221B Baker Street

Dear Charlie,

I know you always had a lot of admirers. Many people loved your work and celebrated you for it. But I was wondering, how much did their opinion actually mean to you? Did their feedback ever make you change the end of a story or turn the fate of a character around?
How much power did your fans and their opinions have?

You know, I thought a lot about fan culture this week and how massively fan opinions matter these days.
They write fanfictions (more info in the link section below) that are turned into books and movies making millions of pounds, or get together to fanrelease songs and albums. And through social media it is now so easy to get instant feedback and see what the people out their love and what doesn’t go down so well. The viewers, the listeners, the readers, they are actively taking part in creating characters and telling their stories the way they want them.  And while fans or admirers always existed, this huge influence and the fanhype  that often comes with it has only really developed since the internet and Twitter and co. came along. Especially when we talk about characters from literature.

But see Charlie, there are some exceptions. There have been some literary characters so popular that the fans were unbelievably passionate about them, even decades, yeah centuries ago.  And they went through incredible lengths to show their support and give their opinion on their plot lines.
Probably the most popular character out of them is connected to London like no other and to date the most portrayed and referred to fictional character ever. He even is in the Guinness world record book for it. His fans were always crazy about him, counting the days till the release of a new adventure and influenced his story massively and at some point they even saved his life.Get the magnifying glass and the deerstalker Charlie, I’m gonna tell you about Sherlock Holmes today.

World’s most famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes was an almost instant hit. And no one was more surprised by this than his creator, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle.

17 Cherry Tree Lane

Dear Charlie,

I thought a lot about family this week. I think family is one of the most important things in life and that you should cherish it if you have one. Family life is never easy though; you of all people know that very well. It often comes with as much trouble as it comes with love, but usually the love outweighs the trouble in the end. I mean just because I wanna kick my sister’s ass sometimes doesn’t mean I don’t love her, you get me.
When I was younger I always thought I have the best parents in the world, that they’re perfect. Today I know that is not true. I love my parents more than anything and they are great parents, but they are not perfect and that’s ok.  There is this point in every child’s life when you grow up and realize that your parents are in fact not superheroes. They are just human and make mistakes; they don’t always know the right answer to everything and need help too sometimes.
There is an episode of friends where Rachel has trouble with her mum and dad and says “Why can’t parents just stay parents? Why do they have to become people?” I totally get that. But as annoying as it can be I really do believe that accepting that your mum and dad are people, who are also just trying to make their way through life as well as possible, is an important part of growing up. I guess most families are part von Trapp and part Bundy family. (Without the being chased by Nazis bit of course. And the nuns. And actually loads of other things, but you know what I mean.)
So I went to see my von Trapp-Bundy- Clan over Easter and when I flew back into London family was still very much on my mind and made me think of one famous London family who is also not perfect, but when the East wind blows one day they get a little help to figure things out.
So Charlie, this time I made my way through this fine city to track down the Banks family and their nanny, Mary Poppins.

Mary appears in a series of eight books written by P.L. Travers. Despite creating one of the most British books ever Pamela Lyndon Travers was actually not British at all, she was Australian and her birth name was Helen Lyndon Goff. She grew up with an alcoholic father who died when she was seven and a suicidal mother who was not really able to take care of her and her siblings. Helen had to take over a lot of responsibility for her sisters and to calm them down she would invent stories about a magical nanny that came to care for them like their parents couldn’t.

Back in time

Dear Charlie,

Do you ever wish you could time travel? Jump between the centuries as if they were rocks in a pond, landing in different ages, witnessing different historic events whenever you feel like it?
I do. I would love to see the pyramids getting built, or be in Hollywood in the 1920s seeing the film business take off or understand how life was in East Germany when my parents were teenagers.
And I know I’m not the only one longing for a chance to get a glimpse of past times, witnessing those ages we read about in history books, just for a week or even a day. That’s why we do so much remembering, why we built museums and make documentaries, erect monuments. We’re trying to relive history even if it is just for a little bit. And in a city like London there is a lot of reliving to be done.

So, in this letter I wanna do something a bit different, I wanna tell you about a part of London that you once knew very well, it’s often called London’s most vibrant cultural quarter. Past meets present here in a fascinating and sometimes incredibly fun way, especially when it comes to literature. Cause if there is an area in London that is a paradise for book and literature lovers, it’s this one. So come one, get your coat Charlie, we’re taking a walk through Bloomsbury.

When you wander into Bloomsbury, especially the gorgeous georgian Bedford Square, at a weekend in July, you will suddenly find yourself between stylish British sportsmen dazzling in pinstripes and bowlers at country’s most eccentric sporting tournament. Consider yourself lucky my friend, you just arrived at the Chap Olympiad. The Chap Olympiad is an eccentric, athletic competition held one weekend a year in London since 2005 and sees the nation’s most refined sportsmen and women take part in an array of sporting events, while decked out in their best vintage costumes. The light-hearted social sporting event is aimed at revisiting the fashions and pastimes of the 1920s to 1950s. And let me tell you, it is so much fun.
Competitors – who are ‘awarded more points for maintaining immaculate trouser creases than crossing the finish line’ – take part in events such as umbrella jousting, the ‘Tug-‘o-Hair’, the pipeathlon (running several laps around the venue carrying a fully-lit pipe) and iron board surfing, while donning stylish bowler hats, monocles and strings of pearls.

The tug-o-hair competition

The pipeathlon

The event is the creation of the Chap magazine, a bi-monthly publication edited by Gustav Temple, which glorifies a dandyish way of life involving tweed, pipe smoking and fine facial hair.
In 2015 it will be held on the 11th July, tickets go on sale on the 23rd of April (info below). Maybe I see you there this year, but check out the dress code before you go, turn up in denim and you are likely gonna be send back home.

London Below

Dear Charlie,

Do you ever long for a magical world?
Not an unreachable one like Narnia or Middle Earth. I mean a magical world that exists right here, among us and we only have to truly open our eyes to see it. Where an arch could be the entrance to a secret garden, or an alleyway leads us right into a hidden treasure chamber.
People have always dreamed of fantasy worlds that exist parallel to ours that we all can discover but only few ever do because it takes luck and faith to find it.
The genre that sets a fantasy story into a real environment is called urban fantasy and London with its many different faces has inspired loads of urban fantasy stories with their fantasy worlds over the years. One part especially; and yet still is overlooked or taken for granted so easily by many Londoners: the Underground.

The London underground system is the oldest in the world and with its 402km long winding tracks, dark tunnels and seemingly endless vaults it’s the perfect inspiration for many stories that lie hidden beneath the streets of London. Within it lie 270 stations like islands, each with its own story and of course its own name, names that remember ancient landmarks, historic events or whose origins have long been forgotten. In literature names always held power, no matter if it’s Rumpelstiltskin going straight to hell when the queen shouts his name or the Nix in Nordic legends that can only be defeated when you call it with its one true name.
Names hold power and can open doors to a world of imagination and in an underground network with 270 station-names, there are a lot of doors to be opened.  And today Charlie, I’m gonna tell you about someone who has opened them and discovered a whole new world. Grab a cup of tea and let me introduce you to Neil Gaiman and London Below.

What would Jane do?

Dear Charlie,

I’m glad you liked my last letter and enjoyed hearing about Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie and the lost boys. This time I wanna tell you something a little bit different. After writing so much about men, I think it’s time we talk about women.

I know you used to think that women should be “the angels of the house, devoting their lives to housekeeping and child rearing” and I’m aware you were not alone with that opinion among men of your time. But you’re a clever guy Charlie and I’d like to think if you lived here with me, in today’s London you would think differently and you’d admire strong women, who go out and live their lives the way they want. The thing is that those kind of women always existed, even though their ways of rebelling against the confinements of their lives used to be much quieter and less drastic, but definitely not less important.

I wanna tell you about one of those women today. It might not go with your opinion, but because we are friends I know you will listen to what I have to say and who knows, maybe you will change your mind afterwards.
So let me tell you about my friend Jane Austen.

Second star to the right and straight on till morning

Dear Charlie,

Did your mum read to you when you were little? And were there any stories you wanted to hear again and again, stories you think everybody should know?

I know some stories like that and today I wanna tell you about one of them, Peter Pan.

When I was a kid my mum did read to me a lot, fairytales, adventure stories, you name it. But we never read Peter Pan.

So my Peter Pan looked like the Disney Peter Pan: green clothes, little hat with a feather, red hair and a big sassy mouth (voiced by Bobby Driscoll, who by the way had the most tragic life, go check him out, link below). After that my Peter turned into Robin Williams when ‘Hook’ absolutely blew me away and I started waiting for Peter Pan to appear at my window at night. Only when I was about 13 did I finally read the proper story and that’s when my Peter became J.M. Barries Peter, boastful, careless and fearlessly cocky, with that certain hint of mystery about him. Dressed in green leaves he bursts into the nursery of the Darling children and takes them away to Neverland. There they meet Peters’ friends, the ‘Lost Boys’, fight his arch enemy Captain Hook and experience adventures they never thought possible.

For me, Peter Pan is one of those absolute London books. Like Mary Poppins or Oliver Twist, it’s just one of those stories that you can’t image being set anywhere else, London and Peter Pan have always been closely connected.