Literary England itinerary

England may be the country where literature is easiest to visit: writers' houses have been preserved with almost obsessive care, the landscapes that inspired them still look much as they described them, and museums, trails and small rituals have grown up around every great name. This eight-day itinerary brings the most important places together in a single journey, from south to north: the London of Dickens, Keats and Virginia Woolf, the Oxford of Tolkien and Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare's Stratford, the moors of the Brontë sisters and the lakes of Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter.

The trip can be done by car or almost entirely by train. Some legs are long, but the towns are walkable, and every day leaves time for a pub, a second-hand bookshop or a walk through the landscapes of the books.

Day 1: writers' London

In the morning visit the Charles Dickens Museum at 48 Doughty Street, Dickens's only surviving London home. He lived here from 1837 to 1839 and wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby: you see the study with his desk, the family rooms and the basement kitchen. A few steps away begins Bloomsbury, the district of leafy squares where Virginia Woolf, her sister Vanessa Bell and their friends formed the Bloomsbury Group: blue plaques in Gordon Square and Tavistock Square mark their homes.

In the afternoon go up to Hampstead for Keats House, the villa where the poet lived and fell in love with Fanny Brawne, and where, under a tree in the garden, he wrote the Ode to a Nightingale. In the evening head down to the Thames for a performance at Shakespeare's Globe, the reconstruction of the Elizabethan theatre that opened in 1997: standing tickets in the yard in front of the stage cost very little, just as in Shakespeare's day.

Where to stay: in London. See where to stay in London.

Day 2: Oxford, city of dreaming spires

The train from London Paddington to Oxford takes about an hour. The university city is linked with dozens of writers, but two names stand out. The first is Lewis Carroll: Charles Dodgson taught mathematics at Christ Church, and it was while telling a story to the dean's daughters, among them little Alice Liddell, on a boat trip on the river, that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was born. A window in the college dining hall commemorates Alice and the characters of the book, and opposite the college a little shop, Alice's Shop, is said to be the one where the girl bought her sweets.

The second is J.R.R. Tolkien, a professor at Oxford for over thirty years. With C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, and the other friends of the Inklings he met at The Eagle and Child pub in St Giles to read aloud chapters in progress. Tolkien is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, north of the city, with his wife Edith: the gravestone bears the names Beren and Lúthien. Spend the afternoon at the Bodleian Library, with its Gothic Divinity School, and the Ashmolean Museum.

Where to stay: in Oxford or the Cotswolds.

Day 3: Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon is an hour's drive from Oxford, or about two hours by train changing at Leamington Spa. The day belongs to William Shakespeare. Start at his birthplace in Henley Street, a timber-framed house where the playwright was born in 1564 and spent his childhood. Continue to New Place, the site of the house where he died in 1616, now a garden, and Holy Trinity Church, where he lies before the altar beneath a stone that curses anyone who dares move his bones.

In the afternoon walk half an hour across the fields to Shottery for Anne Hathaway's Cottage, his wife's thatched family farmhouse with a fairy-tale garden. With a car you can add Mary Arden's Farm, home of the poet's mother. In the evening, a Royal Shakespeare Company performance in its theatre on the River Avon is the perfect end to the day.

Where to stay: in Stratford.

Day 4: towards Yorkshire

From Stratford to Haworth is about 230 km, three hours by car. On the way you can stop at Lichfield, birthplace of Dr Samuel Johnson, author of the first great English dictionary, or at Nottingham, city of Robin Hood and D.H. Lawrence. You reach Haworth in the afternoon: the dark stone village, with its very steep cobbled main street, looks like something out of a novel.

Where to stay: in Haworth, for two nights, in one of the village inns.

Day 5: Haworth and the Brontës

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is the house where Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë lived with their father, the village parson, and their brother Branwell. In these rooms, a few steps from the churchyard, the three sisters wrote novels that changed English literature: in 1847 Jane Eyre by Charlotte, Wuthering Heights by Emily and Agnes Grey by Anne appeared almost together, published under male pseudonyms. You see the dining room where they wrote around the table, the tiny books of their childhood, their dresses, their watercolours and the sofa on which, according to tradition, Emily died.

In the afternoon walk on the moors, the landscape of Wuthering Heights. A path of about 4 km leads to the Brontë Waterfall, one of the sisters' favourite places, and further up to the ruins of Top Withens, the isolated farmhouse said to have inspired Heathcliff's home. Wear walking boots and bring a waterproof: the weather changes fast. Steam-train fans can ride the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, where The Railway Children was filmed.

Day 6: Wordsworth's Lake District

From Haworth to Grasmere is about 150 km, two and a quarter hours. The Lake District is the landscape of the Romantic poets, above all of William Wordsworth, who was born here and spent almost his whole life here. In Grasmere visit Dove Cottage, the small whitewashed house where he lived with his sister Dorothy from 1799 to 1808 and wrote some of his best-known poems; next door, the Wordsworth Grasmere museum displays manuscripts and paintings. The poet is buried in St Oswald's churchyard, a few steps from the tiny shop that has sold the famous Grasmere Gingerbread since 1854.

In the afternoon go up to Rydal Mount, Wordsworth's last home, with the garden he designed himself, or walk along Rydal Water. In spring, the wild daffodils that inspired his most famous poem, the one about wandering "lonely as a cloud", bloom on the shores of Ullswater.

Where to stay: in Grasmere or Ambleside, for two nights.

Day 7: Beatrix Potter and Coniston

The morning is for Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's farmhouse at Near Sawrey, bought in 1905 with the proceeds of Peter Rabbit. The house has been kept as it was, with the furniture, china and details that appear in the illustrations of her books, and the garden is the one where her rabbits hop about. Entry is timed and places are limited: book ahead. Beatrix Potter left over 1,600 hectares of land and farms to the National Trust, and it is partly thanks to her that the Lake District landscape has survived intact. In Hawkshead, the Beatrix Potter Gallery shows her original watercolours.

In the afternoon drive to Coniston Water for Brantwood, the lakeside home of the critic John Ruskin, and take a trip on the lake aboard the steam yacht Gondola. Families may prefer The World of Beatrix Potter in Bowness-on-Windermere, with life-size characters.

Day 8: return

From the Lake District to London is about 450 km. By train, from Oxenholme or Windermere you reach London Euston in about three and a half hours, the most relaxing option. Drivers can stop at York or Whitby, where Bram Stoker found the inspiration for Dracula.

Variations

• Virginia Woolf's Sussex: south of London, visit Monk's House in Rodmell, the country home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf, and Charleston, the painted farmhouse of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. One extra day. See also Virginia Woolf's travels in Britain.
• Dickens and Chaucer's Kent: Rochester, with Gad's Hill, the house where Dickens died, and Canterbury, destination of the pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales.
• Jane Austen: between Bath and the south, see our Jane Austen itinerary.

How much it costs

To save money: the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust sells a single ticket for the Stratford houses, valid for a year; Keats House and several London museums are free or cheap; trains cost far less booked weeks ahead, with a Railcard if you are eligible.

Practical information

• Bookings: Hill Top, the Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company should be booked ahead, especially in summer. The Inklings' pub has also had periods of closure for works: check before you go.
• Without a car: London, Oxford and Stratford are reached by train; Haworth by train to Keighley then bus; in the Lake District, buses link Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere and Hawkshead.
• Walking: for the Haworth moors and the Lake District trails you need suitable shoes and a waterproof jacket, even in summer.
• Documents: passport and ETA, see documents and ETA.

What to read before you go

Ideal travelling companions are Wuthering Heights, to read in the evening at Haworth, Jane Eyre, Oliver Twist, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Lord of the Rings. For Shakespeare, a pocket edition of the Sonnets is perfect, and for Wordsworth an anthology of the English Romantic poets. See also the page on travellers of the past in Britain.

Final tips

• Pace: eight days is the minimum; with ten you can breathe and add a variation.
• Bookshops: look out for second-hand bookshops along the way, from Oxford to Haworth: they are part of the journey.
• A tip: see at least one Shakespeare play in England, at the Globe or in Stratford. Even those who don't catch every word are won over.

See also our other UK itineraries.

Oxford on the map

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