In December 2024, when I launched my self-directed MFA, I began with a trip to London.
This wasn’t pure folly—I’d landed a new client in London for my freelance business, and I decided to go there to present it to them.
This was an excellent idea, if I do say so myself.
London is perhaps the city with the richest, longest literary history. So in addition to spending lots of time working on my manuscript, I took self-guided tours of some very impressive literary hotspots.
If you want to replicate this trip, here are my reviews on all the places I visited.
Getting the writing done
My primary goal with this trip was to get as much work done on my manuscript as possible. I had about three-quarters of the first draft done when I left for London, and I wanted to use this time to complete the first draft before the end of the year.
I booked an Airbnb in South London with this in mind, and found an excellent little home that was simply perfect. It was in Southwark, a fun and gritty neighborhood that gave me easy access to the rest of the city.
It was tucked away on a handsome little street, in a neighborhood famous for being the birthplace of Charlie Chaplain.
I knew a trip to London in December would be chilly and gray, which was fine by me—all the more reason to stay in my apartment with heated floors and work on my manuscript.
My flat also happened to be near an excellent cafe inside an old catacomb; a perfect place for hunkering down and focusing on my work when I needed a change of scenery.
Most days, my routine looked something like this:
- Wake up with coffee and breakfast at home (or a Full English somewhere nearby)
- Take care of freelance work for my clients
- Plan an excursion somewhere interesting (see below)
- Return home and work on my manuscript with a cup of tea until bed
It was two weeks of bliss, and I achieved my goal—by December 30th, I had the first draft of my memoir done and dusted.
In addition to writing, I was also busy polishing up a few of my essays and submitting to literary journals. This paid off as well, because while I was there, I received a soft and encouraging rejection from The Rumpus.
A rejection might not sound like something to get excited about, but The Rumpus is one of the premier literary magazines out there. Many people submit their work, and the vast majority receive a standard rejection. However, my essay landed with the editors, and though they didn’t accept it, they wrote me a personal note and strongly encouraged me to submit again. I was over the moon.
When I wasn’t writing and submitting, here’s what I was doing out and about in London.
Touring the Tower of London
Ok, so the Tower of London isn’t technically a literary hotspot, but it is one of the most significant historical sites in London, and the tours there are absolutely fantastic.
It also just so happens that the Tower of London (or rather, the entire Royal Historic Palace Society) was my client. So for me, touring the Tower was actually part of my freelance work, as I later gave a presentation there to my clients who wanted help with their content strategy.
I recommend starting with this tour, because in the 90 minutes you spend walking around with one of the roaming Yeoman, you’ll learn so much British history that will help contextualize anywhere else you choose to visit on your own literary tour of London.
Bloomsbury District aka the Knowledge District
The day I spent walking around the Knowledge District was by far my favorite part of my literary tour of London.
This neighborhood is so named because of all the brilliant minds that one lived and worked there—it’s also where the British Museum is located, along with many other universities, and a pretty touristy district overall.
You may recognize the name Bloomsbury, it is indeed where the publishing group of the same name was founded. Walking around the squares there, you’ll see blue and white signs pointing out some of the famous historic literary sites—so many that it was impossible to read them all.
After walking around the squares, I visited London’s oldest gay bookstore, Gay’s The Word, which was adorable and also where I picked up a copy of The Velvet Rage, which quickly became one of the most important items on my self-directed MFA syllabus
From there, I took myself to the Camera Museum, a cool collection of very old cameras, with an excellent cafe for some writing. On the way, I visited Treadwells, London’s oldest Occult Bookstore, and bought my very first tarot deck—a pride edition that I quickly fell in love with, featuring drawings by a multitude of queer artists.
The final stop on this leg of my literary tour of London was the Fitzroy Tavern, where I stopped in for a couple of pints and more writing. This is a very old pub, and the walls are decorated with ancient bookshelves and photographs of some of the writers who frequented it many years ago, including Virginia Woolf and Geroge Orwell. To say I felt humbled sitting in the same spot as those literary giants while working on my own manuscript would be a major understatement.
Taking in a few shows in the West End
Whenever I’m in London, I always book tickets to at least one show in the West End. Using TodayTix (I’m not being paid, I just love that app), I found some really good and affordable seats for two shows: Wicked (the stage production not the musical) and a Panto version of Peter Pan starring some of my favorite drag queens from Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK—Kitty Scott Clause, Cheryl Hole, Kate Butch, and Ginger Johnson (among many other fabulous queens I didn’t know.
Sure, this portion of my trip was mostly just for funsies. But I think it counts as part of my self-directed MFA, because after all, theatre is literature.
The British Library Treasures Tour
Before I left for London, I made sure to book one of the free Treasures Tours at the British Library.
This massive building is one of the largest libraries in the world, with up to 200 million items in its collection, dating back to ancient Egypt. They keep copies of literally everything published in the UK (I’m not kidding—that’s true).
In the center of the library, behind multiple fireproofing measures, is the King’s Collection, a tower of books collected by King George III.
That alone is magnificent, but the Treasures Tour was a 60-minute guided visit to some of the coolest literary artifacts I’ve ever seen. An atlas the size of a table, the original Turing machine, the Magna Carta, and handwritten lyrics by John Lennon were just some of the items on display. Highly recommend.
The John Soane Museum
Sir John Soane was one of the most famous architects in London, from two centuries ago, and today, his incredible home is a free museum.
What I like about Mr. Soane’s house is how incredibly quirky it is. It’s been kept in mind condition from the days he lived there, and every inch of space on the walls is taken up with sconces, marble statues, knick-knacks and other weird and beautiful little gems.
In the basement of his house is the coup-de-gras—an enormous marble sarcophagus, engraved with hieroglyphics. He had to have the back wall of his house removed to get it inside, and used to host lavish parties around it.
It only took about an hour to walk through the whole house, but I easily could have spent more time there looking at every little thing. His artistry and love for the peculiar was a true inspiration on my writing journey.
The Home of Samuel Johnson, author of the dictionary
I hadn’t been planning to visit this spot, but I’m so glad I did.
Samuel Johnson, whom I recognized from his famous surly portrait, was the author of one of the first and most influential English dictionaries.
He was also quite eccentric—highly social, and after his wife died, lived in his handsome three-storey house with his servant and a woman who originally came to stay with him during as she recovered from eye surgery, and ended up staying for decades after she went blind.
The house is beautifully preserved, and the top floor, which is where they speculate he wrote much of the dictionary, is decorated with flying dictionary pages, and some huge tomes where you can flip through and read his original definitions.
Johnson was a petty man, and used his definitions to make digs at others. For example, under the definition of “oats,” he wrote: “A grain, which in England is generally given. to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.” Amazing.
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
After Samuel Johnson’s house, I was feeling a bit peckish and wanted to have one last British pub meal before I left. I wandered down the street just a little bit and found Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub dating back to 1538! Though to be fair, it was rebuilt in 1667, after the Great London Fire.
I thought this made an excellent final stop on my literary tour of London, but imagine my surprise when I was led to a seat in the back corner, only to find that it was indeed Samuel Johnson’s favorite spot when he was alive.
Not only that—I looked to my left and saw a plaque on the wall next to me, and as it turns out, the seat next to mine was a favorite of Charles Dickens!
As I ate my fish and chips with mushy peas, I felt overwhelmed knowing that I was sitting in a spot where such wordsmiths had once sat. It felt serendipitous, and was the perfect conclusion to this portion of my self-directed MFA.
