Although Kelly has been to the UK before, I have myself never been there. So I have no idea what I would actually make of anyplace in the UK, frankly. Certainly there is a lot of interesting history to see all over the place.
Still, I think I would like to see Yorkshire. It strikes me as a very interesting place, for a variety of reasons.
For one thing, a lot of interesting people are from Yorkshire. The Bronte sisters were from there. So were Captain James Cook, Governor William Bradford, and Guy Fawkes. Sir Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean, Mark Addy, Dame Judi Dench, Brian Blessed, and Michael Palin are all from Yorkshire. Even Beedle the Bard.
The geology seems pretty interesting. You can actually find fossils from all three of the major periods of the dinosaurs there: Permo-Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. For a rock geek like me, that is pretty impressive.
The history alone would fill an entire post and then some. Lots of interesting prehistoric sites, Roman sites, sites from the Angles and the Danes, up through the Middle Ages, and of course the War of the Roses.
I have become a big fan of the Samuel Smith brewery, which here in America is probably the most well known of any Yorkshire brewery. And although British cooking has a bit of a bad rep here in the States, both ginger beer and Yorkshire pudding started in Yorkshire and clearly they are both awesome.
So yes, I suppose my affection for this region of England may seem somewhat random, but it is more like a long-term appreciation that has slowly built up over time.
And the tipping point, at least in terms of my awareness of this affection, was when I read this story about an orphaned baby goat and said, “of course it’s in Yorkshire.”
-Geoff
The Books are Taking Over... 