Tolkien an' a' that

This week I had the pleasure of visiting a client in the seaside town of Ayr in Scotland. As I drove through the Auld Toon, it was impossible to miss the publicity for the forthcoming "Burns an‘ a‘ that Festival!" which celebrates the connection between Robert Burns and the area. Could this be a source of inspiration for the good burghers of Lyme Regis to do something noble for the prosperity of their town?

For your information, my favourite place to stay in Ayr is the Abbotsford, a family run hotel offering comfort, character and wonderful hospitality. I would suggest Lyme Regis needs more hotels with these attributes for the literary tourists who would surely visit the Dorset coast if the many literary connections of the town were fully publicised. Tolkien an' a' the rest! Chesterton, Tennyson, Turner, Belloc, Austen ...

Burns was known to favour a wee dram of whisky from time to time. English writers such as Tolkien and Chesterton, on the other hand, were known for their liking of a glass or two of ale. Those wishing to follow in the footsteps of Tollers and GK would no doubt he looking for a friendly bar in a place where they stayed. How disappointing that the most famous hostelry associated these literary giants is closed to the public!

I wonder what that other late great poet of Strathclyde, Bill Shankly, would have made of the delay in scoring a winner by re-opening The Three Cups as a hotel. I imagine that he would have uttered one of his immortal epithets along the lines of "It's what ye do the day that counts." Come on, you councillors! Carpe Diem!