Literary Rye

E F Benson lived at Lamb House, after Henry James.  E F Benson wrote Mapp & Lucia series, based in Tillingham (Rye) and the books have been serialised on BBC. 

See  E F Benson to find out more about his books and Rye Walks.  Mapp And Lucia Collection - The Complete 1st & 2nd Series [1985]

John Ryan was the creator of the famous 'Captain Pugwash' series lived in Rye.  John's first Captain Pugwash title was published in 1957. See John Ryan to read about the famous Pugwash books.

Visit Batemans, the wonderful Jacobean home of Rudyard Kipling owned by the National Trust.  

See original illustrations of the Jungle Book, walk in the delightful gardens by the River Dudwell and see Kipling's 1928 Phantom 1 Rolls-Royce.  Find out  More on Kipling 

H G Wells lived in Space House, Sandgate from 1901 to 1909.  Wells wrote several of his best known works here, including Kipps, Tono-Bungay and Ann Veronica, and entertained many leading writers of the time, including Bernard Shaw, Henry James, Arnold Bennett and Joseph Conrad who were also regular visitors at Lamb House in Rye.

Brother of Dame Sybil Thorndike, famous for Doctor Syn - A Tale Of The Romney Marsh; (1915 version set in 1795–1805 with pirates and smuggling).  Russell Thorndyke, Dame Sybil and Noel Coward all had homes around Romney Marsh.

Jacobean playwright and solicitor , he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's. Visit Fletchers House Tea Shop in Lion Street, home of John Fletcher.  Enjoy a cream tea in the wonderful Tudor beamed building.

Rumer Godden, who died in 1998 at aged 90, was a novelist of many gifts: she could see the world through the eyes of children with a vivid and sometimes uncomfortable realism; she excelled at portraying the sensuous atmosphere and contradictions of India in the last days of the Raj; Born in Eastbourne, they lived for a while in  Lamb House in Rye, once home to Henry James

Visit Charleston, just a few miles from Rye, was the home and country meeting place of Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grants and other members of the Bloomsbury Group. See Bloomsbury Set for more