My recent change of setting has made me think about books with settings that appealed to me. I've always been drawn to Miss Marple's little town, St. Mary Mead, and other wonderful coastal towns mentioned in Agatha Christie's fiction--Torquay, Dartmouth. Christie wrote in her autobiography that places were very important to her: " . . . places remain very firmly in my mind. Often, returning somewhere after five or six years, I remember quite well the road to take, even if I have only been there once before."
Another setting that always influenced me greatly was Rosamund Pilcher's Cornwall, where one seems never to be far from a sandy beach or a rocky cave, and life slows down for the celebration of holidays and healthy walks and church jumble sales.
Books with evocative settings have a lasting effect.
What's your favorite place from fiction?
8 comments:
It's another small town that draws me, Three Pines, the small Quebec village in Louise Penny's mysteries. She created a village with everything she wanted, but I think she created one for her readers as well. And, the people there are offbeat, but fit the village. I'm always eager to return to Three Pines.
That sounds neat, Lesa! I'll have to give Penny a try--I've never read her mysteries.
I'll add my vote for Three Pines. I wish that it was a real village. I would vacation there in a heartbeat.
Wow! I'm heading to the library tomorrow for a Louise Penny book.
Today, I'd love to be hiding in Islandia!
As in Islandia New York, Islandia Florida, or Islandia in Iceland? Or are there others?
My first novel is set in the city of Great Bridge, a real neighborhood in the town of Chesapeake, Virginia, near the Dismal Swamp. It has that small town feel I've always enjoyed in mystery novels, and I hope to use it again in another book.
Sounds great, Pat!
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