The British Book Club Tour

Day by day

Literary sites we visit

• Oxford, the university town of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien
• Chatsworth House (Pemberley)
• Jane Austen’s cottage in Chawton
• The Yorkshire moors of the Brontë sisters
• James Herriot’s Yorkshire Dales

From past tours

Packing list

Download the packing list (PDF)

Reading list

Download the reading list (PDF)

• September84 Charing Cross Road · Helene Hanff

  84 Charing Cross Road is Helene Hanff’s memoir told through real letters between her in New York and a London bookseller at Marks & Co., 84 Charing Cross Road. Over two decades they swap books, jokes, and care packages, forming a tender friendship across the Atlantic. It’s a love letter to bookish camaraderie and the joy of finding kindred spirits through pages.

• OctoberNorth and South · Elizabeth Gaskell

  North and South is Elizabeth Gaskell's novel of Margaret Hale, uprooted from gentle southern England to a smoke-choked industrial mill town in the North. There she clashes with John Thornton, a proud, self-made mill owner, in a battle of wills that slowly turns to grudging respect. It's a story of two worlds — and two stubborn hearts — learning to understand one another.

• NovemberShakespeare: The World as Stage · Bill Bryson

  Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare is a brisk, witty tour of what we actually know about the Bard—and all the myths we don’t. Sifting through scant records, Bryson debunks tall tales, sketches the Elizabethan world of theaters and plague, and celebrates Shakespeare’s astonishing language without getting lost in speculation. It’s a smart, friendly primer that leaves you admiring both the plays and the mystery.

• DecemberA Christmas Carol · Charles Dickens

  Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is a timeless tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, a bitter old miser who scorns Christmas and everyone who celebrates it. Visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his late business partner and three spirits of Christmas past, present, and yet to come, Scrooge is forced to face the life he's lived and the man he's become. Blending ghost story with holiday warmth, it becomes a moving meditation on generosity, memory, and the chance to change course before it's too late. Cozy, haunting, and full of candlelit redemption.

• JanuaryOnce Upon a Wardrobe · Patti Callahan

  Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan follows Megs Devonshire, a math student at Oxford in 1950, whose sick little brother adores Narnia and begs her to find out where it came from. Megs seeks answers from C. S. Lewis himself and, through his memories, learns how truth can hide inside story. It’s a tender, hopeful tale about wonder, family, and the magic behind the wardrobe.

• FebruaryRomancing Miss Brontë · Juliet Gael

  Romancing Miss Brontë by Juliet Gael is a richly imagined biographical novel of Charlotte Brontë—her secret authorship with Emily and Anne, their sudden literary fame, and the heartbreaks that shadow Haworth Parsonage. As sisters fall ill and acclaim grows, Charlotte wrestles with duty, ambition, and a surprising courtship with Arthur Bell Nicholls. It’s a tender portrait of genius forged in grief and love.

• MarchMiss Austen · Gill Hornby

  Miss Austen by Gill Hornby follows Cassandra Austen, decades after Jane’s death, as she quietly hunts down and safeguards her sister’s private letters. Moving between past and present, the novel reveals the sisters’ bond, long-kept secrets, and the sacrifices Cassandra made for family and for Jane’s legacy. It’s a tender, clever reimagining that puts the quieter Austen sister at center stage.

• AprilAll Creatures Great and Small · James Herriot

  All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot is a warm, funny memoir of a newly minted veterinarian working in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s. Through midnight calvings, quirky farmers, and mud-splattered drives, Herriot learns medicine, humility, and deep affection for his animal (and human) patients. It’s cozy, down-to-earth, and endlessly charming.

• MayThe Princess Bride · William Goldman

  The Princess Bride by William Goldman is a hilarious, swashbuckling fairy tale about farm girl Buttercup and her true love Westley, who must rescue her from a forced marriage to the villainous Prince Humperdinck. Along the way they team up with the unforgettable Inigo Montoya and gentle giant Fezzik, dueling through cliffs, fireswamps, and political plots. It’s a wink-filled “good parts version” that blends romance, adventure, and satire.

• JuneThe Tale of Beatrix Potter · Susan Wittig Albert

  The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert launches the cozy “Cottage Tales” series, starring Beatrix Potter as a gentle sleuth in the Lake District. Newly arrived in Near Sawrey after buying Hill Top Farm, Beatrix is drawn into village intrigues—and a suspicious death—while her animal neighbors chatter and help behind the scenes. It’s a warm, low-stakes mystery about community, change, and finding one’s place.

Your trip leaders

Vanessa

Founder · lifelong Anglophile

As a girl Vanessa lived in Scotland with her grandmother, who was working on a PhD in British Literature. Touring English manors, gardens and abbeys together turned her into a tea-drinking, scone-eating Anglophile for life. She also runs Wanderlust Crew, and has four children she loves to read with and drag around the world.

Tamara

Former bookseller, park ranger & teacher

Tamara found childhood kindred spirits in Matilda, Anne Shirley and Ramona, worked as a bookseller through college, studied literature in the UK, and has started five book clubs at last count. She has been a National Park ranger in Alaska and an elementary school teacher, and now homeschools her two children in Tennessee.

Questions