How UK geography inspired its literature

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English literature, both prose and poetry, has always had a strong connection to the geographical features and landscape of the UK.
The works of Charles Dickens, Chaucer, William Wordsworth, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Bronte Sisters and innumerable writers is rooted and shaped by the country’s unique spaces and places and this has been highlighted in British Library’s latest exhibition, “Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands,” which began May 11 and will continue till September 25.
The exhibition uses manuscripts and old printed editions, sound recordings, letters, photographs, maps, song lyrics and drawings to show the link between last 1,000 years of English literature and idyllic rural landscapes or gritty cities in the UK.
“We are very excited to share the wealth of the country’s literature in the summer of 2012 and to explore how writers from William Blake to Angela Carter have helped shaped the nation’s understanding of our landscape and surroundings,” Jamie Andrews, head of English and Drama, British Library, and lead curator of the exhibition, said.
“Writing Britain celebrates the incredible collection of great literary works held at the British Library, spanning more than 1,000 years to the present day. These rare and unique collections will help give a fascinating and new insight into the creative thinking behind iconic British novels, poems, illustrations and more.” Bestselling writer J.K. Rowling has especially lent the original manuscript for her first book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which describes the young wizard’s first encounter with platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross station in London. Other highlights include John Lennon’s original draft for In My Life; Virginia Woolf’s childhood newspaper, Hyde Park Gate News; 14th-century manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; and Emily Brontë’s Gondal Poems notebook.
The exhibition, which explores 150 literary works, is divided into six different themes related to various British landscapes and environments to show how each has inspired writers, poets and visual artists to immortalise them.
Fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien’s original artwork for The Hobbit, Thomas Hardy’s pre-publication proof copy of Far From the Madding Crowd, Kazuo Ishiguro’s manuscript for The Remains of the Day are the highlights of the Rural Dreams section, which explores rural settings in English books.
George Eliot’s manuscript for Middlemarch, George Orwell’s letter illustrating his experiences in the north of England, and William Wordsworth’s letter to then Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone objecting to the proposed Kendal and Windermere Railway are among the literary works that highlight the technological advances of industrialisation and the resultant urban poverty along with economic depression and the World Wars are covered under the section called Dark Satanic Mills.
Wild Places, with Charlotte Bronte’s manuscript for Jane Eyre and Sylvia Plath’s draft of Hardcastle Crags and Ted Hughes’ draft of Wuthering Heights, explores wild and dramatic landscapes in English literature.
London, which has always inspired English writers, right from William Blake to Harold Pinter, to Robert Louis Stevenson, is the subject for Cockney Visions.
Beyond the city will focus on works based in suburbia; and Waterlands on works inspired by the rivers, seashores and other waterscapes of the country. The highlights of these two sections are the 10th-century poem, The Seafarer, which is part of one of four surviving collections of Old English poetry.