Blickling

North Norfolk abounds in large estates surrounding historic houses: Blickling is a particularly fine example.  So fine, we went there twice.

  On our first visit we looked round the house and saw their current exhibition: The Word Defiant. This is an installation mounted by a theatre company looking at books from a number of angles.  Thus a copy of "Winnie the Pooh" shelved between other books, making the point that it remains a banned book in China. 

In an upstairs bathroom a bath and hand-basin were filled to overflowing with books.  In a cellar, books embedded in black ash to represent libraries burnt in conflicts.  

Most controversially, in the historic library a torrent of books flowing down from the shelves and pooled on the floor.  

This was certainly an exhibition which divided opinion.  Some found it thought-provoking, but for many it seemed that the sight of so many books thrown about and mauled was distressing, even books destined for pulping.

On our second visit we hired bicycles from the store and cycled round the estate through woodland and across parkland.

Then we looked into the church.  This is a house once occupied by the Boleyn family, although I don't think that Anne Boleyn was born here.  The church has a fine collection of brasses

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How about this couple with their numerous brood? That's eleven sons and five daughters.

And, of course, we finished with yet another National Trust tea.