Exploring how Sherlock Holmes was inspired by its setting

Cumnor writer Christina Hardyment has delved into the places which have inspired the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Colin Dexter and Arthur Ransome in her new book Novel Crime Scenes: Twenty Deadly Landscapes.

Educated at Cambridge University, but settled near Oxford with her husband, Mrs Hardyment spent two years roaming across Britain from East Anglia to Dorset, the Outer Hebrides to the streets of the City of Dreaming Spires.

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She explained: “I have always loved literary geography books. I have written several books and I thought about crime novels and how a country house or the setting can be important for the book.

“I sought out authors who are attracted by the setting.”

Her first chapter examines how Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles was created through a chance encounter in Cromer on the North Norfolk coast where the writer heard about the tale of a black hound which tore the throat of a would-be-rapist in the wilds of Dartmoor.

The Hound of the Baskervilles on stage. (Image: Andreas Lambis)

Conan Doyle told his publisher The Strand Magazine, “I have a real creeper for you” and set off to explore the moor himself.

Mrs Hardyment said: “I found Conan Doyle very surprising as a character during my research for the book.

“He killed off Sherlock Holmes as he grew tired of writing stories about him. He fell down the falls with Moriarty.

“But after a journalist told him about the Legend of Dartmoor he then had to bring Sherlock Holmes back as a result to fit the narrative to the setting.”

The book also examines how a beautiful Georgian house inspired Agatha Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly. The author says Christie was “profoundly domestically minded” and “country houses, preferably with a body in the library, recur in her novels”.

Yet, the legendary crime writer also penned books which were inspired by the landscapes in her Devon heartland.

Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter

For those with a love of Colin Dexter’s work, a popular presence on the Oxford literary scene, there is a chapter on the Inspector Morse author’s exploits.

Wytham Woods and Park Town are among the spots at the heart of the classic tales which are the scene of mystery and intrigue for so many readers.

(Morse) Inspector Lewis (Kevin Whately) being filmed on Magdalen Bridge in Oxford. Image: Moselle Kennedy. (Image: Moselle Kennedy.)

As Mrs Hardyment writes, Oxford itself “is more visited because of Inspector Morse than because of its famous university”.

She adds that although the television series inspired thousands to immerse themselves in the Oxford-set stories, it was “no substitute for the evocative descriptions and historical background which the actual books provide for the settings of the novels”.

In the process of creating this insightful book, Mrs Hardyment followed in the footsteps of many authors to work out what the landscapes meant to them.

Her book, which is packed with illustrations and maps, gets to the heart of the places which have been pivotal for those who enjoy playing detective from the comfort of their armchair.

The book ranges from John Buchan’s Galloway Hills and Gwen Moffat’s Cape Wrath to Ellis Peters’ Shropshire, Margery Allingham’s Essex and Sam Llewellyn’s Isles of Scilly.

Speaking about who the book will resonate with, Mrs Hardyment said: “The book appeals to a wider audience as it gives you an understanding of why an author wrote a book.

“It is an approach you can apply to any novel or book. It’s for people who enjoy knowing or discovering a place where a book is set.”

Mrs Hardyment herself knows the importance of getting to understand a place which she found out through her own career.

Christina Hardyment (Image: Contributed)

She explained: “I came to Oxford in 1983 with three daughters and we really chose here because my husband was going to teach and my daughters needed a good school.

“I went to Cambridge University so Oxford was all very new to me.

“I started writing a book for Blackwells and then I was the editor for the alumni magazine Oxford Today.

Novel Crime Scenes, Twenty Deadly Landscapes by Christina Hardyment (Image: Christina Hardyment)

“This was a wonderful way to find out more about Oxford and I realised how knowing a place really well helps you to understand it better.

“Having that insight into a community creates a whole new world and layer of understanding.”

For the author, locations are just as essential to a masterful piece of writing as the characters we have grown to love such as Sherlock Holmes or Inspector Morse themselves.

Novel Crime Scenes: Twenty Deadly Landscapes by Christina Hardyment is published by Bodleian Library Publishing and it is 192 pages. It is available in hardback for £25.

Mrs Hardyment is also the author of Novel Houses (2019) and Writing the Thames (2016), both published by Bodleian Library Publishing.