A Tour From Your Bookshelf In Great Britain
You've devoured the books, cried at the movies, and may even own the DVDs, but have you ever thought of using Agatha Christie, Inspector Morse, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Beatrix Potter, Charles Dickens and other popular British authors, poets and playwrights as a basis for a literary tour to Britain? 
Like many others, you may have spent evenings glued to the latest Masterpiece Theatre production, belong to book clubs, support the local library, or teach English literature and would relish a “fiction into fact” with tour in the British Isles.
With a bit of planning, an itinerary can be designed to coincide with one of the many literary festivals held each year throughout the UK. For example, “Sleuths,” is the annual Festival of Crime Writing, held each April, when some of the most devious criminal minds descend on Torquay, an area closely associated with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and Agatha Christie, “The Queen of Crimewriters.”
Create another tour around the internationally acclaimed Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival which takes place in Harrogate in July. Or design something around the Agatha Christie Festival, held in September, in Torquay, known as the “English Riviera.” This is when the normally tranquil village becomes the murder capital of Europe with the elaborate staging of people being shot, stabbed, strangled, poisoned, drowned, bludgeoned and asphyxiated.
English Riviera
For the growing number of Jane Austen enthusiasts, a tour focusing on two cities can be created. Beginning with a visit to Chawton where Austen wrote or revised her six great novels, you’ll want to include her burial place in Winchester Cathedral. Chawton is a 
beautiful village near Winchester and her house is open to the public. In Georgian Bath there is the Jane Austen Centre which spotlights her time in Bath and the effect that the city had on her writing. Every September, the city plays host to a ten day celebration of all things Jane Austen, which among a banquet of interesting events includes visits to places rarely opened to the general public.
Jane Austen
The Times Cheltenham Literary Festival, held in October, showcases the talents of the world’s leading novelists, poets, humorists, historians, philosophers, actors and politicians as they bring the written word dramatically to life. The Guildford and Chester Literary Festivals are also October events.
Cheltenham Festivals
In February and March, the Bath Literary Festival is becoming one of the U.K.’s most recognized events, and in May the Daphne du Maurier Festival takes place when many of Cornwall’s gardens look absolutely stunning. In June and July, there’s the Ledbury Summer Poetry Festival, the biggest and the brightest of its kind in the U.K.
Bath Literature Festival and du Maurier Festival
The Hay On Wye Literary Festival, held at the end of May, was started in 1988 by a small group of local people led by Norman and Peter Florence. Their theater company had toured the world for the British Council and played many festivals. The idea of focusing on literature and ideas evolved out of the desire to make their festival as much about participation as possible. Most of the events are conversations with writers, musicians, film makers and comedians that last 40 minutes, and then 20 minutes questions and answers with the audience. The program also includes stand up comedy, bands, DJs and in recent years they have added a cinema venue to deliver a full film program.
Visit - Hay On Wye Festival
The Ledbury Summer Poetry Festival, held in July, is the biggest and brightest in Britain. Featuring contemporary poets, actors and media personalities, the festival is 10 days full of poetry. The festival includes readings, performances, exhibitions, music, walks 
and talks, workshops and a wonderful atmosphere. Ledbury is unique in its historical associations with poets and is a charming medieval market town nestling in the Malvern Hills. A visit to Ledbury Poetry Festival is a memorable and uplifting experience with many audience members returning year after year. Visit - www.poetry-festival.com
Dorset and the New Forest is an area that often gets overlooked because it is tucked away on the south coast, close to Southampton. It is an area that is rich in literary associations, its most famous son is the nineteenth century novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, who was born at Higher Bockhampton and lived for much of his life in Dorset, forming the heart of the 'Wessex' setting for his best known works. Many of the settings for his novels, as well as his idyllic thatched cottage birthplace, now owned by the National Trust, can be visited today. There is a well-researched and documented 'Hardy Trail' which can be followed by car, as well as a long-distance hiking trail; each take the visitor on a timeless trail into Hardy's rural Dorset, which is in so many ways little changed. An annual festival is also held by the Hardy Society. Hardy Society
Even without a festival on the itinerary, literature tours are a superb way to see the striking landscapes that inspired great authors and poets. Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, 
serves as the base for another tour that could work very well for a family or a group of teachers. Here in Christ Church College you can bring together Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland. During a tour you'll discover many of the secrets of the original 'Wonderland'. It includes the Great Hall which doubles up as Hogwarts Hall which then combines two children’s literature favorites. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, along with many others, can be added to the list of famous authors associated with this famous university city. Oxford also makes a very good starting point for a morning visit to Stratford upon Avon to see the Shakespeare Houses through the eyes of costumed interpreters, an afternoon matinee at the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company along with a very satisfying Cotswold pub supper on the way back to your hotel. To make this itinerary even better for families, you might like to add a visit to Roald Dahl’s former home, a touch of “Wind in the Willows” at Mapledurham House and a game of Pooh Sticks in One Hundred Acre Wood in the Ashdown Forest.
If you are a fan of Ellis Peters’ “whodunits,” you will be pleased to know that a visit to the Wales-England border in Shropshire will bring to life the medieval life and times of Brother Cadfael. Or, while Portsmouth is not traditionally known as a literary city, you may be surprised by some of the literary greats who have connections with it! Experience a taste of the world’s greatest Sherlock Holmes collection, ‘A Study in Sherlock’ the new award winning Arthur Conan Doyle Exhibition housed in the stunning building of Portsmouth’s City Museum & Records Office. Portsmouth is also the city where you can visit Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum, the elegant Regency Style House where the writer was born in 1812.
The Bronte Sisters, William Wordsworth, Catherine Cookson, James Herriot, Bram Stoker, Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Grahame, Keats, Lord Tennyson, Enid Blyton, Robert Burns, H.G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling. Novels, history, biography, thrillers, politics, art, adventure, science, drama, music, poetry... if it's between two covers, a delightful tour can be designed in the UK. Whatever your passion, when you add a few carefully selected gardens, a stately home and castle or two, some pub lunches, Choral Evensong in an ancient cathedral and some leisure time, a literary tour in Great Britain can be a unique, memorable and treasured experience for you.
