Writers' Homes
Notes from a Place Writing Symposium in London
Have you, as a tourist, visited a writer’s home? What did you think?
The advertising blurb stated that the speakers would, ‘consider the strategies prose writers use to explore place and their relationship with the environment, both real and imagined.’ So, on Wednesday 28th May 2025, I headed out on the train to attend this one-day seminar at Senate House, University of London.
At 9am I arrived at Kings Cross station where I met a writer friend and we travelled to the venue together. Since my Place Writing started with creative non-fiction—the ‘real’, and now includes fiction—the ‘imagined’, I felt sure that the mix of sessions would benefit me, and the trip would certainly be worth the time and train fare.
Islands of Abandonment
One of the speakers advertised was Cal Flyn, author of ‘Islands of Abandonment’, a non-fiction book about the ecology and psychology of abandoned places. I have this book in my ‘to be read’ stack and I think it adds something to the pleasure of reading if you’ve met the author. And since I’ve moved to the Scottish Borders there was an extra reason to meet Cal—she lives further north, in the Scottish Highlands. I looked forward to a chat sometime during the day, over coffee perhaps.
At the door to the seminar room we were welcomed and given a revised programme. Cal Flyn’s session was cancelled! Of course, things like this occasionally happen for reasons of illness, personal emergencies, travel problems, etc, and programmes inevitably have to change to accommodate life events, but I couldn’t help being disappointed. The organisers had mended the hole in the programme and slotted in an alternative session, so we were not left sitting there for an hour twiddling our thumbs.
But, my friend and I had fifteen minutes before the meeting started, so we got a cup of tea and happily caught up on each other’s news.
Seminar Programme
Dr Joanne Reardon introduced the speakers and session titles and the seminar got underway:
Rediscovering Place with Professor Nicola Watson.
Exploring Place and Memoir with Angela Hui, Philip Seargeant, and Selina Packard.
Place in Fiction with Priscilla Morris and Freya Berry.
World Building in Genre Fiction with Samuel Sargeant and Emily Bullock.
Writing the Coast with Professor Nicola Watson, Lania Knight, Ed Hogan, and Jennie E. Owen.
Place was the linking theme for the talks which raised questions such as, ‘How is place discovered? By whom and when?’ and ‘Is place dependent on an imaginary possessiveness or ownership?’ Place Writing per se was not really discussed in terms of its status as a specific genre.
Notes and Reflections
Here are my takeaways from the day.
1. The writer’s home as visitor attraction
It used to be the case that visitors to a writer’s house or studio had read some of their work, and they would bring the phantasm of their experience with them. They could link the emotions elicited by the work and their knowledge of the author’s oeuvre with the place the author called home, and they could imagine the author creating new work there. Nowadays, however, it seems that visitors are less likely to know an author’s work. In fact, they may never even have read a single word, so curators have to find imaginative ways to communicate the work. For example, by showing books open at specific pages, transmitting extracts via audio facilities, and linking excerpts with specific items on display. In effect, the visitor isn’t necessarily a fan and has to be educated.
2. Literary Tourism
We should ask, ‘how can one specific place be representative of an author’s work?’ After all, a plethora of locations may have had relevance to an author’s life and we know that writing is an occupation that spans years, decades. And, it is evident that some places designated for visitor attention in the literary tourism industry have been manipulated, altered, to fit readers’ expectations.
One example is Juliet’s balcony in Verona, Italy; it was added to a town building in the 20th century and, of course, Romeo and Juliet are fictional characters. Nevertheless, the balcony is a busy tourist attraction. I’ve been there myself!
Another example is Philip Pullman’s depiction of Lyra’s bench in His Dark Materials trilogy. In the final chapter of the final book in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, the author describes a bench in Oxford Botanic Gardens where the characters Lyra and Will meet between their worlds. The bench in the novel is imagined, as are the characters of course, yet readers have identified a bench that fits with the described location and it, too, has become a tourist attraction.
3. Blue Plaques
It is interesting to know where an author lived and the literary tourist might notice blue plaques attached to buildings announcing the fact that a famous name ‘lived here’. These plaques give the briefest of information leaving it up to the viewer to delve further into the history of the person and place should they wish to. Plaques are usually attached to buildings that retain their historical relevance to the celebrity, thus making the connection effective between person and place. And they’re most likely to be noticed in urban centres such as London. The one I spotted in the photo above is at 29 Fitzroy Square, at a house that belonged to Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. The inscription reads: Virginia Stephen (VIRGINIA WOOLF) 1882-1941 Novelist and Critic lived here 1907-1911. Another plaque commemorates a previous tenant of the house, George Bernard Shaw.
If you’re a regular reader of Home and Place Writing please recommend it.
4. Edinburgh
Visitors to Edinburgh are keen to explore the haunts of celebrities such as Scottish poet Robert (Rabbie) Burns, and novelists Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and J.K. Rowling, and the poet Sir Walter Scott, and J.M. Barrie creator of Peter Pan. Tourists are taken on trails around the city to see buildings and venues that appear in their literature. During such tours visitors re-discover places, their first discovery having happened in the process of reading. However, it is the writer, who can be thought of as the original discoverer, having imbued specific places with meaning and woven them into their story.
Edinburgh is bristling with literary tours—I can imagine a colourful palimpsest of routes laid over a walking map of the city.
In Summary
Places, real or imagined, appear and disappear through history. But when ‘place’ appears on paper it has to work hard and do more than one thing at a time. It has complexity, just like a character in a novel. Landscapes on paper impact the psychology of the imaginary people who live there. And, ultimately, due to literary tourism, real landscapes may be altered and modified.
Credits and Links
‘Creating Worlds, real and imagined. Place Writing in creative prose’ is part of a programme of events produced by the Contemporary Cultures of Writing Research Group at the Open University.
I heard about this seminar via the Institute of English Studies—I’m on their mailing list. Anyone can attend these seminars, they’re open to the public. If London is an accessible location for you, take a look at their forthcoming events.
The Literary Tourist, written by speaker Professor Nicola Watson, is an analytical history of the rise and development of literary tourism in nineteenth-century Britain.
The Survey of London is a series of volumes documenting the buildings of London through history and can be found at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London.
Further reading: Commemorating Lord Byron on the Streets of London by Philip Sergeant and Selina Packard.
A Resource
Home and Place Writing is more than just a newsletter publication, it’s a resource. I went into the archive and found these two posts which I think you’ll enjoy.
The first, ‘Creative Writing - Doctor of Philosophy’, will give you the information you need if you’re thinking about doing a Masters or a PhD in Creative Writing. The second, ‘Ekphrasis’, will provide inspiration for your writing. If either of these posts resonate with you, the comments are still open so please add your thoughts to the discussion.
Have you, as a tourist, visited a writer’s home? What did you think?
I visited Yeats’ tower, Thoor Ballylee, last year with a large group and will return next month as part of a much more intimate historian-led tour. What struck me most were the wide windows in one room and the view from the top of the tower. I imagined how easy it would be to move between worlds in such an environment.