Wigan – Tuesday 5th December 2017

We had a few days in Harrogate at the start of December.  Originally we had planned to go to Edinburgh, so I booked a hotel off the M6 in Merseyside, but the plans changed!  We decided to utilise the trip from west to east by visiting a couple of branches that were en route.

Neither of us had been to Wigan before and weren’t really sure what to expect.  In fact, the only thing I really knew is that it features in George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier (well worth a read).  There are some nice buildings in the town, including a pretty Arcade called the Makinson Arcade.  The Waterstones is in the Grand Arcade shopping centre.

Makinson Arcade

The Wigan Pier area. Probably considerably different from when Orwell visited!

So if you are told that there’s a pier in Wigan town somewhere Don’t laugh it off like others do, look round, you’ll see it there

I keep forgetting to record what I was reading at the time of my visit!  In this case it was Winter Magic, a collection of wintery stories selected by Abi Elphinstone and featuring authors such as Emma Carroll and Katherine Woodfine.  Perfect seasonal reading!