With its brilliant bookshops and literary festivals, the Cotswolds is heaven for book lovers. So it’s no surprise that it’s provided inspiration for a host of writers over the years, whether that’s setting their books in the Cotswolds or taking the region’s people and places and using them to create new worlds. Here’s our pick of 10 great authors and books inspired by the Cotswolds – from memoirs to cosy crime, poetry to comedy – and how to visit the real-life locations behind them.
Laurie Lee – Cider with Rosie
One of the best-known books about the Cotswolds is Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie*, the tale of his childhood in the Slad Valley. The book is an evocative trip back to a time to the days just after the First World War, when life was lived by the seasons and the rhythms of the land.
It brings the people and landscapes of this tucked-away valley south of Stroud to life, as well as the traditional way of life before the introduction of cars and electricity changed things for good.
Laurie Lee published the book in 1959, and it was followed up by two others – As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War – about his life after leaving Slad.
Laurie Lee eventually came back to live in Slad until his death in 1997, and you can see his grave and a stained-glass window dedicated to him at Holy Trinity Church. You can also follow in his footsteps on the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way. Or have a pint in his favourite chair at the Woolpack pub.
Jane Austen – Mansfield Park
Think of Jane Austen and you probably think of Bath – she lived there from 1801–1806, set her novels Persuasion and Northanger Abbey there, and is still commemorated with an annual festival each September. But it’s not the only Cotswold location which influenced her books.
During the 1790s, Jane used to stay with her cousins the Leighs in the village of Adlestrop near Stow-on-the-Wold. It’s thought that Adlestrop Park and the Parsonage House were the inspiration for Thornton Lacey in Mansfield Park*. And the Leigh family’s inheritance dramas helped provide fuel for her stories (you can find out more in the book Jane Austen & Adlestrop*).
Adlestrop was also immortalised by war poet Edward Thomas. He wrote the poem ‘Adlestrop’ in 1917 based on a train journey which unexpectedly stopped in the village. The train station closed in the 1960s, but the old railway sign has been preserved in a bus stop in the village.
Nancy Mitford – The Pursuit of Love
The infamous Mitford sisters spent their early years in the Cotswolds, and eldest sister Nancy wrote two semi-autobiographical novels about her eccentric family. The Pursuit of Love* and its sequel Love in a Cold Climate* were inspired by her time living in Batsford and Asthall.
The Mitfords lived at Batsford Park near Moreton-in-Marsh during the First World War, and Nancy’s grandfather founded Batsford Arboretum in the grounds. Later the family moved to Asthall Manor from 1919–1926, which became Alconleigh in The Pursuit of Love. And the antics of the Mitford family and their upper-class friends became wickedly funny stories in Nancy’s books.
Asthall Manor is a private house today, but does host occasional events. The Mitfords later moved to nearby Swinbrook, and Nancy is buried in the churchyard there with three of her sisters.
JRR Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings
The Cotswolds’ hilltop follies, rolling hills and ancient forests helped JRR Tolkien conjure up the world of Middle Earth in The Lord of the Rings* trilogy. While Tolkien was an academic in Oxford, his brother lived in Evesham, so they would meet in the Cotswolds in the middle.
One of their favourite haunts was The Bell Inn in Moreton-in-Marsh, which became the inspiration for the ‘Prancing Pony’ pub in Bree in The Lord of the Rings. There’s a map of Middle Earth above the table they used to sit at, and a plaque from the Tolkien Society outside the pub.
Just outside Moreton, the Four Shire Stone is a 16th-century pillar marking the point where four counties once met, which became the Three-Farthing Stone in The Lord of the Rings. You can also visit the real-life Doors of Durin at St Edward’s Church in Stow-on-the-Wold, and find more Tolkien sites at The Rollright Stones (Barrow Downs) and Broadway Tower (Amon Hen).
JM Barrie – Peter Pan
Author of the much-loved book Peter Pan,* JM Barrie spent summers in the Cotswolds at Jacobean manor Stanway House south of Broadway. Barrie first rented Stanway House from the Earl and Countess of Wemyss for the summer in 1921, and was a frequent visitor up until 1932.
As well as using it as a place to write, he also hosted artist, writer and composer friends for summer house parties, with cricket and croquet on the lawn. Among the guests was ‘Nico’ Llewelyn Davies, who along with his brothers was the inspiration for the Lost Boys in Peter Pan.
Barrie’s cricket team the Allahakbarries has to be the most heavyweight literary team of all time, with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, AA Milne, HG Wells and PG Wodehouse among its members.
Barrie had a wooden cricket pavilion built in Stanway which you can still see today. And Stanway House is open to visitors during the summer, with a spectacular fountain in the grounds.
TS Eliot – Four Quartets
In the summer of 1934, poet TS Eliot was strolling through the countryside near Chipping Campden with his friend Emily Hale when he came across a ruined stately home. Norton House had been burned down in 1741 by owner Sir William Keyt, killing himself in the process.
Now known as Burnt Norton, the overgrown gardens inspired Eliot to write a poem of the same name, which muses on the nature of time. The poem formed the first of his Four Quartets,* about four places with special significance for him, and was first published in 1936.
The house and gardens were restored in the 1990s by the Earl and Countess of Harrowby, with the Countess writing a fictionalised story of the house’s history called Burnt Norton* under the name Caroline Sandon. It’s not normally open to the public, but you can visit Charingworth Manor where Eliot stayed while he wrote the poem, which recently reopened as luxury hotel Hyll.*
MC Beaton – Agatha Raisin
If you’re a fan of cosy crime, you’re spoilt for choice in the Cotswolds, with several amateur detectives solving murders among the rolling hills and chocolate box villages. The original was MC Beaton’s Agatha Raisin, a newly retired PR agent who moves from London to the Cotswold village of Carsley and starts a detective agency after discovering a knack for solving crimes.
Although Carsley and the neighbouring town of Mircester are fictional, many real-life Cotswold locations appear in the books, including Evesham, Cirencester and Moreton-in-Marsh. And a TV version of Agatha Raisin was filmed in the Wiltshire village of Biddestone.
There are over 30 books in the Agatha Raisin series,* starting with the wonderfully named Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death. And although MC Beaton died in 2019 at the age of 83, she started working with a friend, Rod Green, on her last books so he could take over the series.
Rebecca Tope – Cotswold Mysteries
Another author writing mystery books inspired by the Cotswolds is Rebecca Tope, with her Cotswold Mysteries series.* The books centre around recently widowed Thea Osborne, who turns investigator when her new job as a Cotswold house-sitter comes with a dead body included.
These light and easy reads follow Thea and her spaniel Hepzibah on house-sitting assignments around the Cotswolds. Each of the 21 books is set in a different real-life Cotswold village, from Duntisbourne Abbots in the first book A Cotswold Killing to Blockley (A Cotswold Mystery), Lower Slaughter (Slaughter in the Cotswolds) and Snowshill (Malice in the Cotswolds).
Alex James – All Cheeses Great and Small
Our next literary Cotswolds pick is All Cheeses Great and Small: A Life Less Blurry,* the autobiography of Alex James, bassist of 1990s indie band Blur. It tells the story of how he swapped his decadent rock and roll lifestyle for a simpler life as a cheese-maker in the Cotswolds.
James’ first book, Bit of a Blur, focused on the excesses of life on tour. But the sequel finds him married with five kids and a farmhouse in the Cotswolds. The book is full of childlike enthusiasm as he falls in love with the English countryside and turns a love of cheese into a new career.
James’ farm near Kingham is the venue for the annual Big Feastival each August, which combines his loves of food and music. The book also features Daylesford Organic – a pricey farm shop nearby – which has an impressive cheese room worth a visit if you’re a fellow cheese fan.
Jeremy Clarkson – Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm
Another celebrity-turned-Cotswold farmer is Jeremy Clarkson, whose hit Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm has spawned a series of spin-off books. The Diddly Squat series* starts with A Year on the Farm, where Clarkson soon comes to realise farming is harder than it looks.
The book takes readers though the ups and downs of farming life – from uncooperative weather and wilful animals to battles with the local planning department. And despite Clarkson’s self-professed ignorance of all things rural, with the help of his team he manages to make it work.
The farm has sparked a whole Cotswold new business empire for Clarkson – you can visit the Diddly Squat farm shop near Chipping Norton (though be prepared to queue), take a tour of his Hawkstone Brewery near Bourton-on-the-Water or visit the Farmer’s Dog pub in Asthall.
* This site contains affiliate links, where I get a small commission from purchases at no extra cost to you.
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