COLLECTIONS & RESEARCH

Literary Collections

  • Doll fan

    Jane Austen

    Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was one of Lyme Regis’s most famous and best-loved visitors. Her great novel, Persuasion, published in 1818, is in part set in Lyme, making the Dorset town a centre of literary pilgrimage ever since.

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  • A selection of books by John Fowles

    John Fowles

    John Fowles, writer, curator, collector. In 1978 when the writer John Fowles became curator of Lyme Regis museum, its fortunes started to change.

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  • Literary Lyme

    Lyme’s Literary and Artistic Connections

    Lyme Regis has long been a magnet for artists and writers.  Many came to this picturesque Dorset town for holidays and were inspired by the character of the town and its environment.  Others came here for health reasons.  Some came as children and returned in adulthood.

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  • Tracy Chevalier Remarkable Creatures

    Tracy Chevalier

    In 2009 Tracy Chevalier published her novel Remarkable Creatures about Lyme Regis’s famous fossil-hunter Mary Anning and her friendship with Elizabeth Philpot.

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