Shropshire - Cultural References

Cultural References

• Shropshire has been depicted and mentioned in a number of works of literature. The poet A. E. Housman used Shropshire as the setting for many of the poems in his first book, A Shropshire Lad, and many of Malcolm Saville's children's books are set in Shropshire. Additionally, D. H. Lawrence's novella, St. Mawr, is partially set in the Longmynd area of South Shropshire.
• In Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Jonathan Strange is from the county, and some parts of the book are set there.
• Another fictional character from Shropshire is Mr Grindley, from Charles Dickens' Bleak House.
• P. G. Wodehouse's fictional Blandings Castle, the ancestral home of Clarence, the ninth Earl of Emsworth, is located in Shropshire. Also from Shropshire is Psmith, a fictional character in a series of Wodehouse's novels.
• In The Importance of Being Earnest, Algernon attempts to trick Jack into revealing the location of his Country home by inferring he resides in Shropshire.
• The 1856 plantation literature novel White Acre vs. Black Acre by William M. Burwell features two Shropshire farms acting as an allegory for American slavery – White Acre Farm being the abolitionist Northern United States, and Black Acre Farm being the slaveholding Southern United States.
• The county has also appeared in film: the 1984 film version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was filmed in Shrewsbury. The 2005 sit-com The Green Green Grass is set in Shropshire and is filmed near Bridgnorth.
• Shrewsbury Abbey of Shropshire features in the Cadfael Mysteries; Brother Cadfael is a member of the community at the Abbey.
• In music, the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote "On Wenlock Edge" in 1907.
• In the film Howards End, Mr. Wilcox's daughter gets married in Shropshire. Part of the novel is set near Clun.
• In 2008, Müller released a new advert featuring their Shropshire-based factory, using 'Ain't Got No, I Got Life' by Nina Simone as musical score, and emphasising the closeness of supply from the surrounding area of its factory in Market Drayton ("24 hours from farm to yoghurt").
• In the novel A Room With a View, Charlotte Bartlett states that the romantic Italian landscape reminds her of the country around Shropshire, where she once spent a holiday at the home of her friend Miss Apesbury.
• The 2011 documentary Rome Wasn't Built In A Day was filmed in the Roman city of Viroconium Cornoviorum near village of Wroxeter.
• A character named the "Shropshire Slasher" features in the 1956 Warner Bros. cartoon "Deduce, You Say".
• part of Clockwise (film) was recorded in Shropshire, notably the scene with the three red phone boxes.
• In the final episode of Ever Decreasing Circles, Martin's neighbour Paul announces he is moving to Shropshire.
• In the American sitcom Friends, Ross' wife Emily is stated as being from Shropshire.
• The British sitcom The Green Green Grass is set in Shropshire, with Boycie's wife being surprised and asking "what's Shropshire?" upon learning she was moving there, used in the original BBC advertisement of the series.