Tour Code

Depart London

Return London

SLIT

Saturday

Tuesday

SLIT 01

24 May

27 May

Price: £460 pp twin-share / £480 single room

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Contact res@backroadstouring.co.uk, fax 00 44 20 8566 5457

TENTATIVE ITINERARY

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 Wolf's novel 'Orlando'.

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.

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.

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', Robert Frost wrote some of his finest poems, 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 Mathematics 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.

This tour links with our 3-day Northern Literary tour for those who would like a longer experience. Those carrying on to join our Northern Literary tour catch a 4 p.m. train to Manchester, while those simply enjoying the southern section return to London.

© As we publish full tour descriptions, you may find others offering our unique itineraries.  But, just as you find when others sing the songs of Paul McCartney, they're often not quite as good as when sung by the original composer!