The great poet, Lord Byron (1788-1824) spent his final two days in Britain before his exile on April 25th 1816. Taking a Dover packet, he made it across to Ostend. He was never to return to Britain, dying, eight years later, in what is part of modern day Greece. A Read more…
The great Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) stayed in Margate twice, in his early twenties. Both times were at crucial periods in his life. The first was in 1816, after successfully passing his apothecary’s examination at Guy’s Hospital, now part of King’s College, London. Part of the reason for going Read more…
The contemporary British novelist David Mitchell was born in 1969, in Lancashire. He attended the University of Kent, where he completed a degree in English and American literature, and then a masters. It was just after graduating that he became the fiction buyer at the newly opened Waterstones, then located Read more…
Giles Fletcher the Elder (1548-1611), and his two sons, Phineas (1582-1650) and Giles the Younger (c1586-1623) were from a highly cultured and literary family. They were related to John Fletcher, born in Rye Sussex, a playwright whose fame and success rivalled that of Shakespeare during this life time. Giles the Read more…
The poet and artist David Jones (1895-1974) was born in Brockley, and lived there on and off with his parents for a large part of his life. While not currently within the borders of Kent, Brockley belongs to the historic entity Kent. For that reason, Jones is included in this Read more…
The Victorian writer Walter Pater (1839-1894) is largely remembered today as a prose stylist. His main works, `Marius the Epicurian’ (1885) and `The Renaissance’ (1873), however, still have readers today. While born in London, and largely based their most of his life, his time as a student at King’s School, Read more…
The time that the great travel writer, soldier and scholar Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011) spent in his long life at the King’s School, Canterbury only constituted 2 years, from 1929 to 1931. His recollections of the place, almost half a century later, were relatively warm: `Copious reading about the Dark Read more…
The epic `History and Topographical Survey of Kent’ published in 12 volumes between 1778 and 1799 by the antiquarian Edward Hasted (1732-1812) remains one of the most thorough, and impressive, ever produced in any language for a specific place. The level of detail, not just from documentary study but also Read more…
The acting career of Russell Thorndike (1885-1972) was always somewhat overshadowed by that of his much more famous sister, Sybil. It was as the creator of the Doctor Syn series of novels, which appeared from 1915 to the 1940s that he enjoyed, and continues to enjoy, a cult following. Born Read more…
The poet Christopher Smart (1722-1771) lived a life of immense suffering and inner turmoil. He experienced being committed to what was termed at the time a lunatic asylum, and also a debtor’s prison. After his death, his poetry and translations were to be largely forgotten until the 20th century when, Read more…