The team
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Finds
Pangbourne - a love affair with a gorilla
February 28, 2010 2:20 PM from Julia | Sharply observed human nature, elegantly and concisely expressed, the short stories in Jane Gardam's The People on Privilege Hill are a delight to read. The setting for one of them, Pangbourne, is a zoo-park (Howletts Wild Animal Park?), not mentioned by... Read more
Out of the Blue by Val Rutt
November 22, 2009 2:04 PM from Julia | Out of the Blue is a story of first love in wartime Kent. It is a fictional story, with imagined characters, but inspired by an actual event in June 1944, when a V1 flying bomb was shot down and exploded on... Read more
The Kent Factor
November 17, 2009 2:49 PM from Rob Illingworth | In Writing in Kent since 1900 an essay commissioned for the Kent Literature Festival 1986, Michael Baldwin jokes that there is a temptation to rate the "Kentishness" of fiction through "the prevalence of hop-poles, orchards and oasts...my own Kent, and... Read more
Grubby Tales from Beardy Ardagh
November 12, 2009 8:37 AM from Julia | I can't resist a mention for Philip Ardagh's Grubtown Tales: Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky, which has just won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize in the 7-14 years category. Philip Ardagh (aka Beardy Ardagh) divides his time between Tunbridge Wells and the... Read more
The Men of Kent March On
October 29, 2009 10:45 AM from Rob Illingworth | John Blanford was a soldier poet, inspired by the Kent countryside, who wrote a poem titled Penshurst. Given the themes that the Kent Reading Detectives have explored, I thought that this was another gift. Apart from the text... Read more
The Curse of Aphis Minimus
October 16, 2009 5:10 PM from Julia | Lively, witty and packed with highly relevant topical comment, despite being written 60 years ago, the novel Not on our Stars by Edward Hyams is a compelling read. The book tells the story of a young scientist, Edgar Appleton, who has... Read more
One True Crime
October 15, 2009 9:53 PM from Rob Illingworth | "-I've got a first edition of The Colossus, I said. Knicked it from Tonbridge Library...-Knick some poems for me, Maxine said. I promised I'd be in the glass case at Tunbridge Wells reference library that very evening." This is an... Read more
Why Pick Lydden?
October 15, 2009 8:54 AM from Rob Illingworth | I couldn't resist recording Honor Wyatt & George Ellidge's Why pick on us? as a find. Their son is Robert Wyatt whose music I have been listening to since my teens. At 47, George Ellidge was diagnosed with multiple... Read more
From Maidstone Prison to the Wide Sargasso Sea!
October 11, 2009 3:23 PM from Julia | An article in this week's Kent Messenger* has alerted us to evidence that a former Maidstone pub may have been the birthplace of Jean Rhys' award winning book The Wide Sargasso Sea! Jean Rhys took many years to write The Wide Sargasso Sea, which was... Read more
Dover- Life's a Beach
October 9, 2009 2:51 PM from Rob Illingworth | To my surprise, I've come across another 1st world war poet & novelist with strong Kent connections. Richard Aldington was born in Portsmouth, but spent a significant part of his youth in Dover. "I hate that town," he... Read more
The ideal home
October 5, 2009 10:45 AM from Rob Illingworth | Victor Canning was a prolific author of thrillers & humorous novels. One of the latter is Mr Finchley Takes the Road. We don't have a copy of this book in Kent Libraries & Archives, but it is available as a... Read more
The Tramping Methodist - more tramping in Kent!
October 4, 2009 8:47 AM from Julia | After a follower on the BBC Radio Kent website drew our attention to the author Sheila Kaye-Smith, another literary search was set in motion. I confess I had not heard of Kaye-Smith before, but was intrigued to find out more.... Read more
The Small Years by Frank Kendon
October 4, 2009 8:16 AM from Julia | The Small Years is a clear, straightforward, and beautifully expressed account of Frank Kendon's memories of his early childhood in rural Kent. He was born in 1893, and grew up in a school founded by his grandfather, in a small... Read more
Everyone Loves Rupert Bear!
October 3, 2009 11:52 AM from Michelle | Another Find! From our Visit Kent informers! http://www.visitkent.co.uk Rupert Bear was created in Canterbury! You can celebrate him and his literary connections by joining Rupert and his Chums in their very own museum - full of adventure and surprises! Find out about... Read more
Knole
October 3, 2009 11:45 AM from Michelle | Another Find! From our Visit Kent informers! http://www.visitkent.co.uk Knole Knole is set at the heart of a 1000 acre deer park, the only remaining medieval deer park in Kent, where Sika & Fallow deer roam freely amongst ancient oak, beech... Read more
On the write tracks in literary Kent - Day 4
October 3, 2009 11:37 AM from Michelle | On the write tracks in literary Kent Fire your imagination Day Four If you're feeling romantic head for Penshurst Place, Penshurst, one-time home of Sir Philip Sidney the charismatic Elizabethan courtier and poet. Mortally wounded in battle, he selflessly... Read more
On the write tracks in literary Kent - Day 3
October 3, 2009 11:34 AM from Michelle | On the write tracks in literary Kent Fire your imagination Come and be inspired - like so many great writers - by Kent's idyllic rural landscapes, captivating cities, castles and gardens. Day Three This morning share the elegant surrounds... Read more
On the write tracks in literary Kent - Day 2
October 3, 2009 11:32 AM from Michelle | On the write tracks in literary Kent Fire your imagination Come and be inspired - like so many great writers - by Kent's idyllic rural landscapes, captivating cities, castles and gardens. Day Two Today take a tip from Geoffrey... Read more
On the write tracks in literary Kent Day 1
October 3, 2009 11:29 AM from Michelle | On the write tracks in literary Kent Fire your imagination Come and be inspired - like so many great writers - by Kent's idyllic rural landscapes, captivating cities, castles and gardens. Day One Start you literary tour with Charles... Read more
On the write tracks in literary Kent
October 3, 2009 11:18 AM from Michelle | Hi Folks, I have been sent by our informers at Vist Kent a 4 day Kent Literary Tour. Which you can access by logging on to the Visit Kent website http://www.visitkent.co.uk/ or by following my next 4 blogs! It... Read more
A Special Thank You to Viscount De L'Isle
October 3, 2009 11:10 AM from Michelle | The Kent Reading Detective Team would like to say a special Thank You to Viscount De L'Isle, owner of Penshurst Place, for allowing us to use the beautiful Penshurst Place and Gardens for the Finale venue of the Kent Reading... Read more
Penshurst Place and Gardens Kent Finale!
October 3, 2009 11:02 AM from Michelle | The finale of the Kent Reading Detectives will be at the fantastic Penshurst Place and Gardens http://www.penshurstplace.com. Where we will be given a fantastic house tour and lecture on Penshurt's Literary connections. Penshurst Place has been acting as one our informers... Read more
Penshurst is the Place
September 29, 2009 2:27 PM from Rob Illingworth | For generations, poets have been inspired by the literary and historical legacy of Penshurst Place. Robert Southey captured the essence of this inspiration in his poem. For a Tablet at Penshurst. http://www.poetry-love-poems.com/southey/for-a-tablet-at-penshurst.php He also makes a suggestion: ...if such... Read more
From Country Pursuits to the Western Front
September 27, 2009 7:21 PM from Julia | Perhaps because the anti-war sentiments of the 'war poets' are so strong, their other writing is sometimes overlooked. I was not aware before of Siegfried Sassoon's fictionalised autobiography, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston, nor did I know that Sassoon grew... Read more
Edmund Blunden - echoes from Yalding church bells
September 27, 2009 5:14 PM from Julia | Browsing along the poetry shelves in the Centre for Kentish Studies, I found several books with poems by Edmund Blunden, who, I discovered, spent much of his childhood in the village of Yalding. Throughout his life he maintained a deep... Read more
Jane Austen walk
September 27, 2009 8:45 AM from Ruth Harrison | A circular walk in Tonbridge explores the family links to Jane Austen.... Read more
John Knatchbull from Quarterdeck to Gallows
September 24, 2009 7:34 PM from Lesley | by Colin Roderick includes the narrative written by John Knatchbull himself in 1844 in the condemned cell during the last few weeks of his life. Born in 1787 in Provender, John Knatchbull was the 3rd son of Sir Edward Knatchbull... Read more
Catherine Aird
September 24, 2009 5:22 PM from Heather | CATHERINE AIRD is the author of more than twenty crime novels and short story collections, most of which feature Detective Chief Inspector CD Sloan. She holds an honorary MA from the University of Kent and was made an MBE. Her... Read more
More from the tramps .....
September 23, 2009 3:53 PM from Julia | By complete surprise, One Green Field by Edward Thomas dropped out of my newspaper on Saturday. I found this a delight to read, and definitely a find for me, as I had not read any of Thomas's prose before. It is an acutely... Read more
Cumbria Find with a Kent Connection - Deborah in Langdale Find!
September 23, 2009 2:30 PM from Robert | The Cumbria team has found a book with a Folkestone connection. The following is the blog Cumbria put on. This fictional story of two sisters, Deborah and Enid Machell, was written by E. M. Ward and published in 1933. The story... Read more
Van Gogh in Ramsgate?
September 23, 2009 2:14 PM from Robert | Hi Folks below is an excerpt from the website www.churchillhouse.com about Van Gogh links to Kent. ...Did you know that Vincent Van Gogh painted our language school, Churchill House? To be perfectly correct, he didn't paint it - he sketched... Read more
Tissot A Passing Storm c1876
September 23, 2009 2:09 PM from Robert | A fantastic book celebration the artist Tissot and his Kent connections is by Christopher Wood called 'Tissot'. Pg 88 and 89 highlight the paintings ' A Passing Storm' and 'Room Overlooking the Harbour' both which have a fantastic view of... Read more
The Downfall of a Reading Detective
September 22, 2009 8:31 PM from Rob Illingworth | To the memory of Mrs Lefroy was the title of a poem by Jane Austen, who became one of the most celebrated authors of all time. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-memory-of-mrs-lefroy-who-died-dec-r-16-my/ It is also the title of a poem by Samuel Egerton... Read more
Male Georgian/Regency authors
September 22, 2009 5:07 PM from Michelle | Hi Super Sleuths, Here is a FIND! Regency and Georgian Literature with a Kent Connection which Rob Illingworth has dug up. They tie in nicely with our Jane Austen heritage link. Male Georgian/Regency authors whose writings are... Read more
Bluestocking writers
September 22, 2009 5:02 PM from Michelle | Hi Super Sleuths, Here is a FIND! Regency and Georgian Literature with a Kent Connection which Rob Illingworth has dug up. They tie in nicely with our Jane Austen heritage link. "Bluestocking" writers with strong Kent connections:... Read more
Vicesimus Knox
September 22, 2009 4:57 PM from Michelle | Hi Super Sleuths, Here is a FIND! Regency and Georgian Literature with a Kent Connection which Rob Illingworth has dug up. They tie in nicely with our Jane Austen heritage link. Vicesimus Knox: A headmaster of Tonbridge... Read more
The Knatchbull/ Knatchbull-Hugesson family
September 22, 2009 4:55 PM from Michelle | Hi Super Sleuths, Here is a FIND! Regency and Georgian Literature with a Kent Connection which Rob Illingworth has dug up. They tie in nicely with our Jane Austen heritage link. The Knatchbull/ Knatchbull-Hugesson family- There is... Read more
Anne Lefroy- Friend & Mentor to Jane Austen
September 22, 2009 4:50 PM from Michelle | Hi Super Sleuths, Here is a FIND! Regency and Georgian Literature with a Kent Connection which Rob Illingworth has dug up. They tie in nicely with our Jane Austen heritage link. Anne Lefroy nee Brydges- friend &... Read more
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
September 22, 2009 4:29 PM from Michelle | Hi Reading Detectives, Another Kent Find sent in by Penshurst Place and Gardens http://www.penshurstplace.com/ The following is an excerpt from the author Margaret Wilson about the Penshurst literary connections to Kent. Another writer who had personal experience... Read more
Humphrey Davy - Scientific Experiments and Poetry?
September 22, 2009 4:22 PM from Michelle | Hi Reading Detectives, Another Kent Find sent in by Penshurst Place and Gardens http://www.penshurstplace.com/ The following is an excerpt from the author Margaret Wilson about the Penshurst literary connections to Kent. A rather surprising poem in 1811 was... Read more
Charlotte Smith and Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges - Sonnets
September 22, 2009 4:18 PM from Michelle | Hi Reading Detectives, Another Kent Find sent in by Penshurst Place and Gardens http://www.penshurstplace.com/ The following is an excerpt from the author Margaret Wilson about the Penshurst literary connections to Kent. In the late 18th century Charlotte Smith, the... Read more
Sir Philip Sidney - Penshurst and Poetry
September 22, 2009 4:06 PM from Michelle | Hi Reading Detectives, Another Kent Find! Sent in by Penshurst Place and Gardens http://www.penshurstplace.com/ The following is an excerpt from the author Margaret Wilson about the Penshurst literary connections to Kent. William Cowper in 'The Task' (1785) mentions... Read more
Penshurst and Poetry
September 22, 2009 3:20 PM from Michelle | I have been contacted by Penshurst Place and Gardens about the fantastic literary connections they have to Kent http://www.penshurstplace.com/ . The following is an excerpt of what I was emailed and is by the author Margaret Wilson. Penhurset and poetry Penshurst has always inspired poets. Poems... Read more
Crackers for Christmas
September 22, 2009 12:19 PM from Michelle | Yesterday at our Kent Reading Detective's meeting at the Centre for Kentish Studies, team member Rob Illingworth highlighted a find by a relation of Jane Austen. The Right Hon. E.H Knatchbull Hugessen (Lord Brabourne) the book is called 'Crackers for... Read more
Fanny and Eva's Diaries
September 22, 2009 12:12 PM from Michelle | While we visited the Centre for Kentish Studies yesterday we were able to look at Fanny Knight and Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen's diaries. This gave us a fantastic insight into their daily lives and the times they lived in. Some entries like the... Read more
S. M Andrews
September 22, 2009 12:10 PM from Michelle | Here is another Find! we found at the Centre for Kentish Studies at our Reading Detective meeting yesterday! 'Jane Austen some aspects of her work together with Tonbridge connections' by S. M Andrews more great information on Jane's connections to... Read more
A Kent Girl-Graduate
September 22, 2009 12:06 PM from Michelle | Another one of Tonbridge author Margaret Wilson's books this one is about the life of Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen the great-great niece of Jane Austen.... Read more
Almost another Sister
September 22, 2009 12:03 PM from Michelle | 'Almost another Sister' is by Margaret Wilson who is a Tonbridge resident and the book celebrates Jane Austen and her relationship with her niece Fanny. We hope to invite her to our Kent Reading Detectives Finale to find out her inspiration... Read more
Margaret Wilson
September 22, 2009 11:55 AM from Michelle | Margaret Wilson is local to Tonbridge and wrote 'Jane Austen's Family and Tonbridge' which is fantastically written. We hope to invite her to our Kent Reading Detectives Finale to find out her inspiration and her writers journey.... Read more
The Portrait of Jane Austen
September 22, 2009 11:51 AM from Michelle | This is one of our finds from our visit to the Centre for Kentish Studies - Which is such an amazing place! 'The Rice Portrait of Jane Austen' by Richard James Wheeler. We had the author's son visit our first... Read more
Jane Austen letters to Fanny Knight!
September 22, 2009 11:43 AM from Michelle | Dear Reading Detectives, We had the most fantastic Reading Detective meeting yesterday, we had the opportunity to see the letters that the Centre for Kentish Studies holds from Jane Austen to her favourite niece Fanny Knight. Allison Cresswell and Rob Illingworth... Read more
Marcus Crouch
September 22, 2009 11:35 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had an email from one of our supporters Chris Bull who has given us a fantastic Find! He also points us in the direction of where to get clues. Happy Reading! ... Read more
Printing Press
September 22, 2009 11:33 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had an email from one of our supporters Chris Bull who has given us a fantastic Find! Happy Reading! Dear Michelle, Robert Pocock (1760 - 1830) First history of... Read more
Local Historians
September 22, 2009 11:31 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had an email from one of our supporters Chris Bull who has given us a fantastic Find! Happy Reading! Dear Michelle, Many local historians with published works - in... Read more
Shipping on the Thames
September 22, 2009 11:29 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had an email from one of our supporters Chris Bull who has given us a fantastic Find! Happy Reading! Dear Michelle, Frank C Bowen - died c 1959. Lived... Read more
Billy Bunter and The Magnet Comic!
September 22, 2009 11:27 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had an email from one of our supporters Chris Bull who has given us a fantastic Find! Happy Reading! Dear Michelle, Frank Richards (1876 - 1961): a massive writer... Read more
Michael Baldwin
September 22, 2009 11:24 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had an email from one of our supporters Chris Bull who has given us a fantastic Find! Happy Reading! Dear Michelle, Local Author Michael Baldwin some of his... Read more
Kentish Crime Writer
September 22, 2009 11:16 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had an email from one of our supporters Chris Bull who has given us a fantastic Find! Happy Reading! Dear Michelle, Michael Gilbert - crime writer who lived... Read more
Ghost Story....
September 22, 2009 11:10 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had an email from one of our supporters Chris Bull who has given us a fantastic Find! I like the sound of this one! Happy Reading! Dear Michelle, Montague Rhodes... Read more
Kent Finds!
September 22, 2009 11:06 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had a email one of our supporters Chris Bull who has given us a fantastic Find! Happy Reading! Dear Michelle, Alex John Philip (1879 - 1955) - Borough Librarian at Gravesend 1903-1946, he... Read more
Kent Clues!
September 22, 2009 11:03 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had a email of Kentish 'Clues' from Chris Bull who has given us some fantastic Finds of Kentish Authors. Happy Reading! Dear Michelle, Ron Hull - Northfleet poet, 3... Read more
Sketches By Boz - We must leave town!
September 14, 2009 10:13 PM from Robert | A few years ago I visited the Dickens House in London and bought an original copy of Lloyd's Sixpenny Dickens 'Sketches By Boz' that they happened to be selling. At the time I thought what a FIND! There is several mentions... Read more
If You're Going to Snodland...
September 11, 2009 10:36 AM from Rob Illingworth | In sleuthing for literary connections to the Tonbridge & Malling district of Kent, we have made an unlikely find. The poet Thom Gunn was born in Gravesend, Kent, but he lived in California for over 40 years. Understandably, he is... Read more
The Kent Tramp Trail
September 10, 2009 1:30 PM from Rob Illingworth | Rupert Croft-Cooke's Tonbridge autobiography, The Altar in the Loft, led me on a trail of detection. He mentions an encounter with the writer Bart Kennedy, "a burly man with a deep voice and the unkempt look considered proper for writers... Read more
The Altar in the Loft
September 2, 2009 12:21 PM from Rob Illingworth | All the local history collections in Kent Libraries & Archives include fictional works. This could be fiction written by authors with local connections, or fiction that evokes local places. Often, the fiction sections of the local history collections are overlooked. So, for me, Reading Detectives... Read more
Regency and Georgian Literature with a Kent Connection
August 27, 2009 3:35 PM from Michelle | Hi Super Sleuths, Here is a FIND! Regency and Georgian Literature with a Kent Connection which Rob Illingworth has dug up. They tie in nicely with our Jane Austen heritage link. Sir (Samuel) Egerton Brydges- S.E. Brydges bought & rebuilt... Read more
Jane Austen and Godmersham by The Rev. S. Graham Brade-Birks
August 27, 2009 2:36 PM from Michelle | Hi Folks, A Find! I'm currently reading a little slip of a book which is a little gem of information on Jane Austen and her connections to Godmersham in Kent. The information that is in the 13 pages of the... Read more
Kent Clues!
August 20, 2009 10:14 AM from Michelle | Hello Kent Reading Detectives, I have had a email of Kentish 'Clues' from Chris Bull who has given us some fantastic suggestions for Kentish Authors we might like to look at. Happy Reading! Dear Michelle, ... Read more
My books
August 20, 2009 9:07 AM from Vivian Branson | The Longest Journey by EM Forster was the first one I read and after being immersed in Jane Austen for three months this was completely different. Really depressing but I couldn't put it down. I would like to have the... Read more
Finds
- Pangbourne - a love affair with a gorilla
- Out of the Blue by Val Rutt
- The Kent Factor
- Grubby Tales from Beardy Ardagh
- The Men of Kent March On
- The Curse of Aphis Minimus
- One True Crime
- Why Pick Lydden?
- From Maidstone Prison to the Wide Sargasso Sea!
- Dover- Life's a Beach
- The ideal home
- The Tramping Methodist - more tramping in Kent!
- The Small Years by Frank Kendon
- Everyone Loves Rupert Bear!
- Knole
- On the write tracks in literary Kent - Day 4
- On the write tracks in literary Kent - Day 3
- On the write tracks in literary Kent - Day 2
- On the write tracks in literary Kent Day 1
- On the write tracks in literary Kent
- A Special Thank You to Viscount De L'Isle
- Penshurst Place and Gardens Kent Finale!
- Penshurst is the Place
- From Country Pursuits to the Western Front
- Edmund Blunden - echoes from Yalding church bells
- Jane Austen walk
- John Knatchbull from Quarterdeck to Gallows
- Catherine Aird
- More from the tramps .....
- Cumbria Find with a Kent Connection - Deborah in Langdale Find!
- Van Gogh in Ramsgate?
- Tissot A Passing Storm c1876
- The Downfall of a Reading Detective
- Male Georgian/Regency authors
- Bluestocking writers
- Vicesimus Knox
- The Knatchbull/ Knatchbull-Hugesson family
- Anne Lefroy- Friend & Mentor to Jane Austen
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Humphrey Davy - Scientific Experiments and Poetry?
- Charlotte Smith and Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges - Sonnets
- Sir Philip Sidney - Penshurst and Poetry
- Penshurst and Poetry
- Crackers for Christmas
- Fanny and Eva's Diaries
- S. M Andrews
- A Kent Girl-Graduate
- Almost another Sister
- Margaret Wilson
- The Portrait of Jane Austen
- Jane Austen letters to Fanny Knight!
- Marcus Crouch
- Printing Press
- Local Historians
- Shipping on the Thames
- Billy Bunter and The Magnet Comic!
- Michael Baldwin
- Kentish Crime Writer
- Ghost Story....
- Kent Finds!
- Kent Clues!
- Sketches By Boz - We must leave town!
- If You're Going to Snodland...
- The Kent Tramp Trail
- The Altar in the Loft
- Regency and Georgian Literature with a Kent Connection
- Jane Austen and Godmersham by The Rev. S. Graham Brade-Birks
- Kent Clues!
- My books
Help the team
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