How many times have you had to rely on the company of a book while waiting for a friend who has a loose concept of timekeeping? Choose your bar well, however, and you could be kept company by the spirit of the writers themselves. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in London’s Fleet Street was a favourite of Dr Samuel Johnson, Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Brendan Behan was a fixture in McDaids in Dublin. Zola, Proust and de Maupassant chewed the fat in Paris’s Café de la Paix. And there are no fewer than six bars in Madrid regularly frequented by Ernest Hemingway, including Museo Chicote. Jot down a few lines and tell us about your favourite literary hangout in the UK and Europe. If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.
