Literary Yorkshire

Classic Authors and Poets | Fiction Authors | Playwrights | Literary Itineraries

Lovers of the written and spoken word will be tempted to indulge their interest with a visit to Yorkshire to follow the footsteps of their favourite authors and poets.

Yorkshire is home to many personalities, from poets to authors and actors to sportsmen.  Making it very popular with you the visitor! 

Classic Authors and Poets

The Brönte Sisters – Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brönte are known world wide due to their passionate literary classics.  Born in Thornton, Bradford, then later moving to Haworth, it was here that the majority of their work was written, inspired by the surrounding landscapes. 

Books to read: Wuthering Heights, Jayne Eyre, Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Shirley and Villette.

Related places to visit: Brönte Parsonage Museum , Red House Museum, Oakwell Hall Country Park & Dewsbury Minster

Andrew Marvell – From Winstead, near Hull, is said to be one of the 17th century’s great metaphysical poets.  His best known piece of work being the poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’.

Bram Stoker – the author of the Victorian classic Dracula was inspired greatly by Whitby, although Bram Stoker himself was not from Yorkshire.

Fiction Authors

Alf Wight (James Herriot) – born in Sunderland in 1916 and moving to Thirsk in 1940, Alf worked as a vet for 30 years before writing his famous books under his pen name James Herriot.

Books to read: Vets in a Spin, Vets Might Fly, All Creatures Great and Small and All Things Bright and Beautiful.

Related places to visit: World of James Herriot.

Joanne Harris - born in Barnsley in 1964 and now living in Huddersfield, Joanne was a teacher for 15 years during which time she published 3 novels including Chocolat (1999) which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

Books to read: Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, Coastliners, Holy Fools, and Gentlemen and Players

Playwrights

Alan Ayckbourn is one of the most prolific and widely performed of English language playwrights and a highly regarded theatre director. He is the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough where he premieres the majority of his work - predominantly in the world-famous Round auditorium.

Go and see: Relatively Speaking, Bedroom Farce, How The Other Half Loves and Intimate Exchanges.

Alan Bennett was born in Leeds and went to Oxford and became part of the university review 'Beyond the Fringe', produced for the Edinburgh Festival of 1960. Renowned dramatist and actor.

Main Works: Beyond the Fringe, Forty Years On, Getting On, Talking Heads, A Private Function, The Madness of George III, The Wind in the Willows (adaptation).

Literary Itineraries

Why not gather a group of like-minded friends, family or co-workers from your book club, with a visit to Yorkshire?  Be inspired by our literary itinerary with a visit to the sites that inspired your favourite Yorkshire writer.

Day One

West Yorkshire

Take a trip to Haworth where you can walk in the foot steps of the Brönte Sisters. An October visit works well, when with no leaves on the trees, a gale howling in from across the moors and the rooks making quite a din in the churchyard, you begin to understand what life was really like for the three talented sisters during the autumn and winter each year.  No trip to Haworth is complete without a visit to the Brönte Parsonage. Found out all about the sisters and how they lived and see examples of the world famous little books and the writing desks belonging to Charlotte, Emily and Anne. 

Spend the afternoon at Oakwell Hall Country Park ('Fieldhead' in Shirley), or Red House Museum ('Briarmains' in Charlotte's novel Shirley). There are exhibitions at both which record the Brönte connections and include letters written by Charlotte to her friends.

Stay overnight at Healds Hall Hotel in Liversedge once home of Reverend Roberson the Rector ('Mr Helstone' in Shirley).

Day Two

North Yorkshire

Head for North Yorkshire today with a visit to Whitby Abbey where Bram Stoker described how the atmospheric ruins inspired and were later included in horror classic Dracula.  Why not join Harry Collett, the Man in Black for a 70 minute ghost tour around Whitby? Starting at the Whale Bones usually at 8pm (only costs £4 for adults/£2 for children) Tel: 01947 821734.

 

After lunch head for the town of Thirsk which was the backdrop of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small. As you walk across the cobbled market place, wander through the alleyways and browse in the many shops you can soak up the atmosphere of the town Alf Wight knew as home and James Herriot called Darrowby.  Enjoy a tour of Skeldale House (World of James Herriot) the original Grade two listed house where the James Herriot stories were born.