Romance Writing Festival. Saturday 3rd October, Marsham Court Hotel. Details here.
Gothic Literary Night
Join the us on Friday 13th November for a special evening celebrating our famous, local Gothic authors.
Enjoy an atmospheric evening of live entertainment and networking with your fellow writing peers. Together, we’ll toast to the legendary authors who shaped Gothic literature right here on our coast, including Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde.
The Mysterious Bookcase will be bringing special editions and Penguin Classics for you to purchase during the evening.
There will be a limited number of stalls available for independent, local Gothic writers and authors to sell their books. Enquiry here.
7pm until 9pm
Friday 13th November
St Andrew's Church Boscombe
Fancy dress encouraged
Soft drinks, tea and coffee will be available to purchase.
BYO alcohol.
Bournemouth's Famous Gothic Authors
Bournemouth has long attracted, and inspired, creatives to the sea air.
Gary Dalkin lists five of our most famous authors to grace our area.
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, is buried in the grounds of St. Peter’s Church in the dead centre of Bournemouth. Four other members of the Shelley family are buried with her, plus the heart of her husband, the poet Percy Shelley.
Oscar Wilde
The Theatre Royal once was on Richmond Hill, and in 1882 the poet and playwright Oscar Wilde performed there to sell out audiences. Wilde would later write the Gothic classic The Picture of Dorian Gray. From 1949 the venue was revamped as the New Theatre Royal, and was jointly owned by Will Hammer, founder of Hammer Films.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson during the three years in the 1880s when he lived in Bournemouth, most of that time at his house Skerryvore in Westbourne. The house was destroyed by a German bomb in WW2 and is now a garden in memory of the author.
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Henry James
American novelist Henry James spent some time in Bournemouth while Robert Louis Stevenson lived here, and he would regularly visit Stevenson for tea and literary conversation. James went on to write the novella The Turn of The Screw, inspiration for the great British supernatural horror film, The Innocents.
Sir Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving, the most celebrated actor of the late Victorian period, stayed at the Royal Bath Hotel on holiday, accompanied by his amanuensis, Bram Stoker. Stoker later wrote Dracula, and it is widely thought he based the character of the vampire count on his employer.