02 Nov Jane Austen’s Bath (and Beyond)
“The person ...
08 Oct William Morris
William Morris, born in London in 1834, was a popular poet and novelist, helping to establish the modern fantasy genre with works such as The Well at the World’s End (1896). These days he’s better known for his pioneering work in wallpaper and textile design...
06 Oct Thomas Hardy’s Dorset
“It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.” – Thomas Hardy The County of Dorset I have always been fond of Dorset, one of England’s smallest counties. It’s a special area of rolling countryside,...
21 Sep George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin in 1856, but lived in England for his entire adult life. Shaw wrote more than fifty plays including Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), Major Barbara (1905), Man and Superman (1905), The Doctor's Dilemma (1906) and Saint Joan (1923). He might...
14 Sep Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay (Mumbai) in 1865, but he lived in England for most of his adult life. Today he’s probably best remembered for the short story The Man Who Would be King (1888), the poem Gunga Din (1890) and the novel Kim...
05 Aug Thomas Gray
In the mid-18th Century Thomas Gray was famous. His masterpiece – still popular and widely admired – is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751) for which he found inspiration in the graveyard of St Giles’ Church in Stoke Poges (20 miles west of London)....
31 Jul Henry James
Henry James was born in 1843 in New York City. As a young man he traveled extensively in Europe, eventually settling in London in 1869 and becoming a British subject in 1915 (less than a year before his death at the age of 72). Lamb...
24 Jul T E Lawrence
T E Lawrence is best known for his exploits in Arabia during the First World War, which he vividly describes in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926). In the opinion of Winston Churchill: "It ranks with the greatest books ever written in the English language....
14 May Agatha Christie’s Greenway
“Time … is only a mode of thought” – Agatha Christie Agatha and Torquay Visiting Agatha Christie’s country home, Greenway, was a sort of pilgrimage for me. I’m a huge fan of the “Queen of Mystery” and her memorable characters, especially the inimitable Hercule Poirot and Miss...
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