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TWIN CENTRE TOUR COMBINING... You read the book - now have it come alive! This is a feast for the bookworm, the literary-minded and simply those who enjoy seeing and learning about a country, not just 'photographing the sites' from a bus window. Here's the plot. Our knowledgeable and entertaining guide takes you, and just 10 or so others, through some of the UK's prettiest landscapes, visiting author's homes, literary museums, towns and villages where stories are set, and places that obviously inspired the artist's muse. Naturally, as it is a Back-Roads Touring Co. tour, you'll be seeing sites the regular tourists miss, in parts of the country often neglected by the standard tour itineraries. And, even more importantly, you'll be meeting the locals. We hope that by the end of our seven days you'll not only have had your favourite stories leap off the page, and understand their authors and backgrounds better, but also have been introduced to a few new classic writers who might have escaped your attention. This will be a tour with a tail as well as a tale if it leaves you with some future reading pleasure. The tour departs from London and completes in Manchester. By combining the Literary South and Literary North itineraries, your tour package includes your accommodation and dinner between the tours for one inclusive rate. DEPARTURE DATES & PRICES FOR YEAR 2008
Cost: $1869 USD per person in a twin share room. Single $1969 USD single occupancy What your tour price includes: Your accommodation for 6 nights while on the tour including both full breakfasts and dinners. Your price also includes all entrance fees to attractions, transportation, services of driver/guide-companion and all taxes and tips other than those you may wish to give your guide. Airport transfers and accommodation pre and post tour is not included but can be reserved at a specially discounted price. Want to upgrade your tour package to include international airfare? Click here for info.
TENTATIVE ITINERARY DAY ONE Our route from London follows the river, first through Deptford. This was the suburb of Samuel Pepys, and where Elizabethan playwright, Christopher Marlow, was murdered in a pub. It's a rare opportunity of seeing an 'old' London and a 'real' high street and one can still easily imagine we're aboard a stagecoach from Charles Dickens time heading with Mr Pickwick to Rochester. Fittingly, it is Dickens's Rochester that provides our next stop. This gem of a city, with its cathedral and Norman castle, overflows with Dickens's sites. There are plaques on the places mentioned in his books, Mrs Haversham's house is still here, and Dickens's himself lived here. Our third major site of the day is Knole. This interesting and grand house, the birth place of Vita Sackville West, was her inspiration for 'The Edwardian'. It was also the setting for Virginia Woolf's novel 'Orlando'. Accommodation: Kent
DAY TWO We'll start our day exploring more of Kent and East Sussex's rich literary heritage. We can choose from a range of sites and properties according to the interest of tour participants. In the Ashdown Forest we find the home of Winnie the Pooh and creator A A Milne. There'll be time for a game of 'pooh sticks' on the original bridge. Fans of Arthur Conan Doyle and his timeless creation, 'Sherlock Holmes', will not be disappointed as we find a number of related sites. And if there are Kipling fans aboard, we can find the time to view his home of Batemans nearby Burwash. Leaving east Sussex we take a scenic cross country route to Jane Austen country, with her home at Chawton being our destination. It was in this quaint village that she wrote most of her works and once inside the house, we are in her world. Time, and group interest permitting, we may also see the Selbourne home of Gilbert White, the first great naturalist. Accommodation: Hampshire
DAY THREE Today is our day to be totally immersed in that world, far from the madding crowd, of Thomas Hardy. We'll visit places where some of the most memorable scenes from his novels were set, like the prehistoric temple at Stonehenge. We'll visit towns and villages that are easily recognisable as the source of inspiration, like Winchester, Shaftesbury and Dorchester. We particularly seek out those smaller villages with a timeless Dorsetshire air to them. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the area is used as a location for many period films and TV series. One such will be Nether Wallop. This beautiful Hampshire village is the setting for Agatha Christie's 'Miss Marple' films. Also in the area is the 'Cloud's Hill' home of T E Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia. All in all, this is yet another perfect day. Accommodation: Hampshire
DAY FOUR We'll depart our Hampshire base and take the short drive north to the neighbouring counties of Royal Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, through the Chiltern Hills to Oxford. En route, there are simply dozens of sites and attractions with a literary significance. We can discover Thomas Grey tomb and original churchyard of his 'Elegy' fame. Nearby there's John Milton's 17th century cottage where 'Paradise Lost' was completed. In Beaconsfield G K Chesterton conceived 'Father Brown', and in the Thames riverside village of Marlow Mary Shelly somehow 'discovered' ' Frankenstein, and a hundred years or so later Jerome K Jerome pitcher his 'Three Men in a Boat'. Our drive through this literary landscape will bring many legendary characters springing alive from the page. Our drive brings us to the 'city of the dreaming spires', Oxford. This is the jewel in the literary crown. Inevitably, the university colleges feature, having either been where the great studied, or taught. The Dean of Mathmatics at Christchurch College was one Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll and one finds 'Alice' everywhere. At an ancient pub in the town centre, C S Lewis and Tolkein, amongst others, met to talk and drink. And, of course, contemporary literature is represented by Colin Dexter and his detective 'Morse'. A walking tour of the city will introduce you to these sites and to many, many others. Depending on the number of participants on the tour, we will either drive north or catch a 4 p.m. train to Manchester. Dinner is included tonight. Accommodation: Manchester region
DAY FIVE We depart from Manchester at 08.30. Our first stop will be at the Lancashire cotton town of Wigan, made famous by George Orwell in his 1939's study 'The Road to Wigan Pier'. This is a very interesting stop as these towns are often neglected on the tourist trail. Those joining this tour are recommended to read Martin Cruz 'Rose' as a wonderful and entertaining way of learning about the harsh realities of Victorian life in the cotton towns. Next, to the Lakes themselves and we'll visit the homes of two authors; Wordsworth's Dove Cottage, and Rydal Mount, his last home, to admire the grounds he lovingly landscaped, and then to Beatrix Potter's Sawrey Hilltop Farm. Naturally, as these are set amidst the beauty of the Lakes, breathtaking scenery will be part and parcel of our day! Accommodation: Lake District
DAY SIX Today we have a full day discovering and sharing the vistas that so inspired the areas literary tradition. We simply have to use the cliché 'breathtaking' to describe the spectacular scenery you'll be seeing as it is so very appropriate. We'll also see another of Wordsworth's properties at Cockermouth, and tour Ruskin's preserved Victorian home at Brantwood. In keeping with our literary theme, we'll also visit the pencil museum. Did you know that the graphite for pencils uniquely comes from the Lakeland? Accommodation: Lake District
DAY SEVEN We'll take a beautifully scenic route through the Lancashire Dales, calling in at Ingleton and Settle, to Hawarth. The dramatic moorland we see en route inspired the Bronte Sisters to pen the novels that are classics of English literature. In our explorations of Hawarth you'll be able to imagine the everyday lives of the Bronte Sisters as you walk round Haworth Church and the Bronte Parsonage Museum. If we've time, we'll also visit the National Trust's East Riddlesden Hall which, during the Civil War, was a Royalist stronghold in a Parliamentarian area. We arrive back in Manchester by 18.00. Your accommodation is not included in your tour package tonight. You can be dropped at either the rail station or airport for onward travel if you're leaving today for another tour or you are welcomed to extend your stay in Manchester.
Those joining our Wales, Mountains and Lakes four-day tour on the following morning will be dropped, fittingly, near the Knutsford home of Mrs Gaitskill's, the nearly now forgotten Victorian writer.
Those who have the time may also like to add a one or more Literary Day excursions to compliment their Literary Explorations. This option is available pre or post tour from London. Please see the Literary London, Writers, Royalty & the River and Stratford-Upon-Avon pages for further details.
Alternatively, those wishing to visit Stratford-Upon-Avon may choose to join our 3-day Heart of England tour from London on the Wednesday to Friday prior to the Literary tour. This tour visits Shakespeare’s Stratford, Oxford & the Cotswolds.
This tour can also be combined with any of our tours beginning on Saturdays: King Arthur or selected departures of Stately Homes and Gardens from London; Southern Scotland & Northern Ireland or Scotland’s West Coast from Glasgow; or the Heart of Ireland & Classic South Ireland from Dublin. We are happy to assist with rail or airfare (via ‘no-frills’ local UK carriers.)
This tour is operated by Back-Roads Touring Co Ltd |
