Recommended Novels, Histories, Poetry, and Films to enhance your tour.

We have some time to prepare before this trip, so we suggest spending time with books and movies that will make this trip even more enjoyable.  Right now we're revisiting some of our favorite movies and TV shows.

Fiction covering the long span of history:

• Idylls of a King by Lord Tennyson
• or Morte d'Arthur by Malory (difficult)
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (Also a fun 1949 film starring Bing Crosby.)
• MacBeth, Richard II, Henry V and other plays by Shakespeare
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy​​

---

• Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Gramme
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• A Man for All Seasons (by Robert Bolt about Thomas More)
• The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur C. Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) 
• Agathat Christie’s 10 Little Indians
• 1984 by George Orwell

---

Histories

• History of the English Speaking People by Winston Churchill
• The Last Lion by William Manchester (at least V-1)

Poetry – A Sampler

• Ode on Intimations of Immortality by W. Wordsworth
• Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare
• Meditation 17 by John Donne (No man is an island)

---

Waking Ned Devine will have you falling off your rocker with laughter-- if you haven't seen this Irish laugher, don't miss it!

Films and Television
*History and War

• Camelot – musical
• Oliver – musical
• My Fair Lady – musical
• Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves
• Braveheart
• Rob Roy
• Zulu
• Operation Mincemeat

*History

• A Man for All Seasons
• How Green was my Valley
• Young Winston

*Romance and Culture

• Notting Hill
• The Man Who Invented Christmas
• Miss Potter
• Young Victoria
• The Crown

*CS Lewis

• Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe
• The Most Reluctant Convert
• Shadowlands

*TV Series  

• Doc Martin** – at least watch the first two episodes available on YouTube -- you'll enjoy the trip much more.
• Broadchurch
• The Last Kingdom  (really recommend this one too)
• Outlander

Ireland “must see” films  -  (required watching before you come!)

• The Quiet Man with John Wayne required
• Waking Ned Devine – comedy
• Evelyn with Pierce Brosnan

---

Maureen O'Hara & John Wayne in Quiet Man (we'll visit the location of this film)