Literary Legends prolific in South East England
www.visitsoutheastengland.com/storybook
As Enjoy England launches its national campaign 'Storybook England', Tourism South East shines the spotlight on what is a particularly rich region of England when it comes to our nation's favourite children's authors.
Avid young readers and aspiring writers will be able to head off to venues throughout Hampshire and Sussex to see where their best-loved authors lived and found their greatest inspiration.
TOP LITERARY VENUES IN HAMPSHIRE AND SUSSEX
Watership Down" - Richard Adams - Whitchurch, Hampshire
Amid the calm rolling Hampshire Downs and crowned by a stand of beech trees you can find the real-life Watership Down near Whitchurch. Two-legged visitors can hop along in the pawprints from Warren Lodge to Nuthanger Farm and Watership Down and the Wayfarers Walk will take you along the ridge of Watership Down to the half cut-down tree engraved with Bigwig's name.
The Water Babies - Charles Kingsley - Eversley, Hampshire
Charles Kingsley was an Anglican clergyman, teacher, and writer whose novels influenced social developments in Britain. On entering the Church, he went to Eversley, where practically all the rest of his busy life was spent. He was a good country parson, but also a prodigious writer. In 1863, he wrote a story for his baby son Grenville, which was to become a long-popular children's book, The Water-Babies. At Kingsley's church in Eversley there is a Water Babies window which depicts Tom's underwater world.
Children of the New Forest - Captain Marryat - New Forest, Fordingbridge, and Lymington, Hampshire
The historical action of Marryat's novel takes place throughout the New Forest amidst its picturesque villages and famous ponies. Breamore House at Fordingbridge was twice used for the film adaptations of the book. At nearby Lymington, Jacob buys his supplies and in the novel, St. Thomas's Church becomes St Faith's where the children's aunt is buried.
Puck of Pook's Hill, The Jungle Book, Kim - Rudyard Kipling - /www.kipling.org.uk/batemans.htm
The author's beloved home: Bateman's nestling in the East Sussex countryside provided inspiration for Kiplings many tales. At Bateman's you can see the hill, Kipling's study, original illustrations for The Jungle Book and a working watermill. At nearby Dymchurch (accessible by the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway) setting for "Dymchurch Flit", see where the people of the hills flee across Romney Marsh. Also close by is Pevensey Castle, an inspirational setting for many of his other stories.
Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Emma - Jane Austen - Chawton, Hampshire - www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk
Jane Austen moved to the house in the pretty village of Chawton, now the museum, with her widowed mother and sister in 1809. Until she was settled in Chawton none of Jane's work had been published and the period that she lived here proved to be the most prolific and productive of her life. She revised Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, which she had written some years earlier, and then wrote Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion. When she became ill in May 1817 she and her sister, Cassandra, rented rooms in Winchester to be nearer to her doctor, she died on the 18 July 1817 and is buried in Winchester Cathedral.
OTHER TOP PLACES TO VISIT IN THE SOUTH EAST
- Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames - www.rrm.co.uk
Visit the captivating exhibition centred on "Wind in the Willows" at the River and Rowing Museum at Henley-on-Thames to add a new dimension to the story and meet the famous characters, Toad, Ratty, Mole and Badger.
- Northern Lights Trilogy - Philip Pullman CBE
Follow a tour to discover 'Lyra's Oxford', the 12 year heroine in Pullman's inventive fantasy novels. Sit in Oxford's Botanic Garden on Will and Lyra's bench and search out Pan's tree. Discover exactly which of the gleaming spires provided the model for Jordan College.
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - www.aliceinoxford.net
Lewis Carroll - real name, Charles Dodgson, studied mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford and stayed on as a teacher. The Dean's fourth child was Alice Liddell and Dodgson frequently visited and told the children stories which developed into his classic tales Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Lewis Carroll's grave is in Mount Cemetery, Guildford.
- The Chronicles of Narnia - C S Lewis - www.cslewis.org/programs/kilns
Lewis' home, The Kilns in Headington, Oxford where it all began and which he bought with his brother, can be viewed by appointment. In nearby Holy Trinity Church nearby is the Narnia window and Lewis' grave is in the churchyard.
- Roald Dahl - Great Missenden, Aylesbury, Bucks - www.roalddahlmuseum.org
Described as "one of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation", Roald Dahl lived in Gipsy House, Great Missenden, Bucks and had a gipsy caravan in the grounds - featured in Danny the Champion of the World. At the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre visitors can sit in a replica of his writing hut, and use touch-screen monitors to create their own words and stories.
- Famous Five Books - Enid Blyton - www.bekonscot.com
One of the most prolific of children's writers, Enid Blyton wrote in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. Her homes were in Bourne End and Beaconsfield and "Green Hedges" is immortalised in miniature at Bekonscot Model Village.
- The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper - www.dorneycourt.co.uk
The mystical world of The Dark is Rising sequence begins in Buckinghamshire. Wander through the village of Dorney (Huntercombe) into Dorney Court (the Great Hall) and inside the church where Will battles against the Dark.
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Ian Fleming
On a steep hill outside Turville, Buckinghamshire you can see Ibstone Windmill, used as the home of eccentric Caractacus Potts and sit on the village bridge where the spies try to blow Chitty up. In nearby Russell's Water is accident-prone Truly Scrumptious' duck pond.
- Moonfleet - John Meade Falkner
Carisbrook Castle, Isle of Wight still has the working well-house where the Mohune diamond was hidden
- Mary Tourtel, creator and illustrator of Rupert Bear from 1874 - 1948 is buried in Canterbury, (The Rupert Bear Museum is part of the Museum of Canterbury - www.canterbury.gov.uk)
Families looking for literary days out can find further details on www.southeastengland.com/storybook. Full details on Storybook England, including a free map showing many more authors, can be downloaded from www.enjoyengland.com/storybook
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For further information or images please contact Jennifer Stallwood at Isis PR on 01844 212 005
Notes to Editors:
- www.visitsoutheastengland.com is the consumer website for the Tourism South East
- Tourism South East (TSE) is the new regional Tourist Board responsible for tourism in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex.
- TSE is the largest tourist board in the UK outside London and is the driving force for innovation and growth in tourism - representing over 2,000 members from all sectors of an industry worth an estimated £10 billion and providing more than 225,000 jobs to the economy of the South East England.
- Recent research by TSE in 2005 involving 6,000 interviews in over 60 locations investigated the motivations for families taking short breaks; what they enjoyed doing in their leisure time and the types of accommodation they prefer. Education, entertainment and value for money are key factors when planning days out for the family, with heritage attractions and a preference for self-catering accommodation being high on the list of priorities.
- Results of this research study have shaped Tourism South East's domestic marketing plan for 2006 and TSE is working with a number of regional partners, on their first domestic campaign of the year: Family Fun.
o The Tourism South East Family Fun Campaign aims to promote attractions that are suitable for family days out.
- For more information visit the Tourism South East web site: http://www.visitsoutheastengland.com/familyfun