Yorkshire bookmarked for best holidays with a literary link

The Brontës, Herriot Country and Whitby Abbey, which inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula, have helped earn Yorkshire the title of top county for holidays with a literary link.

To mark the 20th anniversary of World Book Day, VisitEngland commissioned its first ever research into literary tourism, surveying more than 1,200 people.

The results show 20% of trips taken with a literary link were to Yorkshire.

The county narrowly missed out on the top spot which went to London with 21%.

The study also revealed more than half of British holidaymakers would visit a literary attraction while on holiday in England, while one in four had visited a literary location while on holiday in the past year.

The same amount had read a book with a literary link to a place they had recently visited in the country.   

Sir Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “Yorkshire’s ever-changing scenery, dramatic landscapes and fascinating characters have all been great sources of literary inspiration, so it’s no surprise that so many people want to come and see the stunning landscapes that inspired their favourite books for themselves.”

VisitEngland director Patricia Yates said: “Books fire up our imagination, they conjure up people and places and they inspire us to explore locations and landscapes associated with our favourite stories. Our literary heroes have created a wealth of must-see literary attractions across the country, motivating generations of readers to explore and discover more of regional England.”

England is home to more than 50 literature-related attractions, spanning authors’ homes, dedicated museums and world-renowned libraries. Sites associated with luminary writers Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare were the most popular, with half of respondents expressing an interest in visiting those places.

Also high on the wish-list were locations associated with Roald Dahl, JK Rowling, Beatrix Potter, JRR Tolkien and Arthur Conan Doyle.

VisitEngland has named 2017 the ‘Year of Literary Heroes’ in recognition of this year’s milestone literary events including the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death, the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and 75 years of The Famous Five.

Top five literary locations in Yorkshire

1.    Brontë Country – Haworth
Wuthering Heights, the immortal tale that was Emily Brontë’s only novel, is set against a backdrop of the moors around Haworth. Early on, Mr Lockwood, the narrator, writes in his journal, “This is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society.” And it is surely only in such a vast natural wilderness that such a story of love and alienation, cruelty and passion could have taken place.

2.    Whitby Abbey
Whether or not you’ve read the novel itself, you are almost certainly familiar with the legend of Dracula and have seen one or more of the countless adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel. What you may not realise, though, is that the original masterpiece of terror was inspired by Yorkshire and much of the action takes place there. The ship bringing the vampire to England ran aground on the windswept North Sea coast at Whitby and the most famous vampire of all time took refuge in the beautiful and romantic ruin of Whitby Abbey.

3.    World of James Herriot
You’ve probably read the books written by James Alfred Wight or watched All Creatures Great and Small on TV. Now come and see where James Herriot, the world’s most famous vet, lived, worked and relaxed. You’ll see his home and surgery in Thirsk; travel back in time to what life was like when James was a vet in Yorkshire. See the car he drove, step into the TV set, try your hand at being a vet and even experience what it was like to hide in a Second World War air raid shelter.

4.    Harrogate
In 1926 the best-selling novelist of all time, Agatha Christie, staged a disappearance that would have put Hercule Poirot himself in a quandary. For ten days, the mistress of mystery managed to hide from the world under a false identity, leaving no clues to her whereabouts other than a letter saying she was going to Yorkshire. At last, the police discovered her in Harrogate, a spa town famous for its waters.
 
5.    The Tolkien Triangle
The Tolkien Triangle starts in Hull, where Tolkien was hospitalised twice and was visited by a Sister of Mercy who became a lifelong friend, then to Hornsea Musketry Camp, his first posting in East Yorkshire, and where Edith, his wife, took lodgings nearby. It then bears south, via Roos, to a camp called Thirtle Bridge, where the author recuperated. Edith took lodgings in nearby Withernsea. Finally, the triangle takes us further south to Easington and Kilnsea, where Tolkien was part of the Royal Defence Corps. Much of his early mythology and invented languages was written during his stay in East Yorkshire in the First World War.