Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I reviewed Howl’s Moving Castle for March Magics. Tina reviewed Atonement by Ian McEwan. Gaele shared a re-issued classic book plus two newly published ones: Bump in the Night, The Café at Seashell Cove, and Spring at Lavender Bay. Sim read the book The Child in Time and reminded us that the show aired on PBS on April 1. Jean re-read Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (plus visited an antiquarian book fair) and she finished March Magics with two novellas by Diana Wynne Jones. Becky listened to one of Dorothy Sayers’ Peter Wimsey novels adapted as a radio play.

I’m doing the A to Z Challenge in April, using the theme of the UK & Ireland. Since the letter F fell on the first Friday of the month, I thought I’d take the opportunity to celebrate British Isles Friday.

Assuming that I managed to label all my posts with the correct category, this is the 211th British Isles Friday. Our first link party was on April 4, 2014, so we’re also celebrating #BriFri’s fourth birthday this week. The idea originated during that year’s Bloggiesta.

I modeled British Isles Friday after “Dreaming of France” at An Accidental Blog, a weekly Monday event that gathered posts about France. That event has gone by the wayside — although I’m sure Paulita remains happy to read our French posts. She is now living in France and doesn’t have quite the same need to dream about it. Maybe that’s the beginning of a trend and I’ll find myself, as your #BriFri host, living in the UK or Ireland? I know that Paulita worked very hard to make her dream come true and I haven’t done more than dream, so I won’t be emigrating any time soon.

I don’t have an easy way to count the number of participants in our link parties over the last few years. Dozens of us, at any rate. We come and go and come back again, depending on what we’re reading and watching or where we’re traveling.

Most of the #BriFri participants live in the US or Canada and enjoy books and shows set in the UK or Ireland. Many of us have enjoyed traveling there and/or enjoy dreaming about travel. We have shared photos and itineraries along with media reviews.

The tower where Big Ben is housed.

Brits occasionally stop by British Isles Friday and their presence is always lovely and, often, helpful. I get that it’s a little odd, possibly disconcerting, to encounter what’s essentially a fan site of your home. When we become aficionados of places where we don’t live, we have a tendency to romanticize and, occasionally, criticize without the full context of someone who lives there. I always appreciate when someone jumps in to add a little depth.

With this month’s A to Z Challenge, my blog has become pretty much all British & Irish, all the time. I’ll share the links to my A through E posts in the link list below. What UK and Ireland content do you have to share this week?