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 found a cruise ship that sails all around the island of Great Britain.

Heather reviewed the long-awaited follow up to Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde: Red Side Story. She reports that there’s room for a third book but this second one had a satisfying ending. She also read A Most English Princess, a novel based on the life of Princess Victoria, daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and mother of Kaiser Wilhelm.

Tina enjoyed the character of Major Pettigrew and the portrayal of life in a small English village in Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson.

Happy first full day of summer!

I celebrated the solstice, yesterday, by taking a walk at sunrise. Truth be told, the fact that it was the solstice was a happy coincidence. I mostly walked that early because it has been getting so hot in the afternoons.

Later, I watched parts of the livestream of the sunset at Stonehenge.

Did you hear about the protest at Stonehenge earlier this week? I’m not going to embed the video because I found it disturbing. Instead, I’ll embed the thoughtful Facebook post where I heard about it. I got to know James Frey Croft when he was the leader of the Ethical Society of St. Louis. He’s British and has since moved back to England to serve as a university chaplain.

If you missed yesterday’s livestreams on the solstice, check out the one this afternoon.

We’ll see the full moon rise at its southernmost position of June while listening to experts explain possible lunar alignments at Stonehenge, which is more well-known for its solar ones. Here’s an article about what scientists want to learn in the next year and a half as the moon reaches the widest moonrise range. I only partially understand the article, so I’m hoping for a better explanation in today’s video.