While ‘write what you know’ may seem like a cliché, for these writers, it was excellent advice. From the quaint Canadian cottage that inspired Anne of Green Gables to the spooky German castle which is thought to have sparked Mary Shelley's imagination when penning Frankenstein, these properties may look familiar from the pages of your favourite reads.
Click or scroll on as we step inside the real-life home's that inspired some of the world's most treasured books...
This quintessentially ‘New England’ clapboard-clad home was once the residence of the Alcott family. Its most famous member, renowned author Louisa May Alcott, spent her formative years here.
Louisa penned her acclaimed work, Little Women, from this home. Based on her youth spent in Concord, Massachusetts, it's become a classic around the world.
Today, the home is a museum that attracts countless fans of Alcott’s works every year.
The house itself was built in 1650 but was purchased by Louisa’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott, in 1857 for £474 ($954). That's approximately £27,100 ($34.4k) in today's money.
The property included 12 acres (5ha) of land which encompassed an expansive apple orchard, which explains how the house got its charming name.
It became the Alcott family homestead for the next 20 years, and it was here that Louisa wrote Little Women at her famous 'shelf desk' (pictured) in 1868.
Today, the rooms in Orchard House look very much like they did when the Alcott family lived there. In fact, 80% of the furniture on display was owned by the Alcotts, including this melodeon (a small reed organ with a five or six octave keyboard) belonging to Elizabeth Alcott. Elizabeth was the inspiration for Little Women’s Beth, and the instrument sits below her portrait in the hall.
There have also been no structural changes to the home, allowing visitors to truly immerse themselves in Louisa’s inspirational surroundings.
In this archival image, Abigail May Alcott, or 'Marmee' in the novel, sits comfortably in the family living room. The photo provides a rare glimpse back in time into the Alcott’s home as Louisa would have known it and depicts a cosy family space in which one can easily imagine the March sisters gathering on a chilly evening.
Originally known as Fort House, this striking coastal home in Broadstairs, Kent, was once the summer retreat of literary giant Charles Dickens.
The celebrated author holidayed here from the 1830s to the 1850s, finding inspiration in the property's unique aesthetic...
The fortress-like property towers above the ocean, offering uninterrupted views over Kent's Viking Bay.
As well as writing the illustrious David Copperfield here, the summer home is said to have inspired the creation of one of Dickens' most celebrated literary works, Bleak House. Its story follows the Jarndyce family, who become embroiled in a long-running lawsuit over a disputed inheritance.
Many have drawn comparisons between the Broadstairs property and John Jarndyce’s iconic home, as depicted in Dickens’ writing: “It was one of those delightfully irregular houses where you go up and down steps out of one room into another, and where you come upon more rooms when you think you have seen all there are, and where there is a bountiful provision of little halls and passages, and where you find still older cottage-rooms in unexpected places with lattice windows.”
Since renamed Bleak House, the property was a museum for many years until it was closed by a new owner in 2005
Following a fire in 2006, the home is now a bed and breakfast, where you can walk the very hallways that Dickens himself once meandered. In 1853, Fort House was renamed Bleak House in honour of one of the best-loved novels of the 19th century and to pay respects to the author.
The 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was inspired by many things, including its author George Orwell's crippling tuberculosis and The Spanish Civil War’s Propaganda.
Yet one location in particular, a house called Barnhill, became Orwell's muse.
Ironically, this remote farmhouse on the quiet Scottish island of Jura was the place where Orwell created the 'Thought Police' and 'Big Brother', for one of his greatest literary achievements.
This isolated property fed Orwell's wild imagination in stark contrast to the novel's themes. The island has only one single track road and a journey from the mainland involves two ferries, a 20-mile drive and a four-mile walk along a dirt track.
According to British newspaper The Guardian, Orwell described it as “in an extremely un-get-atable place.”
Set in the Inner Hebrides, Barnhill was, and still is, almost entirely off-grid. From his desk by the window, Orwell looked out over the deserted landscape and imagined a world with no privacy or freedom. Here, he penned the entirety of his classic.
Orwell died seven months after 1984 was published, but his adopted son Richard Blair remembers his time on the island fondly.
“Jura was a wonderful place to be a child”, he recalls. “But this wasn’t a holiday for us. Everything my dad wrote and said indicates that he wanted to be here full time. For him, Jura was home.”
Fiercely private and wanting to maintain the home's tranquil beauty, Orwell was said to have shouted "cannibals" at anyone caught trespassing near his gate.
Remaining virtually untouched ever since, the home is still owned by the same family who rented the property to Orwell some 70 years ago. And although you can no longer stay at the house, The Orwell Society arranges trips to the home every few years.
In 1908, L.M. Montgomery published her most famous work, Anne of Green Gables; a story said to be inspired by her own rural childhood in Canada. It follows the adventures of an 11-year-old orphan girl Anne Shirley when she goes to live with siblings, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert
The book immediately captured the hearts and imaginations of the public, warranting seven sequels, three cinematic adaptations and five television series.
While Anne's hometown of Avonlea is not a real place, there is a village called Avonlea Village in Cavendish on Canada's idyllic Prince Edward Island that recreates the fictional place for visitors and fans.
It’s easy to see how Montgomery took inspiration from this stunning rural farmhouse that forms part of the replica village. The ideal setting for a charming children’s tale, the property became the centrepiece of protagonist Anne Shirley's world.
Montgomery lived in the stunning coastal cottage in the late 1800s and wrote much of the Anne of Green Gables series here. Now a dedicated heritage museum, you can explore the rooms and gardens that influenced Montgomery's iconic children's stories.
Those who visit this iconic property can step straight into Anne Shirley's world. The kitchen where Anne discovers a mouse has drowned in the plum pudding sauce is filled with vintage crockery.
There's more of the story's inspiration on the scenic surrounding property. That includes the book's famous 'Lake of Shining Waters'. Visitors can tour the property in 'Matthew's Carriage Ride' and continue down a scenic farmer's road to a private beach.
The Little House on the Prairie stories epitomise rural American life in the late 19th century and were inspired by the pioneer lifestyle of their author, Laura Ingalls Wilder.
With a family constantly on the move, a whole host of Midwest homes influenced the iconic series. This is a replica of Wilder's birthplace in Wisconsin, as described in Little House in the Big Woods.
It's now the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, owned and operated by The Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society, Inc., which formed in July 1974.
In 1880, 13-year-old Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family moved to this cabin in De Smet, South Dakota, fictionalised in the fifth book in the Little House series, By the Shores of Silver Lake.
Her father, Charles, built the small shanty homestead himself, lured to the location by the plentiful supply of water. Today it's called the Ingalls Homestead and open to visitors with wagon rides and camping available.
Now with a husband and young daughter, Rose, Laura Ingalls Wilder moved to Mansfield, Missouri in 1894.
The family cultivated 200 sprawling acres (81ha) of farmland, first living in a one-room log cabin. It was 19 years before; in 1913 they finally completed the farmhouse you see here on Rocky Ridge Farm.
Today the house acts as a museum and heritage site, where visitors can step inside and see the house as it was when Ingalls lived there, passing away at the home in 1957. Although Laura wrote some of her Little House stories at the farmhouse, there's another Rocky Ridge Farm property where she also spent time creating her masterpiece...
Rose Wilder Lane, the Wilders’ only daughter, moved away to be an author. But when she decided to return home in 1928, she built a home on Rocky Ridge Farm as a gift to her parents. Laura and husband Almanzo lived in the house until 1936, when they returned to their beloved farmhouse.
It became known as the Rock House because of its custom rock masonry siding. It was here that Laura wrote the first four Little House books aged 65. Visitors can tour the beautifully restored Rock House and see where the beloved stories began to take shape.
This stunning historic property in the heart of the Peak District National Park was a major influence on Charlotte Brontë, who visited the home several times in 1845.
Known as North Lees Hall, the building inspired Thornfield Hall, the iconic residence of Edward Rochester in Brontë’s best-known, Jane Eyre. Though not open to the public, surrounded by the stunning rolling hills of the Peak District National Park it is a truly captivating piece of literary history.
Brontë describes the hall quite suitably: “three storeys high; a gentleman’s manor house; battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look." She even named her acclaimed novel after North Lees Hall's architect, Robert Eyre.
A further grand Yorkshire property that is said to have inspired Charlotte Brontë's timeless novel, Norton Conyers was visited numerous times by the author in 1839, some eight years before Jane Eyre was published.
Beyond its connection to a beloved novel, Norton Conyers is a Grade II-listed property, recognised as having 'special interest' to the United Kingdom.
That's because two kings, Charles I and James II, both spent the night here and many of its 18th-century furnishings, including paintings, have been well maintained.
Brontë had heard stories about a 'mad woman' confined to the building’s eerie attic, a tale that is thought to have inspired her infamous character, Bertha Mason.
In 2004, a hidden stairway was discovered at Norton Conyers, further linking the historic property to Thornfield Hall. The attic remains intact to this day, though there is no public access to the space, which helped create one of the greatest literary twists of all time.
After an extensive renovation, seen here by way of one of the property's grand staircases, the house and gardens reopened to the public in the spring of 2024.
Guests can finally stroll through one of the most famous landmarks in literary history.
When you take a look at the chocolate-box childhood home of English author, conservationist and scientist Beatrix Potter, it's easy to see where the inspiration for her most iconic character was born.
That's right, the beautiful gardens and surrounding landscape of Hill Top Farm in the Lake District, Potter's former home, were the main inspiration for the adventures of mischievous Peter Rabbit.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit, written and illustrated by Potter, tell the charming story of naughty Peter Rabbit as he ventures into Mr McGregor's garden.
The tale began in 1893 when Potter wrote an illustrated letter to cheer up Noel, the 5-year-old son of her friend Annie Moore, who was recovering from scarlet fever.
Inspired by her pet rabbit, Peter Piper, she crafted a story about four little rabbits. More illustrated letters followed, and by 1900, Annie suggested turning them into books.
The author wrote over 60 books, including 23 beloved children’s tales. In 1905, she used earnings from her books and an inheritance to buy her home in the Lake District, later acquiring more farms to protect the landscape.
It's easy to imagine Peter hopping around this quaint English garden, and you can almost see Beatrix Potter herself, sitting by her window watching the animals play outside.
In 1913, Potter married William Heelis, a local solicitor, and became a successful Herdwick sheep breeder and passionate conservationist, but continued creating for her publisher, Warne, until her eyesight sadly began to fail.
She passed away on 22 December 1943, aged 77, leaving most of her property and Hill Top to the National Trust. It is open for visits by fond fans, eager to see the dwelling that inspired some of literature's best-loved characters.
In historic Edinburgh, Scotland, it's easy to see how this dramatic castle-like property ignited an idea in the mind of J. K. Rowling.
Designed by Renaissance architect William Wallace in the mid-1600s and not technically a home, this grand building was initially opened as a hospital. The building is now home to the prestigious George Heriot's School.
Founded by Heriot, who had no children of his own, the school was set up to help families like his own, the children of deceased tradesmen facing hardship. Funds came from most of the Heriot's fortune, worth tens of millions today.
J. K. Rowling is rumoured to have taken inspiration from the property's dominant turrets and towers for her famed fictional institution, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: "A huge, rambling, quite scary-looking castle, with a jumble of towers and battlements."
Speaking in 2002, Rowling said: "Hogwarts is a very real place to me... I've always imagined it to be in Scotland... which... it was never made explicit in the books, but the British reader will know that because if you do travel for a day from King's Cross Station in London and you go north, you end up in Scotland. So it was always supposed to be here."
Fans have enjoyed finding similarities between George Heriots and Hogwarts, delighting in the four houses the boys would have been sorted into: Lauriston is Slytherin; Greyfriars represents Hufflepuff; Raeburn is Gryffindor, named after a famous former pupil Sir Henry Raeburn, who was an acclaimed portrait painter; and Castle stands as Ravenclaw.
By night the building is hauntingly magical, commanding the landscape in the same way that Hogwarts is said to in Rowling's adored Harry Potter series.
With a name like Frankenstein’s Castle, it’s no mystery which famous gothic horror novel this imposing edifice inspired. Mary Shelley's masterpiece Frankenstein has struck chills into readers ever since its publication in 1818 and this fortress has a similar air about it.
The abandoned castle dates to the 1600s. With its dramatic turrets and crumbling ramparts, it makes an appropriate backdrop for a historical thriller.
The castle was once owned by Johann Konrad Dippel, a noted alchemist who was born in the Burg of Frankenstein in 1673 and was rumoured to conduct gruesome electrical experiments and concoct strange potions.
Dippel is believed to have inspired Shelley’s 1818 novel, which similarly features a ‘mad scientist’ conducting a desperate experiment to reproduce human life.
Whether Shelley actually visited the site remains unclear, although we do know she took a tour along the Rhine in 1814, visiting the town of Gernsheim which is just ten miles (16km) from Frankenstein Castle.
Nestled in the mountains of Mühltal, Hesse, the castle is now abandoned and decaying, with its semi-exposed interior at the mercy of the elements. With its two towers, chapel, and restaurant still intact, the site has remained a popular tourist attraction.
As one might imagine, Castle Frankenstein is usually a particularly popular destination around Halloween, when the Burg Frankenstein Halloween party attracts visitors dressed as ghosts, vampires, werewolves and witches for various spooky-themed events.
The legendary event, which started in 1977, will be finding a temporary new home at Königstein Castle while renovations take place.
This historic estate on the coast of Cornwall has been the family seat of the Rashleighs since the 16th century. Known as Menabilly, the Grade II-listed country house is believed to have been the inspiration behind the stately home called Manderley in Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel, Rebecca.
The book famously opens with the line: ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’.
Like Manderley, Menabilly is set back in the woods, near the sea but not visible from the shore. The remote setting provided ample opportunity for the haunting encounters which dominate the gothic novel first published in 1938.
According to British magazine Tatler Du Maurier stumbled across the home during a visit to Fowey, Cornwall in 1926. She came across it while out walking in the woods. She was more than curious about its abandoned state and wanted to live there.
Du Maurier, pictured here in the home, long coveted Menabilly, which is a sprawling stone structure in the Georgian style.
However, it was not until 1943, five years after she penned Rebecca, that du Maurier became the new tenant of what was by then a very dilapidated and neglected building.
Du Maurier set about lovingly restoring the home before returning it to the Rashleighs at the end of her tenancy in 1969. Today, the majority of the house and grounds remain under private ownership, although three cottages on the estate are available as holiday lets.
While Victor Hugo is celebrated for iconic works like Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, his literary oeuvre expands far beyond these two novels, including several books written during his time spent in exile in the Channel Islands.
Hugo rose to fame in France for his literary brilliance but became equally known for his bold political views. Initially elected to the National Assembly as a conservative, he soon broke ranks, championing liberal causes like social justice, press freedom and opposition to the death penalty.
When Napoleon III seized power in 1851, abolishing democracy, Hugo publicly called him a traitor. His defiance made him a target, forcing him to flee France and live in exile.
In 1855, Hugo took up residence in this lavish home in Guernsey, known as Hauteville House, where he wrote several novels inspired by the island, including Toilers of the Sea.
The spectacular house was donated to the city of Paris in 1927 and now operates as a museum. It is, in itself, a work of art, with rooms dripping in damask brocades, hung with ornate tapestries or clad with fine china.
While it was here that Hugo penned Les Misérables, it’s difficult to imagine anyone being miserable in such beautiful surroundings!
Having been damaged by years of water and sea air, the home recently underwent a substantial restoration thanks to billionaire, businessman and art collector François Pinault.
Hugo’s residence of 14 years and the place which inspired so many of his works is now ready for guests and open to the public once more.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s gothic thriller The Shadow of the Wind became an overnight sensation when it hit the markets in 2001, topping the best-seller lists not only in the author’s native Spain, but around the world. It became one of the most successful Spanish novels of all time.
A story within a story, the book is a coming-of-age tale about protagonist Daniel Sempere. He tries to unravel a mystery behind character Julian Carax and the disappearances of his novels.
The novel is set in author Zafón’s own Barcelona and includes several of the city’s iconic landmarks, including Tibidabo, a steep hill which soars above the town lined with turn-of-the-century mansions.
It is likely a combination of these homes which inspired Torre Aldaya in The Shadow of the Wind.
However, the most prominent of these structures is El Pinar, which was built between 1902-1904 by famous local architect Enric Sagnier as the summer residence for prominent banker Manuel Arnús.
The stately home towers over the city from an enviable position on the mountainside, plainly visible from much of Barcelona.
With distinctive turrets and galleries inspired by a combination of medieval castles and traditional Catalan farmhouses, the home is built from local Montjuïc stone, offset by ornate cornicing and topped with a traditional tiled roof.
It’s not hard to see how this dramatic façade might have captured Zafón’s imagination!
One of the most distinctive pieces of Swiss literature ever written, Heidi was a work of children’s fiction written by Johanna Spyri between 1880 and 1881.
The story follows the adventures of a five-year-old girl, Heidi, as she grows up in the care of her grandfather in the picturesque Swiss alps.
When writing the novel, Spyri was inspired by her own childhood in Switzerland in a rural area near Zurich.
While the village in which Heidi grows up in the novel is fictitious, today, lovers of the book can visit Heidiland, a region renamed in honour of Spyri’s story.
It's a high-altitude part of Eastern Switzerland peppered with picturesque villages perched between the lakes and mountainside.
One such village, Maienfeld in the distinctive Bündner Herrschaft region of Graubünden, is thought to be the most likely real place behind the fictitious place where Heidi grows up and has her adventures. Part of it has been renamed Heididorf.
With traditional buildings like these and picturesque views, Heididorf offers visitors experiences like The Heidi Trail, which leads them through the idyllic landscape to the 'Heidi House' and the 'Heidi Alp'.
But it's her home that draws the most attention...
A cottage which has been staged to look exactly like Heidi’s might have is nestled within Heididorf and will be familiar to fans of the film or TV show adaptations.
The cottage is somewhere between a set and a living history museum, occasionally offering demonstrations of period farm chores, so visitors can experience rural 19th-century Swiss life.
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