Scary Little Girls

We first ran the How Do I Love Thee sonnet walks over Valentine's weekend in 2008.  Read on for background info on the origins of the sonnet walks and click on the side menu for glowing audience reviews and recorded extracts...

This Valentine’s weekend, immerse yourself in England’s greatest ever love story…

Most atmospheric offering for this year’s St Valentine’s celebrations?

Almost certainly it is the unusual new “Sonnet Walks”, which combine the famously romantic poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning with hidden delights around Marylebone Village, as they unfold English history’s greatest real-life love story.

Bursting with passion, the “Sonnets from the Portuguese” evoke the poet’s burgeoning, clandestine love affair with Robert Browning, which culminated in their secret wedding in St Marylebone Parish Church and subsequent elopement to Italy.

Famously, these sonnets include “How Do I Love Thee?”, voted Britain’s favourite love poem of all time in a national BBC poll.

Developed by Scary Little Girls Productions, each 90 minute “Sonnet Walk” will include unique, inter-active performances of ten of Barrett Browning’s most romantic sonnets, in which any passer-by might be a professional actor waiting to unfurl one of history’s greatest love poems. Participants are promised “an experience that re-awakens them to the city they live in and the people around them, as well as presenting Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s much-loved sonnets in a new light.”

Almost as important as the poetry, though, will be the route itself. Off the beaten track and set in one of the most picturesque and atmospheric areas of London, it offers a perfect setting for a series of intimate performances. Moreover, the route will allow audiences to walk in Barrett Browning’s footsteps, passing the houses in which she lived and the church where she and Robert were married.

According to Abigail Anderson, director of the project, “We want people to join us for a stroll around one of London’s best kept secrets: Marylebone Village. All along our specially constructed trail, unannounced performers will bring to life some of the most beautiful and heart-felt poetry in the English language. This unique walk is a love affair with the city and with Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnets, and a perfect, romantic Valentine’s surprise for a loved one.”

Created to marry delicate, intricate love poetry with the street life of a modern city, these Sonnet Walk walks are being performed outdoors on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th February 2008 between 12.15 and 4.00pm, with groups beginning at Great Portland Street and finishing at the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square.

Parties will set off every fifteen minutes, and participants are advised to dress warmly to enjoy these romantic outdoor performances in comfort, whatever February’s weather may bring.

At the end of the performances, walkers will be able to explore Marylebone High Street with its many exclusive and unusual shops and restaurants, or might choose to extend the experience and saunter, arm-in-arm, around the Wallace Collection.