Literary Travel in Britain

Dartmoor of the Baskervilles

Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles not just as a novel set in Dartmoor, but one with Dartmoor itself as its main character. He would set its wild, open moors, where the Devil and his black dogs hunt for souls, against Sherlock Holme's cold, rational mind.

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The Brontës in the Yorkshire Moors

The scenery around West Yorkshire's Haworth, home of the Brontë sisters, is thick with places associated with Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

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Watership Down

A rag-tag band sets out across an alien, hostile landscape, pursued by enemies, their lives threatened at every moment. This could be Allied soldiers behind enemy lines, or hobbits in Middle-Earth. But it’s not – these are bunnies.

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Jane Austen's Hampshire

Rural Hampshire was a refuge for Jane Austen; although she lived elsewhere, she wouldn't write elsewhere.

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Doctor Syn: The Romney Marsh of the Scarecrow!

Russell Thorndyke's 1915 blood-curdling penny dreadful Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh tells of a village vicar who rides as a smuggler disguised as a scarecrow — and is himself a pirate captain in hiding! He also tells of Romney Marsh, one of Kent's most unusual regions. Here's a picture of the pub Dr. Syn favored, from his rectory window. Yes, these are all real places.

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The Sands of Dee

For two millennia the Dee Estuary, on the border of England and Wales, has been the scene of economic upheaval and military violence, industrial activity and environmental change. The Dee of today—wide, grassy sand flats on its east and industrial ports on its west—is only the latest in a parade of landscapes.

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Izaak Walton's Peaceful World

The Compleat Angler and its author, Izaak Walton, are forever part of the Peaks District's Dovedale, and all the lovely small rivers of England.

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