Marshes, Mists and Murders: A Literary Exploration of East Anglia, with musical and artistic interludes 2027

Day 1: Tuesday 8 June, London Heathrow – Ely

• Transfer from London Heathrow
• Light Lunch at the Almonry Restaurant, Ely
• Ely Cathedral and the Stained Glass Museum (Curatorial Tour)
• Oliver Cromwell’s House
• Welcome dinner

Meeting Point: The tour will commence at 8.30am at a hotel located close to Heathrow Airport and easily accessed by public transport (details TBA).

We start out tour by heading to Ely, a lovely Cambridgeshire city with its cathedral known affectionately as ‘Ship of the Fens’.  Ely will be our base for the first two nights.

On our arrival in Ely lunch will be enjoyed in the Almonry Restaurant located in the 13^th century undercroft of the cathedral.

Before the masses could read, the stories of the Bible were told through stained glass. The superb Stained Glass Museum is located within the Cathedral and displays 800 years of history through this ancient art.  We have a special curatorial tour with time to admire the many vivid examples of stained glass held there.

Oliver Cromwell is a name that still divides opinions more than three hundred years after his death, but he was a hugely important historical figure and has played a role in literature too, with biographies and appearances in novels. The fabulous ‘Seeker’ series by S.G. Maclean features him as an important character. We will visit the recently restored Oliver Cromwell House, tucked in close to the cathedral, with its excellent Civil War exhibitions and information about the Lord Protector and his controversial legacy.

This evening we gather for a welcome dinner at our hotel, The Poets House, once home to local author Sybil Marshall, whose life in the fenland is reflected in her novels, poetry and social history texts. (Overnight Ely) LD 

Day 2: Wednesday 9 June, Ely – Bluntisham – Olney – Bedford – Hemingford Grey – Ely

• St Marys Church, Bluntisham
• Bluntisham Rectory (subject to confirmation)
• The Cowper and Newton Museum, Olney
• John Bunyan Museum, Bedford
• The Manor, Hemingford Grey

St Mary’s Church in Bluntisham-cum-Earith was very familiar to crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers. Her father was rector there and she spent much of her childhood in the village. When she came to write her 1934 mystery novel The Nine Tailors she drew inspiration from her father’s restoration of the church bells. We will visit the church that inspired much of the novel and (subject to confirmation) enjoy a private visit to the Rectory where she spent a rather lonely childhood.

The Cowper and Newton Museum in nearby Olney celebrates the lives of works of two famous residents of the town. Eighteenth century poet and hymn writer William Cowper was much admired and often quoted by Jane Austen. His poem Light Shining out of Darkness gave English the phrase ‘God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform’. His abolitionist poem The Negro’s Complaint was frequently quoted by Martin Luther King. Cowper’s contemporary John Newton began as a slave trader, but saw the error of his ways and became a prominent abolitionist, took orders and became Vicar in Olney. He wrote the familiar hymn ‘Amazing Grace’. The museum is in a beautiful Georgian building, once home to Cowper, and presents information about both writers, the slave trade and the history of Olney and its lace-making industry.

We travel on to Bedford to visit the John Bunyan Museum. Housed appropriately in a church compound, the museum displays information about the Christian preacher and author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, probably the most famous published Christian allegory of all time. Bunyan’s will, his musical instruments and the jug he used in prison are held in the museum.

The Cambridgeshire village of Hemingford Grey has an ancient manor house. Dating from possibly as early as the 1130s, it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited houses in Britain. The house has fascinating claims to fame. In the 18^th century it was home to two of the Gunning sisters, celebrated for their beauty and illustrious marriages. Cowper described Maria and Elizabeth Gunning as ‘two nymphs adorned with every grace’. Then in 1939 the manor was purchased by writer Lucy M. Boston who renamed it Green Knowe and set her 1954 novel The Children of Green Knowe there, as well as the next five books of that series. We will enjoy a tour of the house and also afternoon tea before we return to Ely. (Overnight Ely) B

Day 3: Thursday 10 June, Ely – Houghton – Brancaster Straithe – Sandringham – Kings Lynn

• Houghton Hall
• Lunch at The White horse Inn, Brancaster Straithe
• Sandringham Estate

Magnificent Houghton Hall in Norfolk was commissioned by Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and was where his son, Father of the Gothic Novel Horace Walpole, grew up. The Neo-Palladian building is Grade I listed, has a fabulous art collection and extensive grounds. The library, designed by William Kent, is unchanged form Sir Robert’s lifetime and holds his wide-ranging collection of books. After touring the hall and enjoying a break, we will also take a tour of the gardens.

Lunch today will be at the White Horse in Brancaster Straithe, with sweeping views of the Norfolk coast and atmospheric salt marshes.

Sandringham Estate is a royal residence. There has been a building on the site since the Elizabethan era, it was partly rebuilt in Victorian times and in 1862 was purchased by the Prince of Wales, future King Edward VII. He made many changes and always loved it, as did his son George. Sandringham was the setting for the first ever Christmas broadcast, in 1932 (the speech was written by Rudyard Kipling).  After our tour of the house, we have a self-guided visit to the gardens and sample a refreshing glass of Sandringham gin or Sandringham apple juice.

We then head to Kings Lynn, port and market town and a place packed with literary connections. It will be our base for two nights. (Overnight Kings Lynn) BL

Day 4: Friday 11 June, Kings Lynn, March – Helpston – Peterborough – Kings Lynn

• St Wendreda’s Church, March
• The John Clare Cottage
• Longthorpe Tower, Peterborough

Dorothy L Sayers was not inspired by just one church for her novel The Nine Tailors featuring her sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, but two churches. This morning we will visit St Wendreda’s Church in the village of March. It is famed for its double-hammer beam roof, celebrating St Wendreda and 118 angels. Poet John Betjeman said it was ‘worth cycling forty miles in a head wind’ just to see this roof. ‘Of course our angel roof is our great showpiece’, states Mrs Venables in The Nine Tailors. Lord Peter Wimsey looks up at the angels “entranced with wonder”.

John Clare rose from humble origins to become a fine poet of the early 19^th century. His poetry celebrates the beauty of the English countryside and his sorrow at the changes industrialisation was bringing. John Clare was born in Helpston in 1793 and his birthplace is now a museum. He suffered from poverty, poor health and depression and was eventually shut away in an asylum. His grave is in the Helpston churchyard. The cottage has a beautiful garden and there will also be time for some of the walks John Clare loved and which inspired his environmental activism.

We continue to Peterborough which, in the superb TV series Barchester Towers became Barchester. The cathedral city is the setting for Ross Greenwood’s series of crime novels, featuring D.I. John Barton, and starting with The Snow Killer.

Longthorpe Tower in Peterborough dates from the 14^th century and is noted for its well-preserved medieval murals. They were found under whitewash in the 1940s. Ross Greenwood mentions the tower in his fiction. (Overnight Kings Lynn) B

Day 5: Saturday 12 June, Kings Lynn – Langham

• Walking tour of Kings Lynn
• The Lynn Museum

In the 14^th century, Kings Lynn was England’s most important port, with Hanseatic trading ships bringing the town great prosperity. Mystic author Margery Kempe was born in Kings Lynn, as was the ‘Mother of Chick Lit’, Frances Burney. Daniel Defoe visited the town and thought it ‘beautiful, well built and well situated’. In Elly Griffiths’ fabulous Dr Ruth Galloways series of crime novels, all set in Norfolk, Inspector Harry Nelson works from Kings Lynn police station and several of the crimes investigated occur in the town. The oldest working theatre in England is in Kings Lynn.

This morning we explore Kings Lynn on a walking tour. Our route through this historic town will include the ancient Guildhall, Bank House and Customs House. We also pass Clifton House, a Grade 1 listed merchant’s house dates from the 13th century. It was used in the filming of The Personal History of David Copperfield in 2019

The local museum, which we will visit, holds the wooden sea-henge which is so important in The Crossing Places, first novel in the Elly Griffiths series. Dr Ruth Galloway is a forensic archaeologist with a particular interest in bones, but as a student she was involved in the uncovering of the sea-henge which dates back to the early Bronze Age. (Overnight Langham) B

Day 6: Sunday 13 June, Langham, Cley, Walsingham – Langham

• Cley and Salthouse Marshes, walking tour by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust
• Walsingham Abbey

Wide-open saltmarshes, huge skies and glorious beaches make Norfolk’s Cley and Salthouse marshes a wildlife sanctuary and a stunning visual landscape, all capably managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Today we visit this iconic landscape, so redolent of Elly Griffiths’ character Dr Ruth Galloway and her marsh-side cottage home: ‘Everything is pale and washed out, grey-green merging to grey-white as the marsh meets sky. Far off is the sea, a line of darker grey, seagulls riding in on the waves. It is utterly desolate and Ruth has no idea why she loves it so much.’ Jack Higgins uses Cley as a setting in his The Eagle Has Landed: ‘It was a strange, mysterious sort of place… Sea creeks and mudflats, the great pale reeds merging with the mist and somewhere out there, the occasional cry of a bird, the invisible beat of wings.’ Cley also inspired crime writer Brian Cooper. His Detective Chief Inspector John Spencer retires to Cley, but can’t keep his nose out of local murders. In Ann Cleeves 1986 novel A Bird in the Hand Cley is renamed ‘Rushy’ and its bird reserve is the scene of a crime which is solved by an ornithologist.

We will be treated to an introductory talk from the Trust on arrival, before taking a walking tour through the nature reserve.

After lunch at the Education Centre, we will travel on to Walsingham Abbey and village. Walsingham’s Shrine of our Lady is an important location in Elly Griffith’s The Woman in Blue. The shrine was founded by Lady Richelda in 1061, after she supposedly experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary, and for nearly a thousand years it has been an important place of pilgrimage. The writer Erasmus is known to have visited.  The original shrine was destroyed by King Henry VIII, but in 1922 a new statue was set up and regular pilgrimage devotion followed. In 1931 a new Holy House encased a small pilgrimage church and the statue was moved there. (Overnight Langham) BL

Day 7: Monday 14 June, Langham – Felbrigg – Cromer – Langham

• Felbrigg Hall
• Lunch at The Ship Inn, Mundesley
• Literary Tour of Cromer

Medieval Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk is in the care of the National Trust, but its previous owner was Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer who wrote several books about Norfolk and its history, including Felbrigg: The Story of a House. He also published some volumes of poetry. When the property passed into the hands of the National Trust it was, until 1990, under the administration of Christopher Mackie. His wife Mary Mackie wrote three highly entertaining books on their experiences of running Felbrigg and opening it to the public – Cobwebs and Cream Teas, Dry Rot and Daffodils and Frogspawn and Floor Polish. We will enjoy a guided tour of this historic property and have time to explore the beautiful gardens.

Lunch today will be at the Ship Inn in Mundesley. The pub is over 300 years old and, situated right by the water, with panoramic views of the golden sands of Mundesley Beach and of the ocean.

In the afternoon we head to the seaside town of Cromer. In Jane Austen’s Emma Mr Woodhouse recommends Cromer, although he has not himself been there: ‘Perry was a week at Cromer once, and he holds it to be the best of all the sea-bathing places. A fine open sea, he says, and very pure air.’ Emma’s hypochondriac parent is not likely to have recommended the famous Cromer Crab, a source of income for local fishermen for generations – far too rich for Mr Woodhouse! In Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South Margaret Hale goes to Cromer for a week of rest and relaxation. Edward Lear wrote a limerick about the town, in which an old man reads Homer in Cromer. Sir Arthur Conan Dolye was influenced by Gothic-style Cromer Hall when he created Baskerville Hall. Cromer has also been popular with crime writers, from Ross Greenwood’s Death on Cromer Beach, the Cromer Murders trilogy by Kelvin I. Jones, to Death Walks by Eastrepps by Francis Beeding in which Inspector Protheroe investigates around Cromer lighthouse. Novelist Diana Athill lives in Cromer, as did Booker Prize winning writer Ion Trewin who, as a publisher had a big influence on the literary career of Australian author Tom Keneally. Guide Paul Dickson will show us some of the literary landmarks of this seaside town on a guided walk. (Overnight Langham) BL

Day 8: Tuesday 15 June, Langham – Holkham – Weston Longville – Norwich

• Holkham Hall, including private tour, specialist library visit and buffet lunch
• All Saints Church Weston Longville

Holkham Hall is one of England’s finest examples of Neo-Palladian architecture. It was designed for Thomas Coke, 1^st Earl of Leicester, by architect William Kent in the 18^th century. Holkham was the childhood home of Lady Anne Glenconner, Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Margaret and author of recent mystery novels and a memoir. The library, with a collection of over 10, 000 volumes in one of the finest private libraries in the country. It includes incunabula, ancient maps and priceless manuscripts. Our morning and lunch will be spent at Holkham, with a tour of the house, time to enjoy the beautiful gardens, and lunch at the courtyard café.

In the afternoon we travel to Weston Longville. Parson James Woodforde, who wrote one of the most famous diaries in English, Diary of a Country Parson, became rector of All Saints’ Church and moved to Weston Longville in 1776. His niece Anna (also a diarist and correspondent) acted as his housekeeper, and he died there in 1803. His vivid diary records fascinating detail of the life of an 18^th century clergyman – his christening/ marrying / burying of local parishioners, problems with servants, visiting the local Squire, the topics of his sermons, bad weather, the gargantuan meals he enjoyed, visits from the local smuggler who delivered his brandy in the middle of the night, and much more. A complete edition of his diary has been published in 17 volumes, and today the local pub has been named in his honour. We will be guided in the footsteps of this important diarist by a member of the Parson Woodforde Society

We then head into Norwich, where we will be staying in the oldest hotel in England. The Maid’s Head is adorned by a literary blue plaque for Matthew Shardlake, the fictional lawyer created by crime writer C.J. Sansom, who stays in the Maid’s Head in the last novel in the superb Shardlake series, Tombland. The hotel was also a base for Frances Beeding’s character Inspector George Martin when he comes to Norwich in The Norwich Victims. (Overnight Norwich) BL

Day 9: Wednesday 16 June, Norwich

• Literary Tour of Norwich
• Norwich Cathedral
• Norwich Castle

Norwich is a glorious cathedral city, packed with literary associations. Elizabethan dramatist and poet Robert Greene was born in the city. It was visited and admired by travel writers Celia Fiennes and Daniel Defoe. George Crabbe, a poet much admired by Jane Austen, was ordained in the cathedral, novelist George Borrow was a student at the Grammar School, and Anna Sewell (who wrote Black Beauty in a nearby village) is today commemorated by a horse-trough in Norwich.  In P.D. James’ Devices and Desires policeman Adam Dalgleish visits the cathedral. Norwich has long been associated with books and publishing – it was the site of England’s first provincial library (1608), had the first provincial newspaper outside London, and it was in Norwich that Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love, the first book written in English by a woman, was published.

It has also been popular with crime writers and several literary murders occur in Norwich. S.T Hayman has her Inspector Jurney investigate the death of a choir boy, while in Death of a Hero she writes of the Kett Rebellion. American novelist Kate Charles has as her sleuth a Norwich solicitor, while the village of Brundall, a few miles east of Norwich is the base of Inspector George Gently in Alan Hunter’s novels (although the popular TV series set the books in Northumberland instead).

We will spend the morning exploring the lovely cathedral (at one time the resting place of Anne Boleyn) and walking through the historic streets of the city seeing places that would have been familiar to character Matthew Shardlake on his visit there.

The recently renovated Norwich Castle and Art Gallery Museum has a fine collection of works by the Norwich School of Painters. The Castle, built just after the Norman Conquest, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. For a while it served as a prison. Today it has a plaque for Robert Kett, leader of the rebellion which forms the plot of C.J. Sansom’s Tombland. The museum holds fine art (including the famous ‘Paston Treasure’, a Dutch painting), costumes, archaeological finds from the area, and natural history specimens. (Overnight Norwich) B

Day 10: Thursday 17 June, Norwich – Hickling Broad – Horning – Norwich

• Boat tour on Hickling Broad
• Lunch at The Swan Inn, Horning

Hickling Broad, the largest of the famous Norfolk Broads, is noted for its wildlife and peaceful atmosphere. Today it is a nature reserve and a ‘Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’. This is Arthur Ransome territory as it features prominently in both Coot Club and The Big Six. Ransome went sailing at Hickling with his wife in the 1930s, at a time when the region was changing from a rarely visited wilderness to a popular place for sailors, and he later used his notes and diaries when he penned Coot Club, part of the Swallows and Amazons series, in which Dick and Dorothea Callum learn to sail so that they can impress their friends in the Lake District. Like those characters, we will navigate the labyrinth of waterways on a Norfolk Wildlife boat tour. One of Ransome’s characters states of the watery landscape: ‘Most people here have got at least one foot in the water’.

Lunch will be at the Swan Inn in Hornung, a country restaurant with views of the River Bure. Arthur Ransome mentions a huge stuffed pike that he saw there (the pike has since been moved to a museum).

In the afternoon there will be free time to explore Norwich.  You can walk along historic Elm Hill, or visit some of the many old churches in the city (Norfolk has more churches than any other county in England). (Overnight Norwich) BL

Day 11: Friday 18 June, Norfolk – Blickling – Norwich

• Blickling Hall
• Time at Leisure in Norwich

The Jacobean stately home of Blickling Hall was owned by the Boleyn family in the early 16^th century. It is extremely likely that Anne Boleyn, one time Queen of England and subject of so many biographies, novels and films, was born at Blickling (possibly in 1501). The library has a superb collection of books and manuscripts. The 13,000 to 14,000 works span 146 linear feet. The collection includes the Blickling Homilies, an Anglo-Saxon work written down before the end of the 10^th century. We will be shown some of the treasures of the library on our afternoon visit.

The gardens, which we can explore, cover 55 acres, with an 18^th century orangery, a kitchen garden now open to the public, a temple, walled garden and ancient yew hedges.

We return to Norwich where the rest of the afternoon will be at leisure. (Overnight Norwich) B

Day 12: Saturday 19 June, Norwich – Forncett St Peter – Diss – Framlingham – Woolpit – Bury St Edmunds

• Forncett St Peter
• Market Town of Diss
• Framlingham Castle
• Woolpit Village

This morning we depart Norwich and make our way to Forncett St Peter, a charming village known for its Grade I listed church, with a Saxon tower dating to c1000AD. William Wordsworth visited the village and its church several times where his uncle was Rector. His sister, Dorothy, lived at the Rectory in the late 18th century. Two centuries later poet Philip Larkin also visited the village and wrote of its beauty in his diary.

The market town of Diss is right on the boundary with Suffolk. It’s an ancient settlement with interesting literary associations. John Skelton, tutor to King Henry VIII, became rector of St Mary’s Church in Diss in 1503 (setting of his poem Ware the Hawk). He was probably born in the town and he remained in his clerical position there until his death in 1539. Skelton was an important poet and playwright of the early Tudor period and gave his name to the extremely irregular Skeltonics metre in poetry. He loved writing invectives and satire and his work was much admired in the 20^th century by W.H. Auden and C.S. Lewis. Skelton is commemorated for his tutoring of the young King on the attractive town sign. Radical writer Thomas Paine spent a year in Diss.  Prolific novelist Doreen Wallace, who wrote about divisions between the classes, was a teacher in Diss for many years. Sir John Betjeman loved Diss – it was one of his favourite towns and he even made an 18-minute film about its charms. Because it was her birthplace, he wrote a poem for Mary Wilson, wife of PM Harold Wilson which includes the lines: ‘Dear Mary, Yes, it would be bliss/ To go with you by train to Diss’. Virginia Woolf visited in 1906 and stayed at a nearby manor, Blo Norton Hall, which inspired her short story The Journal of Mistress Joan Martyn.

We will enjoy a lunch break and a stroll in this attractive town.

We go on to Framlingham Castle in Suffolk. By 1148 there was a motte and bailey castle on a bluff overlooking the River Ore, but by the 13^th century Framlingham had become a luxurious home. In the late 15^th century it became the property of the powerful Howard family. They hosted Mary Tudor when Lady Jane Grey was declared Queen. Poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, lived there. Along with Thomas Wyatt, he was an early user of the Italian sonnet form, helping to make it popular in England, and is considered a founder of Renaissance poetry. He was beheaded on Tower Hill by order of King Henry VIII and his remains, originally buried in London were, in 1614, moved to Framlingham. We will see his spectacular painted alabaster tomb in St Michael the Archangel’s Church. Contemporary novelist Lizzie Drake has set her novel The Raven’s Corpse in Framlingham. This is Book 2 of her ‘Elspet Stafford’ series of mysteries set in the Tudor era.

Our last visit for the day is the village of Woolpit a small and anicent Sufffolk village and home to the 12th century folktale The Green Children of Woolpit, where a young brother and sister arrive in the town with green skin and speaking an unknown language!

In the late afternoon we travel on to Bury St Edmunds, our base for the next six nights of the tour. We will be staying at the Georgian-era Angel Hotel, just as once did Charles Dickens (who mentions it in The Pickwick Papers). There is a Blue Plaque on the hotel commemorating his three visits and the hotel has Dickensian-themed décor. (Overnight Bury St Edmunds) B

Day 13: Sunday 20 June, Bury St Edmunds

• Walking tour of Bury St Edmunds including St Edmundbury Cathedral
• Theatre Royal
• Afternoon at leisure

Shakespeare mentions Bury St Edmunds in Henry VI, Part II. Daniel Defoe visited in the 1720s and found it a place ‘famed for its pleasant situation and wholesome air’, Coleridge visited abolitionists Thomas and Catherine Clarkson there, Oscar Wilde delivered a lecture at The Athenaeum, and Charles Kingsley, author of The Water Babies came to stay in 1860. The town was the birthplace of Ouida, a prolific novelist noted for her highly melodramatic tales, much favoured by Queen Victoria. There’s a memorial to her which also features a dog (Ouida was an early animal rights campaigner).  It was also home to best-selling novelist Norah Lofts, and her house on Northgate Street, where she penned more than fifty novels, is marked with a Blue Plaque. Ruth Rendell lived close by and set The Brimstone Wedding in Bury St Edmunds. We will take a guided walk around the town.

Bury’s magnificent Theatre Royal was built in 1819. Many of its original features are still intact, making it the best remaining Regency playhouse in England and a superb and intimate theatre with an active programme of events. For actor Dame Judi Dench, this theatre holds “a special place in (her) heart”, while Stephen Fry has described the building as “a vital piece of our theatrical heritage”. (Overnight Bury St Edmunds) B

Day 14: Monday 21 June, Bury St Edmunds – Wimpole – Anglesey – Bury St Edmunds

• Wimpole Hall
• Anglesey Abbey

Grand Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire is in the care of the National Trust. Building of the house began in 1640. Many famous names in architecture and design are associated with Wimpole – James Gibbs, Sir John Soane, ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphrey Repton.  The estate contains several listed buildings and structures. It became home to Captain George Bambridge and his wife Elsie, who lived there first as tenants and then purchased it in 1942. Elsie was the only surviving child of author Rudyard Kipling, but he died before the purchase was made. Elsie transferred some of her father’s books to Wimpole and such works as The Just So Song Book inscribed by Kipling to Elsie and her brother John, and a first edition of The Jungle Book are on display in the library. It was Kipling’s royalties after his death that provided the funds for all the restoration work Elsie organised when she moved to Wimpole.

Lunch will be available at the Old Rectory restaurant or stable block café.

In the afternoon we drive to Anglesey Abbey in the village of Lode. A priory once stood on the site but it was closed in 1536 during the dissolution of the monasteries and a Jacobean home was constructed around 1600. It was once lived in by Thomas Hobson, a carrier who gave his name to the phrase ‘Hobson’s Choice’. The last private owner of the house was Lord Fairhaven, who bequeathed it to the National Trust, along with his collection of books, furniture (including actor David Garrick’s Chippendale dressing table) and art (with wonderful paintings by Gainsborough, Constable, Landseer and Lorrain). Various royal visitors to the house inscribed their names on the window of his library. The room holds about 6000 books. (Overnight Bury St Edmunds) B

Day 15: Tuesday 22 June, Bury St Edmunds – Aldeburgh – Sutton Hoo – Bury St Edmunds

• Aldeburgh Bookshop
• The Red House
• Sutton Hoo – Tranmer House and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Burial Site with archaeologist Angus Wainwright

The fishing town of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk Coast is famous for its annual music festival which was started by Benjamin Britten in 1948. He had just completed his opera ‘Peter Grimes’ about a character created by local poet George Crabbe (there’s a memorial to Crabbe in local St Peter & St Paul’s Church). The tale of Peter Grimes, a fisherman overcome with remorse at the way he has treated his apprentices, appeared in Crabbe’s 1810 poem The Borough. Thanks to Britten’s efforts, writers and musicians came to Aldeburgh, including E.M. Forster who wrote the libretto for Britten’s opera Billy Budd.

Wilkie Collins, visiting in 1862, found the atmospheric scenery he needed for his book No Name in Aldeburgh and the surrounding area.  M.R. James had childhood holidays with his grandparents there and used the beach in his story A Warning to the Curious, and Susan Hill, author of ghost story The Woman in Black was also drawn to Aldeburgh. Ruth Rendell lived in Aldeburgh and featured the town in No Night is Too Long.

Lovely Aldeburgh Bookshop on the High Street has been in business over 70 years and runs the Aldeburgh Literary Festival. It is located on the site of George Crabbe’s former home.

The Red House in Aldeburgh was home to composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, tenor Sir Peter Pears, for almost twenty years. Before that it was lived in by writer Stephen Potter (who became noted for parodies of self-help books) and his artist wife Mary Potter. Britten, who bought it in 1947, there established the Britten-Pears Foundation. The Red House promotes the musical legacy of the two men, and also displays information about their lives and works, Britten’s grand piano, their rare books and an impressive art collection. The Grade II-listed 17^th century farmhouse is nestled in a beautiful five-acre garden. After our guided tour of the house, library and studio, we will have time for lunch and a walk in the grounds.

The 2021 movie The Dig was about the discovery of the extraordinary Sutton Hoo treasure, and was based on the historical novel by John Preston. Tranmer House, home of Edith Pretty, was where the Anglo-Saxon hoard was unearthed by Basil Brown who was employed by Mrs Pretty to do some digging. What was dug up is considered one of the most important archaeological finds of all time. She gifted the treasure to the British Museum which is where it is held today. We will look at the Sutton Hoo exhibition at Tranmer House and then visit the site of the ship burial which held decorated helmets, jewellery, silverware, high-status artifacts and military equipment. Thanks to the highly acidic soil, items made from metal had survived in remarkable condition.

We then make our way back to Bury St Edmunds. (Overnight Bury St Edmunds) BL

Day 16: Wednesday 23 June, Bury St Edmunds – Lavenham – Sudbury – Cavendish- Bury St Edmunds

• Walking tour of Lavenham, including the Guildhall of Corpus Christi
• Walking tour of Sudbury
• Gainsborough’s House and Museum, Sudbury
• Melford Hall
• Village of Cavendish

The fabulous historic town of Lavenham in Suffolk gained wealth from the wool trade and in the Middle Ages was among the twenty richest settlements in England. It also has interesting literary associations. Poet Jane Taylor lived in Shilling Street and it is thought that that is where she wrote a poem called The Star from which the lyrics of nursery rhyme Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star are taken, while the wonderful Crooked House in the High Street probably inspired the rhyme There was a Crooked Man. Crime writer J.R.L. Anderson has his Chief Constable visit Lavenham in A Sprig of Sea Lavender, poet Sir Stephen Spender owned a house there, and De Vere House, one of the picturesque old houses of the town, was used as Harry Potter’s childhood home in the film versions of J.K. Rowling’s novels. Lavenham itself is portrayed as the village of Godric’s Hollow in the movie versions.

After a guided stroll around the quaint streets, then a coffee break, we will visit the Guildhall, dating from 1529, and used as a location in the film Barry Lyndon.

Novelist Dodie Smith set her children’s classic 101 Dalmatians in the town of Sudbury. It was an important wool town in the Middle Ages and has many half-timbered houses and ancient churches. Opposite the Town Hall is a water trough marking the place where Pongo pauses to listen for the lost puppies: “Just before midnight they came to the market town of Sudbury. Pongo paused as they crossed the bridge over the River Stour. ‘Here we enter Suffolk’, he said triumphantly.”

After a short stroll around the town, we visit the home of Sudbury’s most notable resident, Thomas Gainsborough. He was born in what is now a Grade I listed house and it has been turned into an excellent museum dedicated to his life and career as a painter, which opened to the public in 1961. Young Thomas was one of nine children, and he left Sudbury as a teenager to pursue a career in art. Gainsborough was the first important British artist to paint landscapes, then considered a rather lowly branch of art. But he found portraiture more lucrative and when he returned to Sudbury in 1749, after getting married, he painted the portraits of various local worthies. His landscapes of the time were inspired by the Suffolk countryside. But soon he moved to Bath where his talents were more appreciated and from that time his career flourished.

In the late afternoon we stop off at Melford Hall. This National Trust property dates from the 16^th century and in the late 18^th century came into the ownership of the Hyde Parker family, who still live in one wing of the house today. They were related to Beatrix Potter and ‘Cousin Beattie’, as they called her, often visited, always staying in the west bedroom. The Hyde Parker children delighted in her visits, as she brought with her quite a menagerie, and they loved watching her draw different parts of the house. She even gifted the children with a model for Jemima Puddle-Duck after writing that tale and using the model for her illustrations. It is on display at Melford today.

We return to Bury St Edmund via the delightful Suffolk village of Cavendish. It is almost certainly the birthplace of 16^th century writer George Cavendish who wrote an important biography of Cardinal Wolsey. His father owned the local manor house. (Overnight Bury St Edmunds) B

Day 17: Thursday 24 June, Bury St Edmunds – Ipswich – Flatford – East Bergholt – Bury St Edmunds

• Christchurch Mansion
• John Constable Tour, including Flatford and East Bergholt
• Farewell Dinner at the Athenaeum

Today is an ‘art’ day with some fabulous visits to places immortalised in paintings, and viewings of great pictures.

Christchurch Mansion is a Tudor brick house in Ipswich. The rooms are set out as past inhabitants would have known them, and a truly excellent collection of art works is on display. One of the treasures is Lady Drury’s Closet, a set of 17^th century wooden panels with fascinating emblems (the Drury family was patron to poet John Donne). And there are paintings and sketches by Constable and Gainsborough – the biggest collection of their works outside London!

We then head to the heart of ‘Constable Country’, Dedham Vale at East Bergholt. After lunch in the tearoom, we’ll take a walk to see buildings and scenes so familiar from John Constable’s art – Flatford Mill (once owned by the artist’s father) Willy Lott’s Cottage, and the River Stour which features in ‘The Hay Wain’. “Painting”, Constable once stated, “is but another word for feeling” and he was always happy when painting the scenes of his childhood. Today this is all an official ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’.

We then return to Bury St Edmunds. Our Farewell Dinner for the tour will be enjoyed at The Athenauem locate next to our hotel. (Overnight Bury St Edmunds) BLD

Day 18: Friday 25 June, Bury St Edmunds – Finchingfield – Witham – London Heathrow

• Village of Finchingfield, including the churchyard
• Witham Library
• Witham Village Tour and Light Lunch

The enchanting little village of Finchingfield in North Essex seems to have everything an English village ought to have – a duck pond, a mention in the Domesday Book, a pretty church, thatched cottages, a local manor house, quaint pubs and a village green. It has, with justification, been called “the prettiest village in England”. Author Dodie Smith lived on the edge of the village in a cottage she purchased in 1934 and, when she died in 1990, she was buried in Finchingfield. Her novel I Capture the Castle has been voted ‘one of the nation’s 100 best-loved novels’ and 101 Dalmatians has enchanted generations of children. We will visit her grave in the churchyard and have time for a stroll around the village.

We began the tour with crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers, one of the ‘Golden Age’ writers of detective fiction, so it seems appropriate to end with her too. Sayers is a more erudite writer than Agatha Christie, and (in my view) much more fun than Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham. Her Lord Peter Wimsey books have been filmed, recorded on audio, and been much written about by scholars of detective fiction. They have never been out of print. Sayers spent much of her life in London, but eventually purchase a home in the Essex village of Witham. Today a fabulous statue, also featuring her cat Blitz (rescued from a London bomb site), stands in the town square. The Witham Library has an excellent Sayers collection and also archives for the Dorothy L. Sayers Society. We will be joined by Seona Ford, Chair of the Society, who will guide us around the village in the footsteps of this great mystery writer. Seona will also treat us to lunch in her home and share with us some of the DLS items in her personal collection.

Sadly, it is then time to make our way to Heathrow Airport and bring our literary explorations to an end. We will arrive at Heathrow at 1800hrs. BL