The Devon read list 📚

Have you read some of the most popular authors and titles to come out of Devon? Read on! 

Exeter

Exeter

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Exeter is a UNESCO City of Literature with over 1000 years of making books and popularising reading. Not only was it Charles Dickens' home for several years while he worked as a journalist but was also where he started writing some of his most popular books, including Nicholas Nickleby. 

Exeter was also where the founder of the Penguin imprint had the inspiration to start up his publishing house. He had the idea while waiting for a train after visiting Agatha Christie and not having a book to hand. He is the reason why there is now a book vending machine at the train station

Other authors: 

  • J K Rowling attended university in Exeter
  • Gene Kemp, taught at a school nearby which inspired her own writing

Agatha Christie and South Devon

The most famous author from Devon was born in Torquay in the English Riviera. Agatha Christie, known as the Queen of Crime spent much of her early life in and around the town of Torquay and based many of her stories in locations around South Devon. During WWI, she worked as a nurse in Torquay, where she met many Belgian refugees, who went on to inspire her most famous detective. 

Locations featured in Agatha Christie's books: 

  • Burgh Island, Bigbury on Sea - the books And Then There Were None and Evil Under the Sun were both feature settings inspired by the island.
  • Elberry Cove, nr Paignton - features in the ABC Murders
  • Imperial Hotel, Torquay - features in Peril at End House, The Body in the Library and Sleeping Murder
  • Kent's Cavern - inspired The Man in the Brown Suit, her father was also part of the team that financed the original excavation of the caves
  • St Marychurch Clifftops - the setting for Why Didn't they Ask Evans

 

Where to learn more about Agatha Christie in Torquay

  • Barton Road, the site of her childhood home, there is now a plaque marking the spot
  • Beacon Cove, Christie almost drowned here while swimming as a child 

image shows the bust of Agatha Christie in Torquay

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  • Cockington Court
  • Grand Hotel, Torquay - where Agatha Christie and her first husband had their honeymoon
  • Torre Abbey, you'll find a poisonous garden here inspired by Agatha Christie

Make sure to follow the Agatha Christie Trail and visit during the Agatha Christie Festival to find out more. 

                                               

East Devon

SIdmouth

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East Devon is the home of the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival and has connections to a number of writers and poets.

The town of Sidmouth along the Jurassic Coast in East Devon has been particularly influential, appearing as the inspiration for several fictional places.

Can you recognise it in the following titles: 

The Tale of Pig Robinson - Beatrix Potter
Wessex - Thomas Hardy
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle
Pendennis - William Makepeace Thackeray
The Sea Raiders - H G Wells 

Other poets and novelists inspired by or living in East Devon include: 

  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Ottery St Mary and spent time in various places in Devon and Somerset.  
  • The poet Elizabeth Barret lived in Sidmouth from 1832-35
  • R F Delderfield, the novelist and writer worked for the Exmouth Chronicle and ran an antiques business for a time in Budleigh Salterton. In the 1960s, he had a house built on Peak Hill in Sidmouth which is still there today, it is known as the Gazebo
  • Dame Hilary Mantel, the author of Wolf Hall lived in Budleigh Salterton and was president of the annual literary festival. 
  • JK Rowling used the town of Ottery St Mary as inspiration for Ottery St Catchpole, the town the Weasleys live in in the Harry Potter series. 
  • Lucy Holland, who also writes under the name Lucy Hounsem is an author from Sidmouth, her book Sistersong is based on Celtic mythology around Devon
  • J R R Tolkein wrote part of Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion while on holiday near Kennaway House in Sidmouth                     

 

                                                                                                     

North Devon

The North Devon area and Exmoor National Park have long been inspiring writers of all kinds - the romantic poets called the area home for some time, while one of the region's best loved holiday resorts got its name from a book written by a local author! 

The most famous export from this region is Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson, you can even follow the journey that Tarka went on by visiting the Tarka Trail!

Where to experience North Devon's literary connections

  • Westward Ho! 
    Rudyard Kipling, the author of the Jungle Book went to school in Westward Ho! and was known to take walks around the region, so much so, that there is a walking route named after him - the Kipling Tor. 
    The town itself gets its name from the book Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley, who lived in nearby Bideford and was also the author of the Water Babies. 
  • Exmoor National Park 
    Specifically the Doone Valley, which was used heavily in the romantic epic Lorna Doone by R D Blackmore.
    The poet William Wordsworth also spent a lot of time here, as did Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was born in East Devon but is said to have written two of his best known works, the Tale of the ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan while living on Exmoor

Exmoor

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  • Lynton and Lynmouth
    The twin villages were given the nickname Little Switzerland by poet Robert Southey, he lived there with another poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who wrote Queen Mab and several political pamphlets while living here. 

Elsewhere in the region, Sylvia Plath her husband Ted Hughes had a house in North Devon, she wrote some poetry and started the Bell Jar while living there.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Dartmoor 

dartmoor blog

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Much like Exmoor, Dartmoor National Park is a place of inspiration - it was described by Steven Spielberg as being one of the most beautiful places in the world. There are a couple of authors and poets that have set their work on Dartmoor. Including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who based the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskerville on the moors at Dartmoor. 

More recently Michael Morpurgo, who lives in Dartmoor based his novel, The War Horse on locations around the moor. Visitors to Dartmoor will also see a memorial stone dedicated to the poet Ted Hughes, who spent a lot of time on Dartmoor. 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

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