Surrey - Literature

Literature

Besides its role in Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, many important writers have lived and worked in Surrey.

• The Owl and the Nightingale, one of the earliest Middle English poems, may have been written by one Nicholas of Guildford, who is mentioned in its text.
• John Donne (1572–1631) lived and worked for much of his life in Pyrford.
• John Evelyn (1620–1706) was born at Wotton and spent much of his life there.
• Daniel Defoe (1659/61-1731) was educated in Dorking.
• William Cobbett (1763–1835) was born in Farnham and is buried there; Surrey features prominently in his Rural Rides.
• Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) wrote Conningsby while living in Dorking.
• Alfred Tennyson (1809–92) spent the latter part of his life, and died, in Haslemere.
• Charles Dickens (1812–70) wrote part of The Pickwick Papers in Dorking, and refers to the town in the novel.
• Robert Browning (1812–89) was born in Camberwell, then part of Surrey.
• George Eliot (1819–80) wrote most of Middlemarch while living in Haslemere.
• George Meredith (1828–1909) lived at Box Hill.
• Lewis Carroll (1832–98) wrote Through the Looking Glass, died and is buried in Guildford, where he had spent much time at his sisters' home.
• George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) lived in Woking and later in Hindhead, where he wrote Caesar and Cleopatra.
• Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) lived and wrote many of his books in Hindhead and served as deputy lieutenant of Surrey; the county forms a setting for many of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
• J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) lived in Tilford, and based The Boy Castaways, which later evolved into Peter Pan, in the nearby countryside.
• H. G. Wells (1866–1946) wrote The War of the Worlds while living in Woking; much of northern Surrey is laid waste in the course of the story.
• John Galsworthy (1867–1933) was born in Kingston and the Forsyte Saga is set in the area.
• E. M. Forster (1879–1970) lived and wrote in Weybridge and Abinger Hammer.
• P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) was born in Guildford and baptised there in St Nicolas' Church.
• Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) was born in Godalming and his remains are interred at Compton; the end of Brave New World is set in Surrey.