Thursday, August 14, 2008

Chasing the UPS Man

Southport, Connecticut

My last day in my beloved Southport meant running around like a hen without a head as I caught up on all pending errands. Pending because I spent all day yesterday waiting for the UPS Man to deliver the keys to my flat in Holburn. When he didn't show yesterday, I began fretting.

Then, by 10.30 this morning, while my friend Lucy Roberts was in my kitchen enjoying a cup of Java with me and giving me a farewell hug, the long-awaited keys were delivered. They are now in my possession. I could finally get out to Supercuts to get my hair trimmed, to Kinkos to get a bunch of pictures scanned, to Jennifer Convertibles to select a new sofa...oh the list was just endless.

So many friends calling to say goodbye, so many last-minute chores to complete...And that final chat on the phone with Chriselle...so heartbreaking.

By 8.00 pm, I had a throbbing headache brought on by stress and the heat and exhaustion...everything just felt overwhelming.

Still, its 9. 30pm, now and with all our bags packed, we' ready to hit the sack early tonight. Picked up the rental car that will take Llew and me to Kennedy airport tomorrow while the rest of the neighborhood is still in bed. We've set our alarm clock for 4 am and if all goes according to plan and schedule, we shall be airborne by 9 am.

Across the Pond and on to a whole new adventure!

When next I write, it shall be from my Roost in London!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Time to Say Goodbye...

I was so excited about being posted to London, I did not realize how difficult it would be to say goodbye to the ones I most love.



Met Chriselle for coffee at Grand Central yesterday and was close to tears when it came time for our last hugs. I know I will miss her soooo much. Met my Book Club at Penfield Beach last night--my very last meeting with them for a whole year--and realized that I was heavy-hearted when saying bye to Trish and Mary-Jo, Amy and Bonnie. Will miss my friends too. Suddenly, now that I have just two more days to go before I say goodbye to my beloved Holly Berry House and Southport, I keep wondering if Llew will remember to water the wedding fern I have nurtured for the past 15 years and if the garden will stay as pristine as it is now...and whether I shall miss having my black pashmina in London (and, therefore, whether I should stuff it into my bulging suitcases)...



Tried to tie up loose ends at NYU yesterday. Filling forms for reimbursement of expenses, filling forms for Aetna Global Medical and Dental Insurance, etc. etc.



Didn't find the time to scan a bunch of vintage pictures I wanted to put on CD because I had to rush off to meet Mahnaz for lunch at Otto--so terrific to see her again. We had parted company on the Rialto Bridge in Venice in March. Mario Battali never disappoints and the vegetables we ordered (that Eggplant Caponatina was to die for) together with the Penne Putanesca was MMMMmmmm. With the glass of white wine, it was heavenly and took me right back to Firenze! Only trouble was I snoozed on the subway all the way up to the Metropolitan Museum where I renewed my ID card. So with all those last-minute errands slowly getting ticked off my To-Do List, I feel less nervous about our departure



Still have to get my hair trimmed though, so Deborah (that's my stylist)...here I come.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

These Are a Few of my Favorite Things...

...or a Lot of my Favorite Things. Hhhhheeeelllllpppp! I can't decide what to take to London and what to leave behind. Since I need clothing for four seasons, I need more than the 4 suitcases I can carry (between Llew and me, that is) to the UK. What's worse? The airlines have cut down on their baggage allowance and I am weighing each item carefully before adding it to my load.

The list is endless---Clothes, Shoes, Medication, Cosmetics and Toiletries, Books, Kitchen Doodads, Laptop Paraphenalia. It's all weighing me down--literally! Little by little, day after day, I have been adding things to my suitcases and despite paring down to the bare necessities, I am still taking way too much stuff. I am not a minimalist--that's for sure.

Chriselle spent Friday with me and brought along her new friend Rebekah to meet me. Lovely girl! So happy that Chrissie has a good friend close by. I will miss her dreadfully but we're talking about her making not just one but two trips while I am in London.

Meanwhile, my friends have been inundating me with last-minute invitations to social dos. Angie and Yvor had Llew and me over to their Stratford place for dinner to bid me goodbye. She cooked an incredible meal that included her signature Sweet Corn and Chicken Chowder and some scrumptious Bakhlava for dessert--how did she know this is one of my favorite desserts?

Then, yesterday, we spent a Sunday in the Park--no, not with George but with Susan de Souza, our dear friend who organized a lovely picnic at Central Park for her siblings and us. So there was her sister Nona and her brother Osmund and his family (wife Jacqui, daughter Michelle and mother-in-law Blanche). Susan outdid herself with a classy picnic hamper that included red and white wines, a variety of cheeses and crackers with three-layer hummus and bruschetta. Just when we thought that her hamper was incapable of conjuring any more treats, out came dinner--this magnificent baked salmon with a super fresh salad of spinach and gorgonzolla cheese and avocado with a balsamic vinaigrette--yummmmiiiie!

The finale was eavesdropping on a performance of Hair at the Delacorte Theater in the Park where Aquarius, their title song, had us raising our voices in song! The weather was exactly what we would have ordered, had we been asked; the Manhattan crowds were exhilarating and the picnic was the perfect end to our day which had begun at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we saw the special exhibit on J.W.M. Turner--a fitting preview of the kind of art I can expect to see in England.

I am slowly getting there--to England, I mean. And the butterflies in my tummy are turning somersaults!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

At Long Last...A London Address

So, finally, I know where I shall be staying in London. The suspense has ended, the trepidation begins. What will the place be like? Will it be an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny sort of studio? Will there be room to breathe? And grow?

I know it's in Holburn (that's pronounced 'Hobin'), the heart of Legal London, a region I explored on foot a couple of years ago and adored for the character to be found in those venerable buildings. I'm told mine is a new building. How new? It has air-conditioning...an unusual amenity for London. And double glazing to muffle street sounds. Just a stone's throw away are the shops, so I won't be lugging groceries for miles. That's lovely...as the English would say!

Don't know too much more and can't wait to find out. But guess what I did? I used Google Earth to gain a bird's eye view of my hood! And I can't say I'm disappointed. I wanted lively and lived-in...and I got them both, I think. Chancery Lane Tube station is right across the road. Now how's that for convenience? And would I ever have dreamed when I was studying Charles Dickens' Bleak House as an undergrad at Elphinstone College a gazillion years ago that one day I'd be staying in Chancery??? Now who would ever have guessed that???!!! I am so buzzed!

Just a couple of blocks away (as we say in New York) are the Inns of Court, Lincoln Inn's Field and Sir John Soane's Museum. One block away is Fleet Street, a few blocks away is St. Paul's Cathedral (I hope I will hear the bells toll the hours) and best bit of all, I think my NYU campus at Bedford Square is only a short walk away!

Llew has reserved our rental car to take us zipping through the Scottish Highlands and I'm doing all the reading to make sure we don't miss the must-see glens, the must-do mountain tops and the must-linger lochs.

Went to my Fairfield Post Office today and shipped off a load of stuff to London--all $263.00 worth of books, files, tapes, research notes, the lot. Also shipped off a load of bed linen. I know I will be moving into a furnished flat but I do want my own down comforter and pillows to snuggle into, my own Lenox mug to sip coffee from at dawn, my own king-size towels to huddle into at shower's end. Hey, if I have to make myself at home in London without Llew, I know I will need all the help I can get.

London, here I come!

Monday, August 4, 2008

An Unexpected Upgrade

Saturday, August 2, 2008

An upgrade to Business Class on American Airlines made my flight from San Francisco to Kennedy airport in New York quite the most comfortable transcontinental one I’ve ever taken. So many things conspired to make today unexpected in every way.

The cafeteria guys on the campus at UCSC were extremely obliging in that they packaged a quantity of "Mark’s Homemade Granola" for payment of one swipe of a meal on my card! Karen, a graduate student who lived in San Francisco and who had her car on campus, volunteered to give me a ride to San Francisco airport. I was delighted to pass through the very heart of Silicon Valley and to see the headquarters of all the techie companies such as Intel and Yahoo on the highway around Palo Alto.

Then things started to go awry. My flight was delayed by a half hour and as I waited patiently at the gate waiting for boarding to commence, I was invited to the counter and upgraded to Business Class—boy, was I thrilled! The service was unbelievable and I was wined and dined like a moghul! Managed to watch two movies on my own personal portable DVD player handed to me by the stewardess. The Other Boleyn Girl starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannsen was a treat to watch especially after having read the novel by Phillipa Gregory a couple of years ago and having enjoyed it.I also watched Definitely Maybe with Ryan Reynolds and Abigail Breslin (of Little Miss Sunshine fame ). Before I knew it, we were touching down at JFK airport.

That’s when I realized that my Shuttle Service had closed down for the night though it was only about 11.15 when I called them and they supposedly close at midnight. Despite having made a pre-paid reservation, I had to drag Llew out of bed to get him to pick me up from the airport. I am seated in the transit lounge awaiting his arrival in the passenger pick-up area even as I type this.

See what I mean by the day holding mixed surprises? Still I'm not complaining...at least not about the unexpected upgrade!

Coursing Through Clint's Carmel-By-The-Sea

Friday, August 1, 2008

During his early morning call, Llew dissuaded me from making the rigorous journey by public transport to Carmel. He suggested I spend the day, a fairly free one, exploring parts of Santa Cruz instead. It was at that point that I remembered that Desmond Mascarenhas, cousin of our friend Ian, lived in Silicon Valley, not too far from Santa Cruz. I decided to call him with the idea of meeting briefly with him over a cuppa. Breakfast done, I actually managed to spend a good couple of hours working on my Anglophilia manuscript.

I positioned myself with my laptop in my room in such a way that all I saw outside the window was a curve of the hill bordered on both sides by towering conifers. Occasionally a car passed silently by and the bucolic scene was deeply comforting to my psyche and immensely productive. Revision went smoothly as I awaited Desmond’s arrival on campus. Despite bad traffic on his approach to Santa Cruz, Desmond, who lives in Los Altos Hills in Silicon Valley arrived about 2pm.

After lunch in a small Thai Restaurant in Santa Cruz, we took the Pacific Coast Highway south past the aqua waters of Monterey Bay. Arriving in the town of Monterey, on the south side of the Bay, a half hour later, we found parking, then strolled the length of Cannery Row, made famous by John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name. The area is a tourist paradise, reminiscent of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf and famous for its aquarium, considered one of the world’s finest.

Back in the car, we drove further south past the neat ranch homes of Pacific Grove and Asilomar before taking the famous 17 Mile Drive along the craggy Monterey Peninsula where I was delighted to see a variety of sea lions basking on the rocks and other bird life. The weather was just delightful and the golfers were out in full force, making the most of the benign weather. Then, we arrived at Pebble Beach, one of the world’s most famous golf courses, which slopes gently down to the very edge of the water. Within this rarified world of Californian old and new money, I was able to sense a gracious way of life. Then, we were entering the famous hamlet of Carmel-By-The-Sea whose most famous mayor was the Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood!

Exploring Carmel was a little bit like strolling through Disneyworld, so carefully contrived is this fairy-tale environment. Cottages and shops that seemed to have emerged straight out of the illustrations found in children’s storybooks enchanted me and offered many photo opportunities. The town slopes down to a snow-white beach to which we also walked past happy tourists and local residents. The shops offered the most enticing merchandise and I was hard pressed to resist exploring the interiors of every single one of them. Carmel completely lived up to its reputation as one of the prettiest parts of the California Coast and I was so glad that Desmond chauffeured me around his neck of the woods.

Our evening ended with fine cuisine at the restaurant attached to his country club at Saratoga where the hostess obligingly arranged to find me a pair of trousers to replace the jeans I was wearing as the restaurant dress code does not permit jeans or sneakers! It reminded me of the Ritz in London that carries jackets in a range of sizes and lends them to gentlemen who stop there for afternoon tea with no knowledge of the prevailing dress code. The meal including succulent swordfish was delicious and I ate one of the best salads I have ever tasted—a truly Californian concoction with pine nuts, mandarin oranges and goat cheese in a citrus vinaigrette. Dessert was a Chocolate Lava Cake served with vanilla ice cream. Having eaten dorm food all week, this meal tasted like manna from the heavens. Desmond made a wonderful companion and superb tour guide—just the kind I love when becoming acquainted with new places and I feel grateful that he made the time for me.

It’s hard for me to fathom how I managed to see Carmel after all despite that fact that I did not have a car and heeded Llew’s advice to abandon the idea of reaching g there through public transport. I am convinced that some things are meant to be and if you have a clear vision of where you wish to be and intend to get there strongly enough, circumstances conspire to make that vision a reality. This certainly was true of my exploration of the mid-Californian coast.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Santa Cruz Diary

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Thursday is the point in the Dickens Universe when you realize that your trousers feel too tight at the waist with all the overeating you’ve been doing all week long. It’s also the point at which you realize that you haven’t quite accomplished as much writing as you would have liked and ought to be more choosy about which talks you will attend and which activities you will avoid.

Breakfast done, I retuned to my suite to spend time on the phone with the two bus companies that run the public bus service along the mid-Californian coast. I am determined to visit Carmel-By-The-Sea, a beautiful little coastal town at the other end of Monterey Bay that everyone has been raving about. However, to get there without a car means spending about three hours (one way) and transferring through four buses. None of which daunts me, of course. After all, I cannot think of a better way by which to see this part of the country. Having obtained the schedule and having discovered exactly how to get there, I intend to leave right after breakfast tomorrow morning on my own little adventure.

I spent the next couple of hours working on my Anglophilia manuscript and was amazed at how much work I managed to accomplish. Then it was time to get to lunch and head to the screening of the final installment of Hard Times, which for me has been one of the more entertaining parts of the week.

Then, after a cup of lemon tea, I headed off to listen to Margaret Loose of UC San Diego speak on Chartism, a session I found most enlightening. I actually managed a short afternoon nap today before heading off for dinner and a glass of Port, then repairing to the Porter Dining Hall for the DVD presentation of Elaine Freedgood’s presentation on “Industrial Spectatorship: Factory Tourism and the Adventure of Production”. This quite brilliant presentation by one of my own NYU colleagues was fascinating and heart breaking at the same time as I came to understand the cruel conditions that prevailed in the Victorian factory and the detailed archival information that is available in the form of descriptive accounts and illustrations of the life and work of factory hands in the late 19th century. Despite the fact that this talk was taped, Elaine’s dry humor and deadpan expressions even when saying something hugely funny was a revelation in itself.

Then, it was time for another party—a cheese and desserts party thrown by the Friends of the Dickens Universe, at which an array of cheeses and cakes were presented for our nibbling pleasure together with a range of wines. Unable to take in another sip, I escaped to my suite for a shower before dressing to get out once again for another party—yes, this one thrown by the ‘English Ladies’ in our midst in their suite just above ours. Over champagne and strawberries, I socialized some more and it was only close to midnight that I decided to call it a day.

And so to Bed…

Wednesday, July 30, 2008


Sally Ledger of Birkbeck College, London, is a delightful speaker and I looked forward to her morning talk on “Mere Dull Melodrama: Popular Aesthetics in Hard Times and Mary Barton” all week. She did not disappoint. The poise with which she articulates her ideas and the thorough scholarship with which they are elucidated is a model for any earnest scholar. No wonder the faculty seminar session that followed it was lively and collegial and involved a fruitful exchange of views and ideas.

Lunch done, I attended Jim Adams’ session on Scholarly Publishing with the idea of discovering any new thinking in the field of academic writing. Then I raced off to see the third installment of the Granada TV version of Hard Times which I am coming to anticipate eagerly with each passing day. After a lovely Victorian tea, I returned to my suite to spend the next couple of hours revising my Anglophilia manuscript.

Then, freshly showered, I joined Carol Mackay and my suite mates Deborah Shapple and Jill Mattus at O Mei, a Schezwan fusion Chinese restaurant that concocts the most amazing food. But for the crispy noodles which I found a little bland, everything else was delightfully tasty and for someone who doesn’t usually care for Chinese food in North America, this was truly a treat.

As if this much activity wasn’t adequate, I joined my colleagues, once again, at the party thrown by the faculty for the graduate students. Spending the next hour chatting with many of them, I realized at 11 pm, how fatigued I was and returned with Deborah, across the fog-enshrouded bridges over the ravines, back to my suite to call it a night. And so to Bed…

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Hard to believe I’ve only been here three days. We’ve already packed so much into this Dickens Summer Camp of sorts that I fear there will be nothing left of Dickens to dissect by the time Friday rolls around!

Determined to catch up with Chriselle and hear all about her cruise, I finally caught hold of her at work after I returned from breakfast and spent almost an hour talking about everything. Happily, I discovered that the cruise was a very unique experience for her and one that the entire Harris family enjoyed.

Determined also to discover Santa Cruz more closely than I had last summer, I took the public bus downtown this morning and strolled at leisure around the main shopping areas. Haunting consignment and thrift stores, antiques and collectible shops, I found some treasures and promptly snapped them up. Then, I raced back to the bus terminus in time to watch Part Two of Hard Times in the auditorium. It is surprising how much of the text is eliminated in film adaptations without losing the essence of the work. Though much abbreviated, this series is compelling and I am enjoying it very much. At the Victorian Tea that followed, I tried to restrict myself to just a few treats but my sweet tooth let me down badly and I feasted on the dainty temptations laid out for our consumption.

Back in my room, I worked steadily on the revision of a manuscript that is a creative memoir when I received a call from my friend and former neighbor Rosemary Harding. It was delightful to chat on the phone with Rosemary whom I least expected to talk to in California. After a productive stint at my laptop, I walked downhill along the redwood forest trails with my roomie Deborah Shapple of the University of Oregon and the newest room mate to have joined our suite, Jill Matus from the University of Toronto. Over Mexican Beef and Cheese Enchiladas, we got acquainted, then I enjoyed a delicious glass of Port at Post Prandial Potations that preceded a very absorbing lecture by Jim Adams of Cornell on “Industry and Insurrection: Narrating Manhood”. This gave me the opportunity to chat with Sally Ledger of Birkbeck College, London, whom I had met last year but who informed me that she has just accepted a new position at Royal Holloway College in London. However, since she uses the British Library frequently, we intend to meet often for coffee when I am in London next month.

Fairly ready to drop but satisfied at the mix of work and leisure that the day brought me, I showered and spent a while reading before hitting the sack… …and so to Bed.

Monday, July 28, 2008

No such luck. I awoke at 5 am., did some reading, then walked downhill towards breakfast and more granola. Finally got a wireless signal today and was able to access my email, making the carting of my laptop across the country worthwhile.This morning’s lecture by James (Jim) Buzzard of MIT on “The Frontiers of Ethnography” with special reference to Mary Barton was wonderfully up my alley and dealt with so many of the issues with which I have grappled as I my own comparative ethnographic inquiry on Anglo-Indians has taken shape over the past two years. While Jim’s talk focused on 19th century anthropological attitudes towards ‘culture’, many of the aspects of his study intersect mine and I was grateful for the opportunity to talk to him about some of these during the faculty seminar session that followed.

Also wonderfully enlightening and highly entertaining was my friend Catherine Robson’s lecture humorously entitled, “Why ‘It’s Grim up North’: A Brief Primer on Yorkshire, Lancashire and All Things Northern”. Having been raised in Yorkshire herself (though she went to Grad school at Berkeley and now teaches at UC Davis), Catherine included a great deal of her personal history in the presentation which she interspersed with excerpts from Monty Python routines and YouTube.

Following John Jordan’s advice that we pace ourselves well lest we collapse with exhaustion, I skipped attendance at the evening lecture, escaping to my room after dinner and a glass of wine. Eating four meals a day will soon do me in—yes, we do have a Victorian Tea served to us each afternoon with marvelously tempting treats thrown in each day. Despite my best resolve to eat healthy, I am succumbing to the temptations of ice-cream sundaes and will either have to skip a meal a day or step up my exercise routines on campus.

One of the lighter elements of this week’s stay in Santa Cruz is the screening of the 1977 Granada TV version of Dickens’ Hard Times each afternoon in installments in the auditorium. Part One was superbly acted with Timothy West playing Bounderby to perfection and I intend to catch the remaining three parts in the next few days.

Was delighted to receive a call from Chriselle this morning, back from her Caribbean cruise, and though we could not talk for long today, I look forward to getting the low down on every single aspect of her holiday tomorrow.

With Pepys’ line echoing in my ear, I shall turn towards the reading of Fodor’s Guide to Scotland, in preparation for our driving tour of the Highlands next month.

…and so to Bed.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

So I showered at the unearthly hour of 6 am trying hard not to disturb my other suite mates still soundly asleep in their own bedrooms. Then eager to retread upon fondly remembered pathways from last summer, I wound my way downhill to College Eight hugging myself to ward off the dawn chill of this campus that sits aloft lording it over the sights of Monterey Bay which slumbers at the foot of the mountain ridge along which the university campus sprawls. Mist hangs from the giant redwood trees outside my window making me feel encapsulated by the arms of Nature and living in a tree house for the week, emerging only to find creature comforts in the vulgarly vast meals I consume thrice a day in the cafeteria.

To get to College Eight from the Grad student dorms—a luxurious suite of 4 bedrooms each of which is occupied by a “Victorianist” from a different part of the country--I pass herds of deer (much smaller than the ones who ravage my Connecticut garden—unless these are all fawns!) and fearful signs that say “Beware Mountain Lion” along enticing trails fringed with Alpine greenery. How any student can get any work done in such idyllic surroundings remains a mystery to me!

For a foodie to anticipate dorm grub is somewhat odd but I have to admit delight and relief to find that the College Eight cafeteria still stocks “Mark’s homemade granola” that I ate by the bowlful last year and led me to devise my own recipe at home using the variety of seeds—sesame, pumpkin, sunflower—that he adds so liberally to his mixture.

Determined to shake jetlag away though the temptation to nap almost overcame my resolve, I took the local bus downtown from campus to the Boardwalk at Santa Cruz on a particularly warm afternoon. Once the fog burns off, a generally pleasant day takes shape and despite the fact that many store fronts remained closed for the weekend, there was an air of activity along Pacific Avenue where the trendy shops and restaurants attracted droves of tourists. Naturally, I ignored all the clothing and shoe stores and browsed in the vintage jewelry and antiques stores before I found my way on foot to the Boardwalk where I was excited at the prospect of meeting Dr. Kashinath Pakrasi (who now goes as “Kashi”), former professor of English at Bombay’s Ruia College and my M.Phil dissertation mentor.

Here’s to Reunions, Californian or otherwise. If you had told me 24 years ago that I’d see my mentor again after a quarter century as bikinied beauties and cell-phone junkies passed by on a beach promenade in California, I’d have told you to get your head examined. At that point in my life, the USA wasn’t even remotely on my mind, let alone emigration. Meeting Kashi again was a startling experience for both of us. Having driven all the way from Mountain View with his wife Sheela and daughter Nandita, they arrived late for our rendez-vous but we made up for lost time by catching up as quickly as we could on the news of the past two decades over some hot java at a local coffee shop. They dropped me off at campus but strolled around through the dense redwood trails before bidding me goodbye and promising to stay in touch via email.

With dinner scheduled for 5.30 (who can eat at 5.30?!?), I made my way back on foot to College Eight—this is possibly the only exercise I will obtain all week long; so I might as well make these mountainous treks brisk and frequent—for Pork Ribs and wonderfully crisp sauteed mixed green beans and a generous helping of salad before succumbing to the temptation of a large ice-cream sundae. This meal was followed by PPP (Post-Prandial Potations), a session devoted to wine sampling and socializing before the start of the evening talk, this one given by my suite mate and friend Helene Michie of Rice University in Texas whose lecture was entitled, “Doing Hard Time: The Tenses of History”. Though it was superbly thought over and crafted, I have to admit to succumbing to jetlag once again. My eyes refused to stay open beyond 9 pm and when the questions and answer session ended, I gratefully raced back to my room desperate to grab a few zzzzs and hoping my body clock will adjust quickly enough and wake me at a more reasonable hour tomorrow morning.

As Samuel Pepys ended his own 18th century diary: “… and so to Bed”.

Saturday, July 26, 2008


Uneventful flight from Kennedy airport into San Francisco. I gave up my window seat to a husband-and-wife duo who wanted to sit together and, in grateful return, helped me stash my duffle into the overhead bin. I lost no time getting down to the funny business of devouring the paperback I carried with me for in-flight reading—Brit-Think, Ameri-Think:A Transatlantic Survival Guide by Jane Warmsley. The book was a gift from my Brit friends Jonathan and Diana Thomson who thought that my new teaching assignment in the UK would require me to get acquainted with the cultural differences that separate England from America. Wasn’t it George Bernard Shaw who said that England and America are two countries separated by a common language? Well, Warmsley shows, in the funniest of ways, that they are not only separated by language but by attitudes towards money, food, fashion, children, pets and leaders. Her comments are so astute and so comical that I finished the entire volume on the six hour flight stopping only to enjoy the yummy crab cake sandwich lunch I had carried with me from home washed down with the diet coke that (mercifully) American Airlines is still providing on domestic US flights.

My colleague Tricia Lootens of the University of Georgia was awaiting my arrival at the baggage carousel at 2. 30 pm local time and together we shared a shuttle service called Early Bird to Santa Cruz where we are attending the week-long Dickens Universe at the University of California. Despite rather bad traffic snags around Los Gatos, we made it in an hour and a half--just in time to pick up room keys (in the grad dorms) and extra linen, meet and greet other colleagues from around the country at the Welcome Dinner and receive an Orientation lecture from “the Director of the Universe”, my friend John Jordan who does an outstanding job each year coordinating this event. With the focus on the industrial novel Hard Times (with Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton thrown in for good measure), it promises to be an enlightening week and I hope to learn a lot about England during the Industrial Revolution.

Then serious jet lag set in and unable to suppress my yawns a moment longer, I headed off to my room only to spend a fitful night and to wake up at the crack of a new California dawn, jetlagged and wide awake.