On 02 Oct 2009, while on our way to Greece, my son Richard and I had a rather short ten hour layover in London. Rather than spend it at the airport, we hopped on the underground at Heathrow got off at King’s Cross/St. Pancras Station.

London at King's Cross/St. Pancras Station

We were in hot pursuit of the original gravesite of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the mother of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Mary Shelley’s mother died ten days after Mary was born, so Mary never knew her mother. However, she read everything her mother had written, and committed many long passages to memory. When she was in trouble with her stepmother, Mary would come here to have lunch and read from her mother’s books. When she became friends with the already-married Percy Bysshe Shelley, she started bringing him with her on the outings to the gravesite. They eventually confessed their love for each other and ran off together.

After visiting the gravesite, Richard and I returned to Heathrow and boarded our night-flight to Athens.

On the Night Flight from Heathrow to Athens