Welcome to Carys Bray, author of The Museum of You. As part of her blog tour, Carys has kindly written a guest post about one of her favourite museums.
In my new
novel The Museum of You, twelve year
old Clover Quinn sorts through her mother’s belongings and curates an
exhibition in the second bedroom of the house she shares with her Dad, Darren.
As part of
The Museum of You blog tour, I’m
writing about some of my favourite museums. In recent months it has been
frustrating to read of the museum closures which appear to be
disproportionately affecting the north of England. Museums are a great place to
learn about our heritage; they’re often a testament to the efforts and
dedication of working people, the men and women who built and made many of the
things we take for granted today.
World
Museum
When my
children were small this was our favourite museum. It’s possible to spend a
long afternoon there, even with several tiny, easy bored people in tow. It’s
such a popular museum that the Liverpool Echo produced this handy guide for
families who would like to visit.
I have a
picture of my children, wide-eyed and rosy-cheeked, standing beside these
dinosaur skeletons, but they wouldn’t let me use it.
The World
Museum is full of exciting and creepy objects: a child mummy, a meteorite from
Mars and Samurai armour. You can learn about space and see a display of clocks
and watches from the 1500s onwards. There are over a million insects and other
invertebrates at the museum. I love the drawers full of butterflies, moths and
beautiful beetles; bees, wasps and ants. Each drawer opens like a beautiful
surprise.
In the bug
house there’s a giant model spider on the ceiling which wobbles every so often,
as if it is about to climb down. One of my sons insists that frequent visits to
the museum were the catalyst for my daughter’s terrible fear of spiders.
Sometimes
the things we see in museums scare or discomfit us. Clover Quinn finds
something unexpected in the bottom of the wardrobe in the second bedroom. An object
with a sad story. That’s the thing with the past, once it is uncovered it may also
need to be confronted.
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