Looking for a novel trip? Try these...
FORGET reading by the pool. This summer, put down the books and walk in the footsteps of those who wrote them. Some of England’s most beloved writers also lived in its most beautiful places. Here we’ve picked the best of them. AGATHA CHRISTIE’S GREENWAY, DEVON Snoop around the elegant rooms and lush gardens of Greenway, the Devon holiday home of queen of crime Agatha Christie. In nearby Torquay, follow the Agatha Christie Trail around landmarks from her life and books, such as the seafront Grand Hotel where she spent her honeymoon. From September 14 to 21, the town will become a 1920s time capsule for the annual Agatha Christie Festival. Don’t forget your pearls and fedoras as you celebrate the doyenne of the murder mystery with tea parties, vintage bus tours and dinner on a steam train. BRONTË COUNTRY, YORKSHIRE Follow the Brontë Way through the brooding landscapes of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Sites include Top Withens, the ruined farm believed to be the location of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. In the village of Haworth, you can see the Brontë Parsonage Museum, housed in the building where Charlotte, Emily and Anne once lived. BEATRIX POTTER’S HOUSE, CUMBRIA It was in Hill Top, a stone 17th Century house, that children’s author Beatrix Potter created many of her much loved characters and tales. Tucked in the little Cumbrian village of Near Sawrey, the house has a lovely garden full of tangled flowers and herbs. Indoors you’ll find meticulously preserved antique furnishings and the original flagged stone floor. JANE AUSTEN CENTRE, BATH At the Jane Austen Centre, you can immerse yourself in her world and even dress up in period costume. From September 12 to 21, Bath, the elegant city of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, comes alive in the annual Jane Austen Festival. In Hampshire, you can visit the villages of Steventon, where Austen was born, and Chawton, where she spent her last years. KEATS’S WALK, WINCHESTER Stroll through the Hampshire scenery that prompted Romantic poet John Keats to write his acclaimed verse To Autumn. Keats was inspired by an evening’s walk in the leafy environs of Winchester, and today walkers can take in the same cathedral grounds, medieval buildings and tranquil water meadows by the River Itchen. HARDY’S COTTAGE, DORSET It was in a little thatched cottage in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, that Thomas Hardy was born and where he wrote the masterpieces Under The Greenwood Tree and Far From The Madding Crowd. Also in Dorset is Max Gate, the house Hardy designed himself and moved to from his cottage. Here he wrote Tess Of The D’Urbervilles and hosted such literary greats as Rudyard Kipling and H.G. Wells.