From Agatha Christie to Ian Fleming to Jane Austen, here are five famous author homes-turned hotels where bookworms can lay their heads.
Chances are even the least literary inclined of travellers may have inadvertently passed by one or two famous writers' homes in their journeys. From the final residence of John Keats near Rome's Spanish Steps to Ernest Hemingway's tropical villa in Key West to LM Montgomery's birthplace on Prince Edward Island, author homes-turned museums seemingly abound and even inspire bibliophile pilgrimages.
But for bookworms looking for more than just a daytime visit, several places around the world allow visitors to spend a night in their literary heroes' homes. Whether they bring you closer to an author's work or simply ignite a creative spark, here are five unique places where book lovers can rest their heads.
Oracabessa Bay, Jamaica
You might hear the phrase "shaken, not stirred" buzzing around GoldenEye, a boutique hotel in Jamaica's Oracabessa Bay. Indeed, the cocktail immortalised by James Bond has its origins at the hotel – once the private home of 007's creator Ian Fleming – and it's a spirited directive the hotel's deep-pocketed guests seem proud to adhere to today.
While in Jamaica in the 1940s for a naval intelligence mission before he became a writer, Fleming fell in love with the area around Oracabessa Bay, vowing to one day return. He eventually acquired 15 tropical acres and meticulously designed a villa he christened "GoldenEye" after the naval mission that brought him to the Caribbean island in the first place. It was from this home that Fleming penned all 14 of his James Bond books, including the three he set in Jamaica (Dr. No, The Man with the Golden Gun and Live and Let Die).
Following the author's death, the villa – now known as the Fleming Villa – was folded into a larger development that became the GoldenEye. Today the entire property retains the air of private glamour and sexy sophistication that defined the British spy-turned writer's life and work. But the Fleming Villa is the ultimate in luxury and seclusion. This ultra-private two-bedroom villa comes with two additional guest cottages, a private butler and cook, its own beach and swimming pool, and, most notably, Fleming's original writing desk from which 007 was born.
Devon, England
Agatha Christie may be the queen of the detective novel, but the author's true life – including her mysterious weeks-long disappearance in 1926 – is as rich as the plot of her stories. Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot devotees can get closer to the heart and genius of the genre's mastermind by staying at Christie's former holiday home in Devon, England.
The stately 18th-Century home, Greenway, was where Christie would stay over Christmas and in the summers. It's now managed by the National Trust and is open for public tours. But visitors who book the private apartment within the mansion will have a sprawling two-floor, four-bedroom abode with private garden access. Staying after the day visitors have left might even make you feel as if you've stepped into one of Christie's novels.
While the guest apartment has modern convinces and some modern furnishings, the rest of Greenway is styled much like Christie would have had it in the 1950s, making it seem as though she and her family had just stepped out. The home is filled with pieces from the author's own collections, including artefacts from archaeological digs that seem right out of Death on the Nile. Don't leave before venturing down to Greenway'sboathouse, which was the backdrop of a murder in Christie's 1956 novel Dead Man's Folly.
Florence, Italy
Not just one but two famous poets called this sprawling Florentine villa home over the course of its more-than-800-year existence. Torre di Bellosguardo was constructed and commissioned in the 13th Century by Guido Cavalcanti, one of Renaissance Italy's greatest poets and Dante Alighieri's best friend – Dante gave him a starring role in The Inferno. It was originally built as a family home and hunting lodge and is perched on a hill with a stunning view over Florence (the hotel's name means "tower of the beautiful view").
Over the centuries, the villa would go on to be the home of the dynastic Medici family who ruled Tuscany for some 300 years; various aristocrats; and in the early 20th Century, another famous poet and man about town, Gabriele D'Annunzio. Other famous writers, including Ugo Foscolo – who penned a poem inspired by Torre di Bellosguardo's landscape – have passed through the doors as visitors.
In 1990, following a turn as a girls' boarding school and a 10-year restoration project, Torre di Bellosguardo was reborn as a 16-room hotel festooned with museum-worthy antiques and preserved original frescos by the Renaissance artist Bernardino Poccetti. Today the property remains a popular retreat for writers looking for inspiration in the Tuscan hills.
New York City, US
For the last chapters of his life, the eccentric Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams made the fashionable Midtown Manhattan Hotel Elysée his home base. Williams, who penned The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire among other works, checked into the Elysée in the late 1960s and ended up staying until his death in 1983.
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During his years in residence, he reportedly kept guests awake with incessant, round-the-clock tapping on his typewriter. Today hotel guests can book a stay in what was part of Williams' unconventional abode. Known as the Sunset Suite in his day, the now-900 sq ft space (which occupies much of the spacious suite where Williams lived) has been renamed the Tennessee Williams Suite and is adorned with photographs and handwritten notes from the playwright's life and career.
London, England
Idyllic English country homes, with their sprawling grounds, art-filled walls and names worthy of their place in history, exist almost as characters themselves in Jane Austen's novels. Who can forget Elizabeth Bennett's reaction when first eyeing Mr Darcy's estate, Pemberley, or the foreboding Gothic manor Northanger Abbey,on which Austen centred an entire book?
But despite the grandeur of her novels' settings and their central importance to her work, Austen herself bounced from home to home following the death of her clergyman father. Along with her mother and sister, she would move to several modest residences throughout the rest of her life as well as frequently stay with family and friends.
A few of these temporary homes are now places Austen fans can stay themselves. Most notable is the London townhouse of Jane's favourite brother, Henry, where Jane stayed on several occasions, and where she is believed to have worked on several of her novels. Henry's home is now a stylish boutique hotel in the city's chic Marylebone neighbourhood aptly known as Henry's Townhouse.
Opened in 2020 following an extensive renovation to bring the Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse back to its former glory, the hotel's rooms are named for Austen family members who stayed or lived here. Add in the period antiques, a collection of Austen first editions, as well as original letters from Jane to her brother at this address, and the Henry is as close as you might get to stepping into an Austen novel.
If you're on a more modest budget, a home in Bath where Austen lived with her mother for four years between 1801 and 1805 is available as a rental on Airbnb.
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