10 of Britain's greatest literary breaks

1. Potter’s farm

Hill Top farm in Near Sawrey in the Lake District belonged to Beatrix Potter from 1905 until her death in 1943 and the garden, the stone-flagged floors, fireplaces and lots of other views and architectural features are easily recognisable from her illustrations. Bought with the royalties she’d earned from The Tale of Peter Rabbit, she wrote her books in an upstairs library. Many of her original drawings are displayed in The Gallery housed in the former solicitor’s office of her husband, William Heelis in nearby Hawkeshead.

Stay at Sawrey House Hotel in Near Sawrey (sawreyhouse.com). Rooms from ￡99 b&b or ￡125 half board. See also (visitcumbria.com/beatrix-potter-lake-district).

2. Far from the crowds

Both Hardy’s birthplace, an isloated and idyllic cob and thatch cottage in Higher Bockhampton, and Max Gate, the house he designed and built on the outskirts of Dorchester, are open to the public and managed by The National Trust. You can also see the grave where his heart is buried at St Michael’s Church in Stinsford, east of Dorchester (his body is in Westminster Abbey) and learn more about his life at the Dorset County Museum. A memorial depicting Hardy sitting on a tree, book in hand, is on Dorchester’s high street.

Stay at Yalbury Cottage in Lower Bockhampton (yalburycottage.com). Rooms from ￡99 b&b. More information: visit-dorset.com; nationaltrust.org.uk.

3. Woolf’s lair

Monk’s House in the small village of Rodmell, near Lewes, is the sixteenth-century cottage bought by Virgnia Woolf and her husband, Leonard, as a holiday home in 1919. Seven miles from her sister, Vanessa Bell’s house, Charleston in Firle, Woolf wrote many of her novels, articles and diaries including “A Room of One’s Own” in her small writing lodge overlooking the leafy orchard garden. Her bedroom is displays personal possessions including Bell’s artwork and leather-bound books.

Stay at Old Whyly in East Hoathly (oldwhyly.co.uk). Rooms from ￡98 b&b. More information (nationaltrust.org.uk/monks-house; charleston.org.uk).

4. Haworth Home

The Bront? family moved to Haworth in 1820 and it was in this solid, 1770s-built parsonage on the edge of open moorland, that Patrick Bront? died in 1861 having outlived his wife and children. One of the most evocative rooms is the simply-furnished parlour where Charlotte, Emily and Anne did most of their writing. A five-year programme of events, Bront?200, celebrates the bicentenaries of the novelists’ births, which will culminate with Anne’s in 2020.

Stay at Shibden Mill Inn near Halifax (shibdenmillinn.com). Rooms from ￡95 b&b. Details on talks and special access at the Bront? Parsonage Museum (bronte.org.uk).

5. Burns’ bothy

Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, was born in a tiny, clay and thatch cottage in the Ayrshire village of Alloway in 1759. Now a museum run by National Trust for Scotland, exhibits include handwritten manuscripts plus Burns’s portable writing kit, pair of pistols and lock of hair. In the garden is a 70ft high Grecian-style temple erected as a monument to him in 1823 while local landmarks include the fifteenth-century Brig o’ Doon bridge mentioned in his poem, Tam o’Shanter, and the churchyard where his father and sister are buried.

Stay at Blackaddie House in Sanquhar (blackaddiehotel.co.uk). Rooms from ￡125 b&b.

6. Bard’s abode

Although his last home - New Place - was demolished in 1702, several other buildings closely associated with Shakespeare and his family still survive in Stratford-upon-Avon. These include the half-timbered house in the town centre where he was born in 1564 and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage which belonged to his wife’s family. Also open to the public are his daughter Susanna’s Jacobean town house, Hall’s Croft which is close to Holy Trinity Church where he is buried in the chancel.

Stay at The Arden Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon (theardenhotelstratford.com). Rooms from ￡114 b&b. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (shakespeare.org.uk).

7. Dylan’s dive

Number 5 Cwmdonkin Drive is the unassuming semi-detached Edwardian House in the Uplands suburb of Swansea where Dylan Thomas was born in 1914 and which remained his family home for 23 years. Now restored and privately owned, visitors can tour, eat or stay overnight in the rooms, including Dylan’s tiny bedroom. His life and work is celebrated at the city’s Dylan Thomas Centre where a permanent exhibition called “Love the Words” houses interactive displays, recordings of his poetry and prose and a children’s trail.

Stay at Dylan Thomas House at Number 5 Cwmdonkin Drive (dylanthomasbirthplace.com). Rooms from ￡160 b&b. Dylan Thomas Centre (dylanthomas.com).

8. Austen towers

Persuasion and Emma were among the novels written in the mellow, red-brick house in Chawton near Alton in East Hampshire where Jane Austen moved in July 1809 and spent the last eight years of her life. Now the house is an excellent museum with displays contains personal letters, jewellery, first editions of her books and original furniture including the table where she worked. Her brother Edward’s nearby home, Chawton House in Alton, is also open to the public and her grave is in Winchester Cathedral.

Stay at The Running Horse Inn near Winchester (runninghorseinn.co.uk). Rooms from ￡69 b&b. More information at visit-hampshire.co.uk.

9. Greenway stays

Agatha Christie was born near Torquay in 1980, South Devon and it is the area most closely associated with the much-travelled murder-mystery novelist. The local museum has an Agatha Christie gallery and the National Trust manages her Georgian holiday house, Greenway, near Brixham which she bought in 1938 and visited until she died in 1976. Terraced gardens overlook the River Dart and four holiday properties, including an apartment inside the house, are available to rent.

Stay at Greenway Apartment (sleeps eight) from ￡1,119 for three nights; South Lodge (sleeps six) from ￡889 for two nights;  The Lodge (sleeps two) from ￡292 for two nights; Ferry Cottage (sleeps four) from ￡449 for three nights (nationaltrust.org.uk).

10. Dickens’ London

Among Dickens’s personal possessions on display at 48 Doughty Street in Holborn, where he lived in the late 1830s, are handwritten drafts, his wife’s engagement ring and the desk where he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. The house also makes a good springboard for exploring the novelist’s numerous London haunts including Gray’s Inn where he worked as a clerk, Borough High Street, former site of the Marshalsea prison where his father was imprisoned for debt and which was immortalised in Little Dorrit and the Old Curiosity Shop in Holborn.

Stay at 43, Cloth Fair in Smithfield (landmarktrust.org.uk). Sleeps two. Four nights from ￡748. Charles Dickens Museum (dickensmuseum.com).