Lyme Lit

Why Sherlock Holmes? Why Lyme Regis?

Why not? It's a perfect location for a Holmes adventure. Simple, short answers To expand: Lyme’s literary connections are fairly well known and include Sir Francis Palgrave; GKChesterton who holidayed in the town and stayed at the Three Cups,Beatrix Potter, and JRR Tolkien who visited Lyme when a youth and later returned many times with his wife and children. PG Wodehouse set some of the plot of ,‘Love Among the Chickens’ in a thinly disguised Lyme and Geoffrey Household set a major part of his most well known novel,‘Rogue Male’ in and around Lyme Regis. John Fowles’s highly acclaimed novel, ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ was set, written and later filmed in Lyme. John Fowles was a resident of the town and
became the curator of the museum. The literary tradition of Lyme has not died away; more recently, Colin Dexter set the opening of one of his Inspector Morse novels in Lyme, having Morse as a guest in the Bay
Hotel on Marine Parade. Tracy Chevalier, the bestselling novelist, set a recent novel in the town, ‘Remarkable Creatures,’ dealing with aspects of Mary Anning’s life. This tradition shows no sign of abating. New writers pop up each year, new novels are set here each year. In ther town at the present time are the renowned writers and illustrators, Graham Oakley ( the 'Church Mice' series) and Rikey Austin. Lyme's literary heritage and splendid history is celebrated far and wide, not least by the town itself. Lyme Regis is a small town in size and in population (which has scarcely tripled in five hundred years). It has nowhere to go, but equally, nothing to prove. It is static, yet ever-changing and evolving. It lives in the present, yet rejoices in and celebrates its past.