The Literary History of Kent
By Kerry Brown
In Issue 110 I wrote about the remarkable literary history of the county. The article covers the earliest writing in English, going back to the sixth century and the laws produced by the Kentish Saxon kings, some of which still exist, right up to the present.
It embraces important figures such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, and Conrad, but also involves the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming, the wonderful novelist and short story writer Elizabeth Bowen, E. Nesbit and her anarchic children’s stories, and the elusive work of figures unjustly forgotten like Christopher Smart and Jocelyn Brooke.
Partly as a result of some free time because of the lockdown, I have managed to put up a hundred entries on the website, https:// kentliterature.com/. These are in no particular order, but they refer to a wide range of people, with details about why they are connected to Kent, and how it figures in their work. For some, the connection is obvious. For others, it might be more specific (Daphne du Maurier’s brief but significant wartime stay in Hythe, for instance). Where possible, I have tried to give detailed and precise information about where precisely writers stayed, and where in their works this might be referred to. There were a few surprises. Samuel Beckett’s fortnight enduring the poor cooking in the hotel he was staying by the seafront in early 1960s Folkestone while waiting for legal reasons to get married at the Registry Office to his French partner was one. Another was to discover the incredible work of Christopher Smart, an 18th-century poet. His experience of mental breakdown and time in an asylum resulted in some of the most modern-sounding, unique poetry. His wonderful poem to his cat, Jeoffry, in ‘Jubilate Agno’ could not be recommended more highly – https://www.poetryfoundation. org/poems/45173/jubilate-agno.
I would much welcome any corrections, or suggestions, to the list I have put up. The idea is to publish in some form over the next year or so. I hope that putting in one place this information will help those, like me, who often travel to places in the county and are intrigued by the association of a place with a writer, and then want to find out more about it.
Overall, too, this work helps to answer just why it is that Kent, and its unique and varied natural and human landscape, has been so inspirational for such a broad and influential group of writers.
Top and middle
Wellington Crescent in Ramsgate where Coleridge and Wilkie Collins both stayed Bottom
Grave of Mary Nesbit at Church of St Mary in the Marsh