This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Books allow you to escape your own life, to delve into the life of another and to be elsewhere. There are some books that pull you in more than others – you just want to lift yourself up from where you’re sitting and immediately find yourself in the exact setting. It doesn’t have to be somewhere exotic either – often it is somewhere in the UK or Ireland. But the descriptions by the author have captured the warmth, excitement or taste of the place making you long to be there too.
1. The Cornish House by Liz Fenwick – I read this book after moving house last year. Even though we’d moved to a house in the wonderful Cambridgeshire countryside I immediately thought, after reading this, that we’d made a mistake and should have gone to Cornwall. OK, I’ve been to Cornwall before, but not to the place described by Liz. It is set on a peninsula in south Cornwall called The Lizard, in a place close to the Helford River. The lanes you travel on to get there, the house, the sky, it is all described so vividly and magically that I’m now googling holiday cottages. Set against this stunning backdrop the story revolves around Maddie who has inherited a house in Cornwall. Her husband has recently died, so along with her step-daughter Hannah, she uproots their London lives and tries to make the Cornish house their home.
2. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters – “Did you ever go to Whitstable, and see the oyster parlours there?” asks the narrator of Tipping the Velvet. Sarah Waters’ Victorian novel starts with a mouth-watering description of oysters and how they were prepared. I don’t even like oysters, but even so, this novel has made me want to go to Whitstable. Because Whitstable, on the Kent coastline, is famed for its oysters. The oyster bars are still there today, like this one, the oldest one there.
3. Five Run Away Together by Enid Blyton – I know this is a children’s book, but it is one of my favourites because it is set on Kirrin Island. Oh! If only Kirrin Island and Kirrin Castle were real! Well, actually they are. Corfe Castle is on the south coast. The sound of the jackdaws, the steam train pulling into the station, the crumbling castle – it’s all there, straight from the pages of the book.
4. Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy – Before Marian, before Cathy and before Cecelia there was Maeve. Light a Penny Candle was the first book I read of hers. I remember picking it up on holiday and being enthralled with the descriptions of Ireland. Since then I've had an obsession with visiting there and visiting all the places mentioned throughout her books. In the book, Elizabeth, an English girl, is evacuated from London and sent to Ireland. Where she meets and becomes firm friends with Aisling.
5. Secrets by Freya North – Set in the North-East and featuring the famous Transporter Bridge the story of Tess and Joe is set in Saltburn-by-the-Sea in North Yorkshire. Freya, handily, provides more information about Saltburn at the back of the novel – because I needed more information upon finishing. She describes Saltburn as being ‘as gritty and grimy as it is beautiful and unspoilt’. There is a cliff lift, a pier and in the distance, the ‘belching’ factories. No wonder Tess runs away there.