From the beach to art to the BPL

Cooling off on the expanse of sand at Revere Beach. (Dominic Chavez/Globe Staff)

MY OUT of town guests are often from Britain, where I grew up, and a visit to Revere Beach is de rigueur. I love the long expanse of sand and the motley crowd of people who frequent this great public beach. A few weeks ago when I was visiting, a middle-aged man caught a striped bass. He and his beer-drinking friends were surrounded by a crowd of teenagers wearing T-shirts advertising a Christian summer camp. Such scenes make walking this beach an inexhaustible pleasure. And if you do get exhausted there are always the onion rings at Kelly's.

I often take people to the Public Garden and in particular insist that we visit the statue of two men, one apparently in a swoon, commemorating the discovery of chloroform. It's the only monument to a drug that I know of, and I wrote about it in my novel "Banishing Verona."

When my guests have had enough of being outdoors I take them to the Boston Public Library with its magnificent murals by John Singer Sargent and others. I think of this building as one of the great public buildings in Boston - just climbing the broad shallow stairs makes me feel like a better person. And of course I also love that it's a temple to two of my favorite activities: reading and writing.

Margot Livesey is a writer.