Rainbow in the sky
PARTY on the first Pride Flight with a Judy Garland singalong, live DJ set and speed dating, manned entirely by LGBT pilots and crew. Tickets for the Virgin Atlantic flight from London to New York for next summer’s World Pride event cost from £380 return. Weekend packages with Virgin Holidays cost from £699 for three nights. ENTER the world of England’s favourite storytellers and see the sights and settings that inspired them.
Misty mastery Dartmoor
It is no coincidence that mystery writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie found barren and bleak Dartmoor to be fertile ground. Conan Doyle’s landmark The Hound of the Baskervilles takes place on the moor, and Christie wrote her first very book The Mysterious Affair at Styles whilst staying in a hotel just below Hay Tor. Several of her subsequent books featured Dartmoor. FEEL THE MAGIC: Hike out to the vast bog of Grimpen Mire, where Conan Doyle’s hound was said to roam. Visit nearby Princetown for the chilling silhouette of the notorious high security Dartmoor Prison, then sit on the top of Hound Tor as dusk falls and the whole moor falls eerily quiet around you.
Rabbit heaven Lake District
With its mighty peaks and great expanses of water, the Lake District is an ideal stamping ground for Peter Rabbits and Jemima Puddleducks. Beatrix Potter, who so loved the Lakes that she purchased several farms in order to preserve the traditional way of life, wrote several of her animal-based stories here. Meanwhile Arthur Ransome was immortalising Lake District adventures in his Swallows and Amazons series, focusing on much the same area as Beatrix Potter, around the lakes Windermere and Coniston Water. FEEL THE MAGIC: Rent a sailing boat on Coniston Water, conistonboatingcentre.co.uk, and head for Ransome’s Wild Cat Island, Peel Island in real life. Or take Mountain Goat’s daylong tour of the main Beatrix Potter locations, including her former farm at Hill Top House. See mountain-goat.com.
Otterly waterly Devon
The quiet lanes and meandering rivers of north Devon were the setting for Henry Williamson’s tale of Tarka the Otter, whose habitat was the valleys of the rivers Taw and Torridge. The author lived for much of his life in Georgeham, just inland from the surf and sand resort of Croyde. Also along this coast, just inland from the pretty town of Lynmouth, is the Doone Valley, which takes its name from R D Blackmoore’s Lorna Doone, a Romeo and Juliet story of adventure, romance and revenge. FEEL THE MAGIC: Cycle the Tarka trail, which runs along a disused railway up the Torridge Valley. You can rent bikes from tarkabikes. co.uk. Find the beauty spot of Robber’s Bridge in the Doone Valley and walk up the valley from Malmsmead to Cloud Farm for a cream tea. See cloudfarmcamping.co.uk.
Craggy creeks Cornwall
The dream of a secluded beach and the romance of blustery cliffs with a gorgeous companion has helped lift Cornwall’s tourism over the years. Daphne du Maurier popularised its craggy shore with the novels Frenchman’s Creek and Jamaica Inn. Equally popular is the Poldark series of books by Winston Graham – a sensation in its latest TV adaptation. FEEL THE MAGIC: Walk a dramatic slice of the southwest coastal path, southwestcoastpath. org.uk, to the remains of Geevor tin mine by St Just on a windy day. And on the Helford The city of medieval colleges inhabited by some of the nation’s brightest minds – and its oddest characters – makes a surefire melting pot for stories of the imagination. Lewis Carroll dreamed up Alice in Wonderland while a scholar at Christ Church college. He started telling his stories to friends while out boating on Oxford’s river Isis. More recently, Colin Dexter came up with the famously morose Oxford detective Inspector Morse, who made a speciality out of the devilishly murderous tangles that the city’s intelligentsia regularly found themselves in. FEEL THE MAGIC: Do as Lewis Carroll did and