Fancy a Cuppa by the Cathedral? takes you on a whistle-stop tour of the UK's cathedrals and suggests the best place to go for a tea, coffee and cake afterwards. Yorkshire author Simon Duffin has produced the perfect guidebook to take on a day trip. You'll get a sense of the cathedral's place in history and the coffee shop or tea room's place in the town centres of today.
Simon's focus is on the stories our cathedrals can tell rather than the architecture or the theology. There are such stories as the Native American Chief buried in Southwark Cathedral graveyard; the Alice in Wonderland stories inspired by Lewis Carroll's time as a choirboy; or the Portuguese Princess who landed in Portsmouth and demanded tea rather than beer before her wedding.
In seeking out places for a refreshing beverage after you've toured the cathedral, Fancy a Cuppa lists independent coffee shops and tea rooms that not only provide top-quality coffee and tea but also have an intriguing story behind them. Some of these are contemporary, others artisan and some sell themselves on their historic location. Seek out the wonderful tea room in Bristol named after the tea clipper captain who was the owner's great grandfather; the coffee shop built right on Durham's mediaeval walls; or the hotel in Westminster where spies swapped intelligence during the Cold War, but there are now 200,000 bees on the roof!
This is the perfect guidebook to have on your smartphone or tablet. In just a minute, you'll have some quirky facts about the cathedral town or city you're in, you'll see the highlights from each of the cathedrals - across all denominations - and you'll have a good idea where to go for a cuppa and cake!
The title of this book caught my attention and the premise definitely solidified my interest. I've always wanted to go to the UK and after reading this book, I wish I could just hop on a plane tomorrow and head over there!
I love the idea behind this book, featuring major cathedrals across the United Kingdom and highlighting coffee houses and tea rooms nearby that must be checked out while in the area. The book is very straightforward: the locations are presented alphabetically and covers a good number of cities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
While the author mentioned at the foreward that this book would not be going into any great detail about the history behind the cathedrals, I kind of wished he did; it would have made this book a lot handier for people planning on going to to the United Kingdom for a trip, keeps everything in one volume. I do however appreciate that smaller cities not normally travelled were included in this collection and enjoyed the back stories behind the coffee houses and tea rooms he recommended throughout the novel.
My complete review of the title was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2013/08/08/review-fancy-a-cuppa-by-the-cathedral/
