A book lover’s break on the south coast

If you love books, a visit to the south coast can feel like finding old friends. Here, you can walk among William Blake’s green and pleasant land, gaze at the sights that excited Jane Austen, and even embark on a pilgrimage to a favourite character’s birthplace.

From sightseeing to book shopping, our corner of the world is alive with literature, with so many ways to make connections with the written word.

Jane Austen spent much of her early life in Hampshire, living in Steventon and later Chawton. The natural surroundings of these areas clearly influenced her writing, with images of the south coast flowing through some of her most popular works. In Sense and Sensibility, Sussex is the site of the Dashwoods’ beloved home, Norland Park. And who could forget the infamous Box Hill picnic in Emma?

Though Norland Park is fictional, it was undoubtedly inspired by other majestic estates in and around Austen’s sphere. If you’d like to capture that same period elegance, we recommend a day trip to the neo-classical Mottisfont, near Romsey, or Uppark House and Garden, which reopens in summer 2025. And of course, you can also visit the home in which it all happened: Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, where she wrote and edited her six published novels.

Although her works are full of green-field countryside scenes, Austen herself was a huge fan of the coast and extolled the benefits of sea air and cold-water bathing. In Sanditon (which she left sadly unfinished), she wrote: “Nobody could catch cold by the sea; nobody wanted appetite by the sea; nobody wanted spirits; nobody wanted strength. Sea air was healing, softening, relaxing – fortifying and bracing – seemingly just as was wanted – sometimes one, sometimes the other.”

If you’d like to evoke this feeling for yourself, you’ll find ample opportunity. Hampshire has many beaches from which to take a dip, including Southsea, Stokes Bay and Calshot Beach. Further afield, West Sussex, East Sussex and the Isle of Wight are all edged by long beaches and sheltered shingle coves.

For many of us, fresh ideas are born from being outside: walking, striding, sitting, or watching the natural world go by. Epic landscapes inspire great thoughts, while smaller details of life also have the power to captivate. It’s no surprise, then, that the splendour of the south coast has drawn many of Britain’s best known and most celebrated writers.

Emerging in the early 18th century, the Romantic movement celebrated nature in all its wonder: as a source of emotion, inspiration and beauty. The famous Romantic poets William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Alfred, Lord Tennyson all have roots in West Sussex.

Blake first visited Felpham in early 1800, while suffering from depression, but was so charmed by the area that he chose to move there with his wife, Catherine. It was his time here, living in their 17^th century cottage, that influenced the poet and artist to write some of his most famous words: ‘And did those feet in ancient time’ (best known now as ‘Jerusalem’). In a letter to a friend, he described Felpham as “the sweetest spot on Earth”. Today, the cottage is undergoing restoration, but is occasionally available to visit on open days.

Blake’s fellow Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, was born in Warnham, Horsham, in 1792. Here he spent his childhood years, enjoying his father’s estates, learning to sail at the local ponds and studying at St Margaret’s Church. If you’d like to learn more about his time in Warnham, the Horsham Museum & Art Gallery has created a 10km Shelley Bicycle Trail. If you prefer to set out on foot, you could choose to follow the West Sussex Literary Trail, which links Horsham with Chichester Cathedral, taking in sites with special connections not only to Shelley, but also to Blake, Hilaire Belloc, John Galsworthy and John Keats.

The Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson was also greatly influenced by Romanticism. Tennyson loved the Black Downs and it was this devotion that prompted sculptor Graeme Mitcheson to create a sandstone sculpture inscribed with his words at the Temple of the Winds. To discover it for yourselves, follow the National Trust’s two-mile dog-friendly trail.

The enduring beauty of this landscape has passed from pen to pen (or quill to keys), through the generations. Today, writers and novelists continue to find inspiration on the south coast.

Set in the 1800s, Philippa Gregory’s Wideacre trilogy centres on its heroine Beatrice Lacey’s deep love for her family estate on the South Downs. The fictional base of Wideacre Hall was inspired by the time Gregory spent living near the Tudor ruins of Cowdray House in West Sussex. If you’re a fan of the novels, and would like to step into the footsteps of both writer and muse, it’s easier than you might think: the “modern day” Cowdray House, built after the loss of its predecessor in a fire, is available for stays as part of our collection.

Gregory isn’t the only one to find gems of genius among our sandy beaches and chalk cliffs. Jane Rusbridge’s novel Rook conjures up images of the West Sussex coast and the quiet village of Bosham. Helen Simonson’s The Summer Before the War takes us back to an East Sussex of 1914, when the glorious weather and beautiful landscape combine to distract from looming tensions overseas. And, in Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the action takes us to a picturesque childhood home in rural Surrey.

Reading and relaxation go hand in hand, making any getaway a prime opportunity to settle down with a good book. If you'd like to extend your collection, or pick up a holiday read, the south coast has some fantastic independent and second-hand bookshops.

The evocatively named Much Ado Books in Alfriston, East Sussex, sells both new and “pre-read” works, as well as stationery and vintage-inspired craft materials. In West Sussex, The Steyning Bookshop and Kim’s Bookshop (in Arundel) act as local hubs for literature-lovers. Surrey has The Haslemere Bookshop, while Brighton boasts Goldsboro Books: a must-visit destination if you’re hoping to pick up a rare first edition.

With boltholes around the south coast, from East Sussex to the Isle of Wight, we can provide the perfect base for a thoroughly bookish break. Search our properties to find what you’re looking for, or contact us to explore options for a bespoke itinerary.