"Literary pilgrimages are among the most ancient forms of
tribute which readers pay to the authors who touch their hearts and
minds."

Most of us would love to walk the lush slopes of Box Hill, inhaling
the fragrance of wild flowers while picturing Jane Austen's EMMA
doing the same. Or climb the Glastonbury Tor to absorb the aura of
the Arthurian legends. Or explore Thomas Hardy's ancestral cottage,
which he immortalized often in verse. Short of actually being
there, LITERARY TRAILS offers us an armchair pilgrimage through
selected homes, gardens, and creative corners of some of Britain's
most notable writers, as well as the landscapes that inspired their
imaginary settings.

While Hardyment admits to being selective out of necessity (the
sheer numbers of outstanding British authors and poets is
staggering) no one will be disappointed with those she has chosen
as her focus. They not only represent a cross-section of classic
through contemporary, but there's a wide sampling of genres:
fantasy, romance, mystery, nonfiction, and more. A few of the
chapters are singly devoted to a writer, as in "Jane Austen in her
Landscape" or "Thomas Hardy's Wessex;" yet the scope of Hardyment's
research often segues into other writers from around the world. "In
Search of Lyonesse" extends all the way to John Steinbeck in a
wonderfully touching story of his determination to capture the
essence of King Arthur's realm. In one of the many quotes woven
into her narration, we see the profound effect that the landscape
of Camelot has upon a writer like Steinbeck:

 

"Yesterday I climbed Camelot on a golden day. The orchards are in
flower and we could see the Bristol Channel and Glastonbury too,
and King Alfred's tower and all below. And that wonderful place and
structure with layer on layer of work and feeling. I found myself
weeping."

In "Literature and the Country House," the grand manors that
provided both escape and inspiration for the great writers of the
day are finely detailed. The Hughenden, Benjamin Disraeli's lavish
retreat, which housed the massive library of this bibliophile,
contained 25,000 books that he inherited in addition to his own
collection. Photographs of the stately mansion at Stowe, where
politicians, playwrights, and poets would gather, are accompanied
by drawings of the luxurious gardens surrounding it. Hardyment
highlights not only the writers who lived in many of these
sumptuous homes, but explores the cultural history of the country
house from its rise to its fall, and how it was reflected in the
writings of such authors as Evelyn Waugh, D. H. Lawrence, and
Virginia Woolf.

"Muses and Mountains" encompasses the English Lake District, which
was an area overflowing with novelists and poets. Hardyment is
particularly taken with the romantic and spirited influence of this
mountain region as reflected in the poetry of Coleridge, Keats, and
Wordsworth --- and perhaps most charming of all, the
children's tales by Beatrix Potter. Her working farm, known as Hill
Top, is one of the many estates covering Britain that has been
preserved and cared for by the National Trust, which was founded by
writers in the Lake District.

The final chapter is devoted to the atmospheric locales of
mysteries and thrillers, a genre whose roots seem deeply anchored
in British soil. Hardyment credits their proliferation to "the very
English obsession with who murdered whom with the candlestick in
the library in the vicarage." Cornwall was the setting of Daphne du
Maurier's REBECCA, the Norfolk coast for Jack Higgins's THE EAGLE
HAS LANDED. There are the gothic churches that inspired Dorothy L.
Sayers and the moors of Somerset, awash in folklore, which became
Lorna Doone country. Hardyment comments that even American
novelists like Martha Grimes "have out-Englished the English" in
making use of the quaint village setting teeming with intrigue.
And, as in her other chapters, the text is accompanied by
Hardyment's annotated trail maps with enticing locations like
Downham Market and Wicken Fen.

With all the accouterments any history should contain --- personal
photos, area maps, full color plates of both real and symbolic
edifices and landscapes --- LITERARY TRAILS conveys a real sense of
place to Britain's finest literature. And in case anyone has a
quarrel with the omission of this or that writer, Hardyment
completes this beautiful journey with the "Gazetteer," an eight
page feast of other significant sites and their relevance to
various authors' works. What more could you ask for?