Become a Home Based Travel Agent

 Tours of your Bookshelf
By: Paull Tickner

You’ve read the books, enjoyed the movies and may even have the DVDs but have

you ever thought of using Agatha Christie, Inspector Morse, Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland, Brideshead, and Dracula as possible ‘pied pipers’ for a rather different tour to the UK?

Brideshead Revisited at Castle Howard, Yorkshire

Like you perhaps, many of them will have spent several pleasant evenings glued to the latest Masterpiece Theatre production.  Away form the television screen, these clients of yours could well belong to reading circles, be supporters of fund raising activities for the local library or be English literature teachers. 

Some fairly simple research may also reveal a murder mystery book club or speciality bookstore whose owner may be very interested in helping you to market a programme to their members and clients. 

Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot on the English Riviera

Why not offer them the annual Agatha Christie Festival.  Between 13th-19th September 2009, the English Riviera (aka the Devon coastal towns of Torquay, Brixham and Paignton) becomes the murder capital of Europe, with a large number of people being shot, stabbed, strangled, poisoned, drowned, bludgeoned and asphyxiated. But don’t panic – none of it is for real!

It’s all part of the annual celebration of the life of Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crimewriters who was born in the resort 118 years ago.  Since that time, she has sold more than two billion books, which have been translated into over 70 languages, making her the most widely published author of all time.  The festival celebrates this remarkable fact by staging over forty events including plays, open-air cinema screenings, tea dances, flower festivals, walks, talks, book signings, classic car treasure hunts and even murder mystery balls. Access from London is very easy especially if you let the train take the strain both there, and back.

Returning to London, spend a day in Oxford following in the footsteps of Inspector Morse and his loyal assistant, Lewis.  For real fans, a two night on location programme will do the trick.

Oxford, the city of dreaming spires introduces another tour that could work very well for a family or a group of teachers because here, in Christ Church College, you can bring together Harry Potter, and Alice in Wonderland.  CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien (and many others) can be added to the list of famous authors who are associated with this famous university city.  Oxford also makes a very good base for a morning visit to Stratford upon Avon to see the Shakespeare Houses through the eyes of costumed interpreters, an afternoon matinee at the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a very pleasant Cotswold pub supper on the way back to the hotel.

To make this itinerary even better for families, you might like to add a visit to Roald Dahl’s former home, a touch of Wind in the Willows at Mapledurham House and a game of Pooh Sticks in One Hundred Acre Wood in the Ashdown Forest.

Your research will no doubt reveal that there’s a Friends of Libraries group on your doorstep.  Some of your clients may be active members and, because they know you well, they will be more than willing to introduce your expertise and help you to promote a Jane Austen tour.  It begins with a visit to Chawton where she wrote or revised her six great novels and includes her burial place in Winchester Cathedral.  The tour concludes with a closer look at Georgian Bath which in September, hosts the annual Jane Austen Festival.

Jane Austen's home, Chawton near Winchester:

In the north of England, another fantastic tour can begin in the Lake District where you will discover the sources of inspiration for William Wordsworth and other great Lakeland poets and painters and, if you keep your eyes open, you might just catch sight of Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, Peter and other much-loved Beatrix Potter characters.  Not very far away there’s the Parsonage at Haworth the family home of the Bronte Sisters.  The Viking city of York then makes a very good hub for Brideshead Revisited at Castle Howard, a tour of James Herriot’s Yorkshire Dales and a late afternoon, somewhat spooky walk around Whitby, for ever associated with Count Dracula.

In South Wales, we can bring to life the life and time of Dylan Thomas with visits to his home in and around Swansea and add an evening of music and poetry, including extracts from ‘Under Milk Wood’ with the Merlyn Theatre Company. We can also add another evening of storytelling with another memorable private performance in a very atmospheric Welsh setting

As to the when of travel, the UK is blessed with an almost year long selection of literary, poetry and storytelling festivals around which you can build a very successful UK tour.

Go and check your bookshelf and take a look at the British novelists you may find there.  Then do the same with some of your customers and you may well find that you’ve found the foundations for an imaginative and unforgettable UK tour.