My Welsh Waterstones Tour: Stop 4- Llandudno

Yesterday, the British summer weather returned to the traditional rain, clouds and cool breeze. I shivered in my linen dress, duped by a couple of weeks of sunshine.


Even though Llandudno is just an hour away by car I decided to take the train. It is a route strewn with romantic-looking and ancient castles (built by an English king endeavouring to keep the Welsh subservient) and mountains, becoming wilder, higher and more beautiful towards the west.


Llandudno shelters beside a headland of limestone called the Great Orme. There are railways and cable-runs to the top, which is a dome of grass thrillingly exposed to the wind and sea, and riddled with ancient mines for valuable metals.


Beneath it a busy town with elegant wide streets links two sandy beaches; one I remember classified as 'clean', the other not so, but can never remember which one, and so steer clear of both of them just in case.


Waterstones fronts a small shopping mall. My imminent arrival announced on billboard and poster


then inside my books on display.


I started my computer and immediately a couple of people came up and watched my films. A couple of local newspapers had been kind enough to feature my event, and this had brought people in even before I'd arrived. I much enjoyed myself talking to customers - some of whom had their own very interesting stories to tell.

The staff said I could stay as long as I liked (since it seemed to be going quite well), and in the end had only six books left which I was invited to sign.


Then, after a much-welcome cup of coffee in the cafe above I made my way back to the station (one of the most weird I've ever come across, a roof only over a small fraction of it, and a road right next to the platform) and swapped stories with a seagull.