event with large mixed tables, and we were served a classic British afternoon tea with scones, cucumber sandwiches, and other delights. Grant Harrold, better known as The Royal Butler, spoke about his book of the same name, etiquette rules, and stories from his remarkable life in royal service, which made the event so special. Harrold, with his truly sparkling personality, was happy to move around, spend time at each table, and personally sign his book. His book tells the inspiring story of a young boy from a working-class town in Scotland who always dreamt about being part of the Royal family and how his dream came true. I talked with so many interesting people, tried surprisingly great English sparkling wine, and it was so much fun.
The next day, I was at the Southampton City Art Gallery for a meeting with the truly amazing British actress Celia Imrie. Her book, “The Elegant Hustler”, is all about her life through travel notes and extraordinary stories, and it resonated with me as a keen traveller.
I had such an inspirational weekend and could not help thinking about what these two different yet somehow similar people have in common. Some might say it is luck, but I believe it is more about never stopping in pursuit of your dreams and having a sense of humour to handle situations that don’t always go as planned.
I want to finish with the words from the song by Pink, “Million dreams” :
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy.
They can say, they can say we’ve lost our minds.
See, I don’t care, I don’t care if they call us crazy.
Run away to a world that we design.
My beautiful readers, I wish for all your dreams to come true.
With Love as Always,
Yana De Lilac
Leave a Reply