Literary Sussex 

More photos   

Rudyard Kipling's Sussex

• Rudyard Kipling is still one of England's favourite authors (although his name has been somewhat muddied with imperialist and racist overtones in recent years). He adored Sussex and much of his later work was set here in the same way that his earlier was characterised by his time in India; some have argued his poem "Sussex" is the best thing written about the county.Kipling moved to Rottingdean in 1897 and although his old home, The Elms, on the village green, is privately owned now, there is a reconstruction of his study at The Grange nearby complete with life size model of the man himself. He soon began to become irritated by the lack of privacy - the peering eyes and wagging tongues that would come from Brighton and beyond to star spot - so in 1902 he moved up country to what was to become he main residence until his death in 1936, Bateman's.
• The Bloomsbury Connection
• This particular part of the Sussex countryside was also the playground of the artistic and intellectual Bloomsbury Group, which included Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard and E.M. Forster among others, and there are scattered legacies from the half-century or so they spent here. Charleston Farmhouse, the home of artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, was the main focal point for the Bloomsbury Group, but Virginia Woolfe's own home, Monk's House in Rodmell is also close by as is the church at Berwick which was painted inside by the artists.
• A.A. Milne and Winnie-the-Pooh Country
• On the borders of East and West Sussex, about half an hour north of Brighton, lies the village of Hartfield. It was to here that A.A. Milne and his family moved in 1925 and the area around became the inspiration and stage for the well-loved and world famous Winnie-the-Pooh stories.The young Christopher Robin, who was just four and a half when they first moved here, used to play games in and around Ashdown Forest and would then relate his adventures to his nanny, who would often go with him into the woods. These then passed from nanny to mother and so to Mr. Milne himself who kindly created Pooh.It was these special places, where Christopher played that became the Enchanted Places and it is possible to visit these, the very same places that started the whole Pooh ball rolling, all around Hartfield in Ashdown Forest.There are good walks in the area that take in the forest, Pooh Bridge, the Enchanted Places, Hundred Aker Wood and some of the surrounding countryside. The Pathfinder guide to the area has a lovely circular walk.The shop where Christopher Robin and his nanny used to visit to buy sweets is also still in Hartfield Village, now called Pooh Corner, and stocking the world's largest collection of Pooh related goodies.

List your business for free on totaltravel.com.

Brighton & Hove Travel Guide