My obsession with doors

With the current amazon promotion (you can download Kendra Kandlestar and the Door to Unger for FREE until July 8th) I’ve been thinking a lot about doors. There are all sorts of doorways in The Door to Unger, and a lot of them were inspired by my travels. I just love finding doorways and taking photographs of them. In fact, my friends have been known to tease me for taking close-ups of these portals, but the truth is I find them just so fascinating.

In any case, here are some of my favourite doors from around the world (they are in no particular order) . . .

This one is at Alahumbra in Spain.

Just a cute little red church door I passed by during my last trip to New York City.

These opulent doors adorn the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

This is the detail of a door knocker at Heavenly Park in Beijing.

This is just a door to the delightful “Iron Fairy”—a restaurant in Bangkok. Inside, they also have a secret door, hidden as a bookshelf (though it was too dark for me to take a photo of it).

This is a door knocker detail from a palace in Korea (though I can’t remember which one; it may have been Kyeong-bok).

I loved this ornamentation on this door at the parliament buildings in Ottawa.

This one reminded me of a face. It can be found at a church in Prague.

I think some of my favourite doors are the old wooden ones. This one is at the cathedral in Salisbury.

From Shanghai Alley in Vancouver, this brightly coloured door evoked a sense of mystery.

This doorway is at the cathedral in St. Albans. I don’t know why; every time I see this photo, I think of Narnia.

This is another door at St. Albans.

The very austere and intimidating door at St. Paul’s, London.

This is a hidden doorway at the walls around Suwan. It’s designed in such a way so that you can’t see it easily from the outside; defenders can quickly zip inside their walls, leaving pursuers or attackers confused.

These doors can be found at Watpho in Bangkok.

Finally, how about a place badly in need of a door? The summer I was writing the Door to Unger, I visited the maze at Hampton Court in England and tried to find my way out. (I did, but not after a bit of confusion!)