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THE BOOKWORM TOUR A LITERARY DISCOVERY OF ENGLAND & WALES This tour is a little more imaginative than the usual literary tours offered of England and Wales. While it includes some of the most iconic sites associated with writes such as Austen, Dickens, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Lewis Carroll and Thomas Hardy, it also seeks to introduce the tour participant to some perhaps lesser-known authors and poets. We use them as something of an excuse too, visiting some very pretty regions of the country not often discovered by the casual tourist. We hope in following this approach we will be giving the tour participant many, many future hours of reading pleasure and literary discovery. DEPARTURE DATES & PRICES FOR 2008
Travel dates don’t match this schedule? Why not check out the 7-day Literary England tour!
Cost: $3689 USD per person in a twin share room. Single $3989 USD What your tour price includes: Your accommodation for 11 nights while on the tour including both full breakfasts and most 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.
TENTATIVE ITINERARY DAY ONE - Sunday The tour departs from London. We’ll enjoy a relaxed day acquainting ourselves with the count of Kent, a county rich in literary association, to visit the Ashdown Forest of AA Milne’s ‘Winnie the Pooh’ and later Churchill’s home of Chartwell. It is often forgotten that this great statesman and leader won a Nobel prize for Literature. NIGHTSTOP: Sevenoaks, Kent
DAY TWO - Monday Kent’s most iconic literary sites will feature today including Charles Dicken’s Rochester and Broadstairs (where we’ll find the inspiration for ‘Bleak House’) and Chaucer’s mediaeval city of Canterbury. NIGHTSTOP: Sevenoaks, Kent
DAY THREE - Tuesday More of Kent Literary sites today with a number of choices to be made from Rudyard Kipling’s home Bateman’s, Virginia Woolf’s houses, Henry James’s quaint port town of Rye, and Darwin’s Home House. Spoilt for choice! NIGHTSTOP: Sevenoaks, Kent
DAY FOUR - Wednesday We’ll begin with G B Shaw's ‘Corner’ in Hertfordshire’s Ayot St Lawrence. This is an Edwardian Arts & Crafts influenced house, home to George Bernard Shaw for over 40 years. See the great dramatist's revolving writing hut featuring many literary and personal effects, including his Oscar and Nobel Prize then on to Oxford for a full afternoon’s visit. ‘Alice in Wonderland’ walk and time to see where the ‘Inklings’ met (TS Elliot, Tolkien and Auden). Of course, this is also the city of Colin Dexter’s ‘Inspector Morse’! NIGHTSTOP: Steeple Aston, Cotswolds region
DAY FIVE - Thursday Stratford upon Avon will be our main focus for the Shakespearean experience (RSC performance possible). NIGHTSTOP: Steeple Aston, Cotswolds region
DAY SIX - Friday Stratford to the charming medieval Ludlow, here we’ll concentrate on the poet A E Houseman. Beautiful borders scenery in ‘undiscovered’ region. Then onto Hay on Wye, the world’s largest used book centre where even the castle dungeon is lined with books! NIGHTSTOP: Bredwardine, Herefordshire
DAY SEVEN - Saturday A day at leisure in Hay on Wye with time to perhaps follow in Francis Kilvert’s footsteps with a walk to Clyro. This will be a wonderful day for book shopping too! (Day off from driving for driver/guide required at this point to comply with EU driver hour regulations.) NIGHTSTOP: Bredwardine, Herefordshire
DAY EIGHT - Sunday A unique day following the Dylan Thomas Trail and affording us the opportunity of touring one of the UK’s nicest areas, the Gower Coast. Also featured will be the city of Swansea and we’ll take the opportunity of introducing you to Welsh literature and the great Celtic tradition that gave birth to the Arthurian legends. A wonderful feature will be the village of Laugharne. This was Dylan Thomas’ village and the inspiration for ‘Under Milk Wood’. We’ll see his famed boat house writing studio, home and grave. NIGHTSTOP: Gower Coast, Wales
DAY NINE - Monday Departing the Gower, we take the freeway to Jane Austen’s Bath where we’ll enjoy a panoramic tour and a visit to the Austen museum. If there’s interest, we can see where Harry Potter author, J K Rowling spent her childhood en route. Our next stop will be Lacock, used as film set for many historical literary novels (as well as the more recent ‘Harry Potter’ films. Finally, we’ll pass by Stonehenge en route to our night stop near Salisbury. NIGHTSTOP: Stockbridge, Hampshire
DAY TEN - Tuesday A day exploring the Hampshire of Jane Austen, including her home at Chawton and tomb Winchester cathedral. We can also include the house and gardens of Gilbert Scott at Selbourne today (‘The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne’). NIGHTSTOP: Stockbridge, Hampshire
DAY ELEVEN - Wednesday Today, we explore the timeless landscape of Thomas Hardy country. Hardy country is mainly in Dorset and Wiltshire and this day gives us time to explore in depth with visits to a Hardy museum, his house and to see various villages and towns that he used as his backdrop, though with new fictitious names. NIGHTSTOP: Stockbridge, Hampshire
DAY TWELVE - Thursday Our final day is a truly memorable one with a stop at the pretty riverside town of Marlow where Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein, and where T S Elliot lived for some years. We’ll also visit Stoke Poges to see the grave and monument to Thos. Grey (Elegy in a Country Churchyard) and sites connected with G K Chesterton at Beaconsfield (‘Father Ted’). NIGHTSTOP: London (Accommodation and dinner is not included tonight. We will return to London approximately 6PM dependant upon the touring day and traffic.)
Guests with an interest in Literary themed itineraries - read all about it! We also offer the 7-day Literary England tour; individual interest itineraries for Jane Austen, Harry Potter, James Bond, Winston Churchill and several Literary Themed Day tours from London.
This tour is operated by Back-Roads Touring Co Ltd |
