Living in Hampshire, local writers have a lot to live up to! World-famous, talented authors have lived here in Hampshire – some were born or buried here. It is a highly literary county!
Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812. Amongst his famous works are A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations.
Jane Austen was born in 1775 at Steventon, Hampshire. She died in 1817 at Winchester. Amongst her famous works are Sense & Sensibility (1811) and Pride & Prejudice (1813).
John Wyndham lived in Petersfield, Hampshire. His works include The Day of the Triffids (1951), and The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), which was filmed in 1960 as ‘Village of the Damned’.
Arthur Conan Doyle, Author of Sherlock Holmes, lived in Portsmouth and is buried in Minstead churchyard, in the New Forest.
J.R.R. Tolkien lived in Bournemouth, and died there in 1973. Amongst his famous works are Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Two Towers.
Even American writer, Stephen King, lived in Fleet, Hampshire for three months in 1977. He wanted to write a novel that was based in England, but returned to America nine months early and never completed the book. Bet you didn’t know that!
With so many famous and talented people having written in Hampshire, it sometimes makes me frightened to put pen to paper. How can I, a mere mortal, live up to these greats?
I can’t, of course. But I can try to write to the best of my ability. That’s all any of us can do – wherever we live.