Books set in and around Buckinghamshire

With the country in lockdown visiting different parts of our county is off limits as everyone is being told to stay at home. 

However, that shouldn't stop you from  exploring Bucks through literature with one of these top class novels:

Lark Rise to Candleford, Flora Thompson

This iconic trilogy by Flora Thompson is semi-autobiographical focusing on life in the countryside of north-east Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire at the end of the 19th century. 

First published in 1945 the stories were originally published as separately as they relate to three communities. 

Thompson grew up in Buckingham which was the inspiration for Candleford, the second novel. 

Synopsis: 

The stories tell the tale of Thompson's childhood and youth during the 1880s.

Through the eyes of Laura, the author's fictional counterpart, Thomspon describes the cottages, characters, and way of life of the agricultural labourers and their families with whom she grew up; seasonal celebrations, schooling, church-going, entertainment and story-telling are described in fond and documentary detail.

Later, when Laura leaves school and becomes assistant to the village postmistress, the same loving detail brings vividly to life the rural post office and its staff.

Matilda, Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl (PA)

The stunning children's novelist Road Dahl uses a small Buckinghamshire village as the setting for this world-famous story. 

Mr. Wormwood was based on a real-life character from Roald Dahl's home village of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire. 

The library in Great Missenden was the inspiration for Mrs. Phelps' library, where Matilda devours classic literature by the age of four and three months.

Synopsis:

Matilda is a very smart little girl who lives with her mean parents that don't care about a word she says. ... Her parents finally decide to send her to school, and Matilda has the sweetest teacher, Miss Honey but not a very nice principle, Miss Trunchbull. Matilda is about to find out that she has a special power.

Life after Life, Kate Atkinson

The first of two novels about the Todd family, Atkinson first published this award-winning novel in 2013. 

Awarded critical acclaim for its unusual plot structure, the story continually loops back in time to describe alternative lives for its central character Ursula Todd. 

Todd is born to an upper-middle-class family near Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire. 

The novel is followed by A God in Ruins. 

Synopsis:

During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath.

During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale.

What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to?

Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again.

Dusty Answer, Rosamond Lehmann 

Lehmann's first novel published in 1928 describes the interwar period and has been compared to the work of Keats.

The main protagonists romance with a fellow woman at University scandalized contemporary readers.

Synopsis:

The story contains many elements of the Lehmann's own childhood and upbringing.

Like the author, the protagonist, Judith Earle, grew up privately educated in a large riverbank house in Buckinghamshire.

Childhood friendships develop into romantic entanglements that continue as Judith leaves home for Girton College, Cambridge. 

Have you read any of these Bucks based books? Let us know in the comments.