Famous English Writers Walking Tour (Self Guided), Portsmouth

Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Steventon, North Hampshire. In her day, Portsmouth was a rough-edged seaport filled with people she considered "underbred." Nevertheless, she often traveled to Portsmouth to visit her brothers Francis and Charles, stationed there with the Royal Navy. Austen included Royal Naval characters in her novels, Persuasion and Mansfield Park.

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in February 1812. His birthplace, now a museum, was on the present-day Old Commercial Road. His father, John, worked in the Dockyard in the Navy Pay Office. John was notoriously improvident. He served as a basis for Charles' characters, Mr. Micawber and Mr. Dorrit. Dickens modeled many of his characters on the local people of Portsmouth.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his first two Sherlock Holmes stories while residing in Portsmouth. A new doctor, he arrived in 1882 and opened a practice at 1 Bush Villas, Elm Grove, Southsea. A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four were written here.

Rudyard Kipling grew up from the age of five through eleven at Lorne Lodge on Campbell Road, a suburb of Southsea, Portsmouth. He and his sister were boarded at the home of a Captain and Mrs. Holloway. Holloway was the basis of the fisherman in Captains Courageous.

H.G Wells, master of telling a horrible story in an ordinary setting, worked as an apprentice at Hyde's Drapery Emporium at 9 Kings Road in Southsea. He was fifteen and may have crossed paths with Arthur Conan Doyle. Kings Road is an extension of Elm Grove, Doyle's street.

Portsmouth has also been the stomping ground for Susanna Rawson, Sir Walter Besant, Christopher Hitchins, George Meredith, Graham Hurley, Nevil Shute, and Maggie Sawkins. And the list goes on.