Local chapters – A dozen writers with Suffolk and Essex connections
Discover the literary connections of Suffolk and Essex through renowned authors like Nicci French, Ruth Rendell, P D James, and Hammond Innes. Explore their captivating stories!
Essex born Ruth Barbara Rendell, or Baroness Rendell of Babergh, as she was later honoured, was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. She is perhaps best known for creating the Inspector Wexford crime novels (later turned into a popular TV series) while a second string of works was a series of unrelated crime stories that explored the psychological background of criminals and their victims. This theme was developed further in a third series of novels, published under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. She had homes in Polstead and Groton . . . and denied that the former village was chosen due to the infamous murder there of Maria Marten in the Red Barn. Rendell sold an estimated 20 million copies of her novels.
P D James
If Rendell is most linked with Inspector Wexford, P D James made her name with a series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh. At the time of her death in 2014 she was planning another Dalgliesh story set in her home town of Southwold. She also owned properties in Oxford and London.
Nicci French
Writing as Nicci French, journalists Nicci Gerrard and Sean French have penned 30 bestselling novels published in 31 languages. They have homes in Suffolk and London.
Their engrossing tales of crime and intrigue are often set in this region. They say: “The novel Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? is set in East Anglia (in fact our inspiration was Orford, though we changed it in the writing). Our second novel, The Safe House, was set in Suffolk; Losing You on an island that’s a fictionalised version of Mersea Island.”
Image credit John Naughton
Hammond Innes
Former journalist Innes served in the Royal Artillery, rising to the rank of Major. His first hand experience of conflict, allied to his extensive travels across the world, shaped his adventures which were often set on the high seas, the Arctic or deserts. His home in Kersey was probably a haven of peace far removed from his global, action-packed thrillers. In 1978 Innes was appointed a CBE for his services to literature.
Ann-Marie Howell
Who knew that a West Suffolk Council employee writing local government policy documents could turn her hand to popular teen fiction and historical adventures? Bury St Edmunds-based Howell has done just that with The House of One Hundred Clocks, a tale with links to Cambridge, and The Secret of the Treasure Keepers set on a Fenland farm near Ely. More recently she has taken to the sea with Peril on the Atlantic and The Royal Jewel Plot.
Image credit Tom Soper
Catherine Horwood
Clare-based gardening and design author and social historian Horwood has written dozens of books including Potted History and Gardening Women. She has written a biography of the great plantswoman Beth Chatto. You can visit the latter’s fabulous gardens at Elmstead, Essex.
Anthony Horowitz
A writer who has had a prolific career with the adventures of teenage spy Alex Rider, interesting sidetracks into commissions to pen new Sherlock Holmes and James Bond novels, and for television, Foyle’s War, being some of the highlights. When not in London he can seek peace and inspiration from his home at Orford on the Suffolk coast.
Erica James
A successful writer of romantic novels though James would prefer to be seen as just a storyteller. With over 20 novels behind her, and a keen following ready to lap up her next lovingly constructed plot, she has achieved much and – after living in various corners of England and Europe – feels perfectly domiciled in West Suffolk.
Her book Coming Home to Island House is set in Suffolk just before the outbreak of World War II.
Formerly of Wormingford, on the Suffolk/Essex border, Blythe was a writer and essayist best known for his book Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, a fictionalised account of life in a Suffolk village from 1880 to 1966. The book was later made into a film by Peter Hall.
Charles Dickens
Dickens had a great fondness for Suffolk. He featured the county frequently with the corrupt borough of ‘Eatanswill’ in The Pickwick Papers believed to be based on Sudbury. The Angel Hotel, Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich also feature in TPP while Blundeston and the Suffolk coast are mentioned in David Copperfield.
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Simon Edge
Edge by name and edge by profession, this writer is a master of satirical novels that have fun with history and local characters. Look out for this Long Melford based author’s amusing spins on the life of artist Thomas Gainsborough (A Right Royal Face-Off) and Edmund the Martyr (Anyone For Edmund?).
Dodie Smith
The novelist and playwright lived on the Essex/Suffolk border near Sudbury and may be best remembered for her book (and Disney classic) The Hundred and One Dalmatians.
At one point the central canine characters Pongo and Missis drink at a fountain by St Peter’s Church in Sudbury and a red bollard on the town’s walking trail commemorates Pongo with a bronze likeness.
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