The Elgar Route

I often wonder do we live our lives to the full and how much of our lives do we live through the movies, the stars, and the celebrities?

I was watching the Devil Wears Prada the other day. When I realised how all of a sudden I was sucked into the fashion in the movie and how I also wanted the main character, a dowdy girl, to be a diva. Her intelligence and ability as a journalist were no longer enough it was only a matter of time before she had to wear the classic Chanel boots up to the waist.

So I got to thinking how much do we know about these celebrities and how much do we really know about ourselves?

The BBC do a really good job of finding out where some of our well know celebs originate from in ‘Who do you think you are.’ They start off with the pieces of their history the person in question knows and then with a little more digging they unearth the criminal background of their great grandfather or the freedom fighter their great Uncles were. I often accuse my husband of digging up the dead when he gets stuck into his genealogy websites. He has his head in the computer and then all of a sudden he says "Hum....did you know that your great, great, great grandfather was a Superintendant in the Metropolitan Police and your great grandmother was... well... a women who did not do much" he said, "They just had babies." I wondered the wisdom behind this statement when I was stood there with a knife in my hand. I shrugged and laughed to myself then continued with the carrots, at least he did not say not much has changed.

I swear he knows more about my great grandmother and what her life was like in the 1800s than he knows about my day at work. But when I said I was putting a package together for the hotel following the Elgar Route he was thrilled and sparked up his laptop and within minutes gave me the name of Elgar’s wife, daughter, father and grandfather including their professions. With a little further surfing we found out Elgar’s love of word play and how His daughter was called Carice, using part of each of his wife's forenames Car(oline Al)ice: His house in Malvern was called Craeg Lea, an anagram of C(arice), A(lice) and E(dward) Elgar. (Thank you BBC Hereford and Worcester website).

So talking of the Elgar route it is a 40-mile circular route driving through Worcester City and Great Malvern taking in some spectacular country side. The route has been designed so that it can be joined at any convenient point, with over 40 places of interest associated with Sir Edward Elgar's life and music along the way. And so the package for the break is now complete, we plan to include a map, a CD of his music for you to play along the way and a package of dinner, bed and breakfast to enjoy on your return to the hotel. Further details will soon be available on the website.

Written by Rachel Proctor, Business Development Manager at The Abbey