Rossetti, Britten, Dickens, the Magna Carta and the Ancient Greeks.

What have the names above all got in common? There is something, but unless you know me, you might not guess that they all inspired me during my recent holiday.
After the success of the Exeter Novel Prize award ceremony - read all about it HERE - I went to stay in London. If you click on the photo, the lightbox will enlarge the plaque sufficiently for you to be able to read it.  Unfortunately all the writing I did during my stay was not imbued with the previous occupant's charm. But I wasn't there to write. I was on holiday! 
During my last holiday in North Norfolk the year before last, it was cold and rainy for six of the seven days and I remember writing quite a lot, but in London I was two minutes walk from the British Museum, ten mins from the Dickens' house in Doughty St and fifteen from the British Library and the Magna Carta exhibition. All were brilliant, informative and inspiring. The Defining Beauty exhibition in the British Museum was worth the trip alone. If you go, pay the money for the audioguides, they add such depth to the experience. 
There is an odd man out in the title of this blog. Britten didn't feature in my London trip, but he did in the hop I did off to Snape Maltings in Suffolk over the Easter weekend. I was given the opportunity to see the very excellent vocal ensemble, I Fagionlini and as I am a devotee of theirs, and they are flag-wavers for the music of Gesualdo - who is a main character in my forthcoming novel - I jumped at the chance, even though it mean eschewing London for three days. 
So from the brick and concrete scenery of Fitzrovia, I went to this amazing and similarly mind-expanding place: