See the new extended Writers Trail 2o23 which replaces this version
Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books: A quick guide
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Chiswick’s writers have created some of the country’s greatest works, from Thackeray’s Vanity Fair to Osborne’s Look Back in Anger and Pinter’s The Caretaker. Our Writers Trail features 21 acclaimed novelists, poets and playwrights who have lived in Chiswick or written about the area. It boasts one Booker Prize, two Nobel Prizes for Literature, three Oscars, four plaques and a Poet Laureate. The Observer wrote: Chiswick may be the UK’s most literary location.
The Writers Trail map is part of the Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books, which lists some 425 writers who have written a book and lived in Chiswick W4, or written books about the area. For an introduction, and full links, read A Quick Guide.
See more local information at Exploring Chiswick.
The ‘Writers Tales’ pages contain anecdotes, pictures and Chiswick links – including ‘Six Centuries of Chiswick Poets’.
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Click links below to read more information about the 21 writers. Pick up the map/flyer (detail right, click to expand) from St Michael & All Angels Church and elsewhere – or download it here. A new expanded map/leaflet will be published in late May 2023.
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Writers Trail: First Edition* – Names, references and links:
* The First Edition leaflet/map will be withdrawn at the end of May 2023 when an extended Second Edition will be published.
Citations from Writers Trail map in dark red.
More information and analysis in blue.
A) Nancy Mitford 1904-1973. Novelist: The Pursuit of Love, Love In A Cold Climate. Lived in Chiswick in the 1930s.
Rose Cottage, 84 Strand on the Green, W4 3PU (Private house, no access)
Nancy Mitford – novelist who lived at Strand on the Green The Chiswick Calendar
Who Was Who at Strand on the Green ChiswickW4.com
Rose Cottage – Panorama of the Thames
Nancy Mitford website
BBC adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love The Chiswick Calendar
Wigs on the Green (written at Rose Cottage) Wikipedia
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B) Harold Pinter 1947-2008. Playwright: Wrote The Caretaker when he lived in a first floor flat in Chiswick in the 1950s and 60s, and a tramp was invited to stay. Screenwriter: The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Betrayal. Oscar nominee, Best Adapted Screenplay 1981, 1983. Nobel Prize for Literature 2005.
373 Chiswick High Road, W4 4AG (Private house, no access)
‘Writers Tales’: Harold Pinter and The Caretaker
Watch Antonia Fraser & Michael Billington on Harold Pinter: Chiswick Book Festival 2020, YouTube.
Why Harold Pinter’s widow feels his screenplays deserve greater recognition The Observer
Playwright wins Nobel Prize for Literature ChiswickW4.com
The Nobel Prize: Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter Wikipedia
Renowned Playwright and Political Activist Harold Pinter Dies ChiswickW4.com
Harold Pinter, 373 Chiswick High Road: Notable Abodes
373 Chiswick High Road – Where Harold Pinter Wrote The Caretaker
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay – nominee
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C) EM Forster 1879-1970. Novelist: A Room with a View, Howards End, A Passage to India. Lived in Chiswick in the 1940s and 50s, when he broadcast reviews for the BBC. Nobel Prize nominee (in 16 different years). Companion of Honour, Order of Merit.
9 Arlington Park Mansions, W4 4HE – Blue plaque. (Private house, no access)
‘Writers Tales’: EM Foster and the Chiswick blue plaque
EM Forster – Edwardian novelist who lived at Arlington Park Mansions The Chiswick Calendar 2021
English Heritage Blue Plaques: EM Forster
Only Connect: EM Forster lived for over 20 years in W4
EM Forster Wikipedia
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D) Patrick Hamilton 1904-1962. Playwright: Gaslight, Novelist: His autobiographical trilogy Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky features scenes in Chiswick where he lived for many years.
2 Burlington Gardens, W4 4LT – Blue plaque. (Private house, no access)
Patrick Hamilton (writer) Wikipaedia
Blue Plaque Installed On Patrick Hamilton’s Childhood Home ChiswickW4.com
BBC to mark Patrick Hamilton centenary ChiswickW4.com
Hanging Out in Hangover Square Spiked Review of Books, via ChiswickW4.com
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (BBC Four) Wikipedia
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, DVD, £4 Amazon
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E) Dame Iris Murdoch 1919-1992. Novelist: The Bell, A Severed Head, The Sea, The Sea. Booker Prize 1978. Grew up in Chiswick and from 1947 lived in Barrowgate Road for some years.**
55 Barrowgate Road, W4 4QT. (Private house, no access)
**New information has emerged since the Writers Trail map was printed, but for consistency we have kept that wording above. In fact, Iris Murdoch’s family home for many years was at 4 Eastbourne Road, W4 3EB. Her parents lived there from 1926 to 1959 – see ‘Iris Murdoch in Chiswick’ below. 55 Barrowgate Road was nearby, but she only lived there for a few months in 1947, while her parents’ home was being repaired after bomb damage.
Iris Murdoch in Chiswick The Chiswick Calendar, March 2021
Iris Murdoch shortlisted for blue plaque The Chiswick Calendar, October 2021
Man Booker Prize 1978: The Sea The Sea
Iris Murdoch Wikipedia
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F) JG Ballard 1930-2009. Novelist: Empire of the Sun, Crash. Lived in a flat in Chiswick in the 1950s and wrote short stories before moving to Shepperton and writing full-time.
69 Barrowgate Road, W4 4QS. (Private house, no access)
‘Writers Tales’: JG Ballard at Chiswick House
J.G.Ballard Wikipedia
JG Ballard lived here: Flickr
JG Ballard obituary: The Guardian
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G) Alain-Fournier 1886-1914. French novelist, anglophile: a key scene in Le Grand Meaulnes was inspired by a works fete at Sanderson & Sons in Chiswick where, aged 19, he worked as a translator.
Voysey House, Barley Mow Passage, W4 4PN (no access)
‘Writers Tales’: Alain-Fournier, The Great Gatsby and a party in Chiswick
‘Writers Tales: Chiswick Library: Arthur Sanderson, Alain-Fournier & Ralph Miliband
Alain-Fournier Wikipedia
Chiswick Timeline – A History in Art & Maps: 1902 Voysey House
‘The memorable months he spent perfecting his English in Chiswick…’ The Economist
Letter in the Times Literary Supplement
Alain-Fournier, The Great Gatsby and a party in Chiswick The Guardian (via ChiswickW4.com)
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H) Ralph Griffiths 1720-1803. Publisher: Fanny Hill. Editor: The Monthly Review, London’s first successful literary magazine. Lived in Chiswick for 40 years.
Linden House, Turnham Green (demolished, now Linden Gardens W4 2EQ)
Hogarth, Griffiths and their Chiswick Friends: Val Bott & James Wisdom, Brentford & Chiswick Local History Journal 13 (2004)
Ralph Griffiths Wikipedia
Fanny Hill Wikipedia
Monthly Review (London) Wikipedia
The Monthly Review – January to April 1828 – free to read, on Google Books
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J) Anthony Burgess 1917-1993. Poet, Playwright, Novelist: A Clockwork Orange. Lived in Chiswick in the 1960s, where he wrote Nothing Like the Sun and Tremor of Intent.
24 Glebe Street, W4 2BG (Private house, no access)
‘Writers Tales’: Anthony Burgess in Chiswick
No Blue Plaque For Anthony Burgess’ Chiswick Home ChiswickW4.com
Fresh bid to secure blue plaque for the house where Anthony Burgess lived: The Chiswick Calendar, March 2020
Anthony Burgess Wikipedia
Anthony Burgess and Shakespeare – Graham Holderness blog
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K) Sir Arthur Wing Pinero 1855-1934. Playwright: The Magistrate, The Second Mrs Tanqueray, Trelawny of the Wells. Lived in Bedford Park, Chiswick in the 1880s.
10 Marlborough Crescent, W4 1HF (Private house, no access)
Bedford Park’s famous historical figures The Chiswick Calendar
Chiswick History – People by Gillian Clegg
Arthur Wing Pinero Wikipedia
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero lived here: Notable Abodes
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L) WB Yeats 1865-1939. Poet: The Lake Isle of Innisfree was written in Chiswick, possibly inspired by Chiswick Eyot. Lived in Bedford Park in the 1880s and 90s. Nobel Prize for Literature 1923.
3 Blenheim Road, W4 1UB (Green plaque from Bedford Park Society) and 8 Woodstock Road W4 1UE. (Private houses, no access)
WB Yeats: Nobel Prize winning poet The Chiswick Calendar
Celebrate poet WB Yeats in Bedford Park Spacehive
WB Yeats Bedford Park Art Project
‘Writers Tales’: WB Yeats in Bedford Park
Yeats in Bedford Park by Chris Deering ChiswickW4.com
Bob Geldof on WB Yeats: A Fanatic Heart – BBC Four
The Nobel Prize: William Butler Yeats
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M) Sergius Stepniak 1851-1895. Russian writer: Underground Russia. Said to be the model for the Russian exile in The Railway Children. Killed by a train at Woodstock Road level crossing.
48 Woodstock Road W4 1UF and 31 Blandford Road W4 1DX (Private houses, no access)
‘Writers Tales’: Sergius Stepniak, The Railway Children and Death of an Anarchist
Chiswick History – People by Gillian Clegg
Sergius Stepniak-Kravchinsky – Wikipaedia
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N) Sir John Betjeman 1906-1984. Poet Laureate, conservationist. Patron of the Bedford Park Society and Bedford Park Festival in the 1960s, helping protect the first garden suburb from developers.
St Michael & All Angels Church, Bedford Park, W4 1TT
‘Writers Tales’: John Betjeman and Bedford Park
Betjeman and the Battle of Bedford Park: The Chiswick Calendar, blog by Kate Bowes of the Bedford Park Society
John Betjeman Wikipedia
‘In defence of the suburbs’ by Brian Appleyard New Statesman
50 years of the Bedford Park Festival
John Betjeman – Poetry Foundation
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P) GK Chesterton 1874-1936. Novelist, poet, critic. In The Man Who Was Thursday, “Saffron Park” is a parody of Bedford Park: his fiancée lived in Bath Road.
Bath Road, Bedford Park, W4 1TT
GK Chesterton Wikipedia
In defence of the suburbs by Brian Appleyard: New Statesman
Chiswick in Fiction ChiswickW4.com
Chapter 1 of The Man Who Was Thursday
GK Chesterton – Poetry Foundation
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R) Alun Owen 1925-1994. Screenwriter, TV: No Trams to Lime Street and film: A Hard Day’s Night. Oscar nominee, Best Original Screenplay 1964. Lived in Chiswick in the 1980s and 90s.
4 Upham Park Road, W4 1PG (Private house, no access)
Alun Owen Wikipedia
A Hard Day’s Night Wikipedia
Chiswick History – People by Gillian Clegg
Owen, Alun (1925-1994) Biography Screenonline
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay – nominee
Alun Owen was one of a generation of writers, alongside John Osborne and Harold Pinter, championing kitchen sink realism Alun Owen Papers
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S) Alexander Pope 1688-1774. Poet, satirist. The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad. Translated Homer’s Iliad while living with his parents in Mawson Row from 1716-19.
House in Mawson Buildings, now the Mawson Arms pub, Chiswick Lane South W4 2QD (plaque and sign)
Alexander Pope, 18th Century poet who lived in Mawson Row by the Griffin Brewery The Chiswick Calendar 2021
Alexander Pope Wikipedia
Alexander Pope: Blue Plaque
Chiswick History – People by Gillian Clegg
‘Writers Tales’: Alexander Pope in Chiswick
Alexander Pope – Poetry Foundation
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T) WM Thackeray 1811-1863. Novelist, satirist: Vanity Fair begins in Chiswick Mall at Mrs Pinkerton’s Academy, based on Walpole House where Thackeray went to school in 1817.
Walpole House, Chiswick Mall, W4 2PS (private house, no access) but also see Chiswick Square W4 2QG – a sign claims it was where Becky Sharpe threw the dictionary.
‘Writers Tales’: Thackeray, Chiswick and Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray Wikipedia
Chiswick History – People by Gillian Clegg
‘Chiswick Mall’ – Opening chapter of Vanity Fair
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U) Ugo Foscolo 1778-1827. Italian poet and patriot: Dei Sepolcri. Buried in St Nicholas churchyard in marble chest tomb, but remains were returned to Florence at the King of Italy’s request.
St Nicholas Churchyard, Chiswick Mall W4 2PJ.
Ugo Foscolo Wikipedia
Chiswick History – People by Gillian Clegg
Ugo Foscolo in Regency London Byronico.com
Foscolo’s Grave, by Andrew Saint London Review of Books
St Nicholas Churchyard – notable tombs
St Nicholas Church, Chiswick Wikipedia
The Artists of Chiswick Old Cemetery Cemetery Club
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V) Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire 1757-1806. Socialite, novelist: The Sylph was published anonymously and reprinted four times. Called Chiswick House ‘my earthly paradise’.
Chiswick House and Gardens, W4 2QN. Free access to the gardens, for house see opening times, chiswickhouseandgardens.org.uk
‘Writers Tales’: Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, at Chiswick House
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire Wikipedia
‘Did you see the film The Duchess? Maybe you’ve read Amanda Foreman’s brilliant book…’
Amanda Foreman interview at Chiswick House
The Sylph: Northwestern University Press
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W) Robert Bolt 1924-1995. Playwright: A Man for All Seasons, Screenwriter: Dr Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia. Oscar, Best Adapted Screenplay 1966 & 1967. Lived in Chiswick for several years.
29 Hartington Road, W4 3TL. (Private house, no access).
Robert Bolt Wikipedia
‘Writers’ Lives’ – A-L
Robert Bolt BFI Screen Online
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
National Portrait Gallery: Robert Bolt
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X) John Osborne 1929-1994. Playwright: Wrote Look Back in Anger on Chiswick houseboat, where it was optioned for £25 in 1955. Screenwriter: Tom Jones, Oscar, Best Adapted Screenplay 1964.
Cubitts Yacht Basin, now Chiswick Quay, W4 3UR. (Private estate)
John Osborne: a natural dissenter who changed the face of British theatre – Michael Billington, The Guardian
‘Writers Tales’: John Osborne and Look Back in Anger
John Osborne Wikipedia
Photograph of Osborne on Chiswick houseboat Picture Post
Fifty Years of Anger by Mark Lawson The Guardian
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
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The second edition of the Chiswick Timeline Writers Trail map will be published at the end of May.