I happily got on a train to head towards the Lake District, by way of Corbridge and Cockermouth. This was the day I discovered that the information on my tickets that said “Any permitted” under route might mean that any route was permitted. This might seem obvious, but for days I had been interpretting it as “any that is permitted”, which I thought singularly unhelpful and for some reason rather Brittish. So I had been wandering around asking train attendances whether or not I was permitted on this train, receiving patient replies that often contained the word “love”.

I immediately fell in love with the landscape around Corbridge, and then I fell even harder for Forum Books and Kids. It’s actually two bookshops, since they’ve recently opened their very own Kids-store, decorated with drawings of the Book Monster (!) and with a soon-to-be-garden.

More bookshops should have  a garden, I feel. I can already picture kids running around in it, chasing a rabbit or a story or both.

Helen of Forum Books also sells blind dates with books; wrapped, with a short description. It is apparently hugely succesful as a gift – “That way, they can just blame me if the person they give it to doesn’t like it”. Naturally I couldn’t resist the rom com by local author – and I have been strong enough not to open it before I get back to Sweden and can make a proper date of it, so I still don’t know which one it is.

Helen’s recommendation – The Red Notebook.