Letter from Sussex

My annual 'girly' break took me to the ancient town of Rye, one of the 'Cinque Ports' along the Sussex coast and a very picturesque base for exploring the county.

Rye has many literary connections, not least the writer Henry James who owned Lamb House in Rye and wrote many of his novels there. A friend of James, E.F. Benson, lived at Lamb House from 1918 until his death in 1940. A hugely prolific writer of fiction, ghost stories and non-fiction he is now best remembered for his ‘Mapp and Lucia’ novels which were set in Tilling, based on Rye, with Lamb House cast as ‘Mallards’, home of Miss Mapp. You may have seen the excellent 2014 BBC TV adaptation with Miranda Richardson as Mapp and Anna Chancellor as Lucia (one of the great comic characters in English literature) - well worth watching - but do read the books too!

Other notable writers include Joan Aiken, born in Rye, who wrote many children's and adults' books. She was awarded an MBE for Services to Children's Literature in 1999. The children's book for which she is best remembered is The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, set in an alternative history of England, now a children's classic.

The author and cartoonist, John Ryan, spent the last years of his life in Rye. You might wonder who he is but I am sure will be familiar with his best-loved and most famous character, Captain Pugwash! The adventures of Captain Pugwash were inspired by the many tales of smuggling in and around Rye.

Not far from Rye is a literary and horticultural gem. Sissinghurst Castle Garden was the home of Vita Sackville-West, the poet and writer, who began transforming Sissinghurst Castle in the 1930s with her diplomat and author husband, Harold Nicolson. 'Harold's architectural planning of the garden rooms, and the colourful, abundant planting in the gardens by Vita, reflect the romance and intimacy of her poems and writings'. (National Trust 2018 www.nationaltrust.org.uk)

The Tower (pictured above) with Vita's cosy writing room half way up, is at the heart of the garden and gives wonderful views on the many garden rooms below planted with flowers and shrubs of such vibrant colours, cleverly planted as to seem almost growing wild.

Of Vita's many novels, possibly the best, and certainly my favourite, is All Passion Spent, published in 1931. "In 1860, as a young girl of 17, Lady Slane nurtures a secret, burning ambition: to become an artist. She becomes, instead, the wife of a great statesman, and mother to six children. Seventy years later, released by widowhood, she abandons the trappings of wealth and retires to a tiny house - to the dismay of her pompous offspring. She revels in her new-found freedom, and in an odd assortment of companions ..."

All Passion Spent has been described as "the fictional companion to her great friend Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, another classic well worth reading. In this extended essay Woolf writes: "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write". This is a powerful study of female creativity and the role of writers and is a reminder of a woman's need for financial independence and intellectual freedom, even in our comparatively enlightened times.

I do have my pension and a summer house in which to write so I have no excuses!