The Big Shrewsbury Editing Trip - Part 1

Day 1- Saturday 4th April 2026 -

Travelling from Cappoquin to Shrewsbury

Cappoquin to Thurles to Dublin

Left Cappoquin at 6:45am for Thurles Station. Mum and Dad very kindly drove me there, saving me the driving and the parking costs. Was lovely to have some company for the journey as well. The weather was all drizzle and mizzle the whole way, so no pretty Knockmealdown mountain views for us this time.

Arrived at Thurles with 20 minutes to grab a cup of tea from the kiosk and be on the platform in good time, which was great!

On the train, I sat opposite a family group, who seemed very content together. The mum is wearing a badge on her lapel, which says: ‘You scare my cat’. That made me laugh.

I’m full of anticipation, as I often am at the start of a trip. I’m excited to have a few hours of train travel - a rare treat living in rural Ireland. I’m less excited by the prospect of the flight, but it’s a necessary evil, unfortunately. I’m also excited at the thought of returning to Shrewsbury - one of my favourite places and onetime home of my favourite poet Wilfred Owen. It’s also wondrous to have an entire week off work, and to myself, where I can do exactly as I wish.

I have a lot I want to achieve while I’m in Shrewsbury, not least managing the epic edit of my novel ‘Charlotte - the Lady in White’, which is a long time coming. I’m also hoping to get two short stories started, but that will depend on inspiration striking me.

As for ‘Charlotte’, I reread the novel last month and have a much better idea where I need to make changes and improvements, both from my own observations, and from the excellent insights of my lovely friend Sue, who carried out a professional edit of the book a few years back. I can see exactly what it needs to make a great story into a well executed novel. I just hope I can make that happen! (No pressure!)

I’m committing these intentions to this post for a little accountability, given what a procrastinator I can be. I worry that I’ll click my fingers and find the week’s passed, I’m on my way home, and I’ll have achieved nothing.

Dublin airport

I arrived at Dublin Heuston station, having managed to edit a bit of ‘Charlotte’ on the train, and grabbed a yoghurt from Pret à Manger.

I popped outside and within 30 seconds of arriving, the Airport Express bus arrived to take me to the airport.

I listened to the first half of the latest episode of the ‘Parenting Hell’ podcast, featuring Jamie Laing. Kept me distracted from the misery of travelling on the bus.

The journey to the airport went so smoothly that I arrived at the airport 3 hours ahead of the flight, which meant I had an hour to kill before I could check my bag in and go through security. I had a banana and some peppermint tea, also drinking the water in my bottle, and listened to the rest of the podcast. I was feeling quite stressed and tired, which is standard when I’m waiting to get through the shitty bits of the airport. It was really grey and misty outside. There was also a storm (Storm Dave of all names!) expected later in the afternoon, which I was really hoping wouldn’t affect my flight.

I got through bag check and security ok, although I managed to lose my silver and black bat brooch in security, which was annoying. I made my way to Pret and had a nice egg mayo and roasted tomato baguette, before making my way to the gate.

Flight to Birmingham

My flight was fairly uneventful. Take off and landing were a little turbulent, which made me anxious, as it always does. I listened to Dara O’Briain on Russell Howard’s ‘Five Brilliant Things’ podcast, enjoying the anecdotes and homages to the likes of Bulmer’s/Magner’s cider, the opening 8 bars of dance tracks and more, and pretty quickly we were landing.

Once we got off the plane, there was a genuine laugh out loud moment. There were two buses waiting by the plane to drive all the passengers to the terminal building. We all waited about 10 minutes for the bus to fill up and depart. Two young women walked across from the plane, while I was waiting, and I noticed they both had their black, over-ear headphones hanging out of their left jeans pocket in the same way - right ear in pocket, left ear hanging out over their left hip. Closer inspection revealed that they were wearing identical shoes, jeans, and soft beige leather jackets. Their brown, slightly highlighted hair was styled the same way, as was their make up. It was quite strange to behold and I began imagining who they might be. Ideas such as influencers or dancers crossed my mind. I even wondered if they were off to some kind of audition. They kept giggling in the same way at the same time and I began to wonder if this was the twins from The Shining dolled up to 2020s standard. Anyway, eventually, the bus began to move. It drove for about 37 seconds, before coming to a juddering halt outside the terminal building, which was literally across the road from the plane - as close as it is in Cork airport, where the passengers just walk across the way. Madness. When the bus stopped, every single passenger laughed out loud at the absurdity.

Birmingham airport is a strange place to navigate. The arrivals area is in the opposite direction to where the trains are, so it took me a while to get my bearings. Ultimately, I found my way and joined a fairly hefty queue for the shuttle train to Birmingham International Station. As I arrived, an older man approached me, initially asking where the trains were. I did my best, as I was only about 90% sure I was in the right place. He then told me he’d just flown in from Naples, where he’s been on a visit to the summit of Mount Vesuvius (one of the most brilliant places I’ve ever visited). He added that he plans to do all his future holidays as coach trips, due to the poor standard of airport transfers.

Birmingham to Shrewsbury.

Birmingham International Station was a fairly standard British station. I bypassed all the cafes and went straight to the platform, where I lurked in the dingy area under a railway bridge until the train arrived. Since my last visit to Shrewsbury in 2017, the old turquoise rolling stock that I remember from the 80s, which used to take you from Birmingham to Shrewsbury has been upgraded to much more modern and very comfortable carriages. It was a nice surprise, although I used to enjoy the nostalgia of the older carriages. The journey was smooth. I listened to an episode of Josh Widdecombe’s ‘Museum of Pop Culture’ podcast about the rise and fall of East 17, and tried to ignore how knackered I felt. I’d hoped to do more reading and writing on the journey, but it had been a very long day and podcasts were about all I could manage.

I felt quite excited as we pulled into Shrewsbury station at around 5:25pm. I saw the tower of the station building and the red sandstone walls of the castle looming over the platform, and began to really look forward to my break away.

I dragged my suitcase to my lodgings and checked in, before taking myself for a little walk around town. It was so nice to return to a place that I hadn’t visited for over 8 years, but for which I have great fondness. I enjoyed seeing the castle, the library with the imposing statue of Charles Darwin outside, as well as St. Julian’s Church, where Wilfred Owen’s mother used to go to worship.

Being Easter Saturday, the town was alive with plenty of very cheerful people in the early stages of a bank holiday Saturday night out, so there was a lot of buzz from all the pubs and eateries.

I was absolutely wrecked by this stage, so I grabbed a salad from Tesco and headed back to my lodgings, hoping for a good night’s sleep.