Tour of London

Yes, you read that correctly ... tour of London, not tower of London. Specifically, a tour of University College, London. We started in Bloomsbury, learnt a bit about the Bloomsbury Group, saw where TS Eliot worked for Faber and Faber (and heard about how he turned down George Orwell's Animal Farm, apparently with the comment that no one was really interesting in animal stories these days. (However, I've just done a search, and have found the following quote on The Antigonish Review:

With relevance, controversy and exceptional artistic merit, was it incomprehensible then that Animal Farm barely made it into print? Numerous British and American publishing houses rejected it. One, Dial Press, New York, returned the manuscript and, according to Orwell, told him that it was '...impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A."6

Faber and Faber, London, rejected the book despite it being termed a '...distinguished piece of writing', according to T.S. Eliot, one of the firm's directors and managing partners. 'The fable is very skilfully handled ... the narrative keeps one's interest on its own plane - and that is something very few authors have achieved since Gulliver.'

Eliot added: 'It is certainly the duty of any publishing firm which pretends to other interests and motives than mere commercial prosperity, to publish books which go against the current of the moment; but in each instance that demands that at least one member of the firm should have the conviction that this is the thing that needs saying at the moment. I can't see any reason of prudence or caution to prevent anybody from publishing this book - if he believed in what it stands for."

Another publisher to turn it down was Jonathan Cape ...

We then wandered through the streets and learnt a little more about the University of London, and saw SOAS then Birkbeck College, the evening school started by a professor from Edinburgh University.

One of the most interesting parts of the tour was when we visited one of UCL's collections, the Grant Museum of Zoology, a collection of skeletons arranged in taxonomical order. Highlights of the collection for me included the glass models of creatures such as slugs and anenome that cannot necessarily leave a skeleton. They are anatomically correct and are very beautiful (strange when you consider they are slugs and stuff! I was also impressed by the huge skull of an ancient ancestor of the giraffe, and the skeleton of an anaconda, wrapped around a branch.

We then went into the main UCL building, where I was delighted to finally see the stuffed body of Jeremy Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism. (I think the UCL Bentham Project website is a very interesting and informative one, so have linked to it here.) There is also an interesting exhibition, Collecting the Dead, curated by the final year UCL Museum Curating students. It was a shame not to have longer to look at this exhibition, but perhaps we could visit it again later ...

After that, we visited the Petrie Museum of Egyptology, another fascinating place. I particularly liked (although "liked" is perhaps a strange word to use) the person buried in a pot, since it was quite unusual; I'm sure I haven't seen anything quite like it before. This tunic, possibly belonging to a 10 year old girl, was also very interesting - apparently it had been taken off inside out, and was found in a crumpled heap. As the tour guide (a friendly and professional teacher named Alison) said, some things don't change ... the archaeologists had to study the crease patterns at the elbow to figure out which way round the tunic would be worn, then they carefully used some sort of gauze in order to be able to display it. Quite a fashionable tunic - I'm sure I've got tops in a similar style!

Overall, it was a very interesting day. H said that if I'd told him we were visiting UCL he wouldn't have wanted to go - but he also really enjoyed it. A very interesting day!

In the evening we went to see Rush Hour 3 at the O2. A good laugh. So all in all, a busy day with lots packed in (including a lovely lunch near Russell Square tube station, which I would highly recommend but can't remember the name of - H said the Madras Chicken was the best Indian food he's had in London so far! I had a ham and mozzarella panini, which looked quite plain, but was delicious, and we both had milkshakes. All for £11. Which for London, seemed a particularly good deal! Must go back when we visit the Museum some time ...)