Children's Book Itinerary

With its peaceful countryside, dramatic coastline, historic sites and character-packed villages, it’s no wonder North East England has inspired so many popular children’s tales!

Lewis Carroll grew up in Croft-on-Tees . His father was rector of the local church, where the carving of a smiling cat is thought to have inspired the Cheshire Cat in ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

At Killhope, the North of England Lead Mining Museum , you can venture down a mine and evoke the abandoned mine settings of David Almond’s ‘Kit’s Wilderness’.

Durham Cathedral features in city resident Anne Colledge’s ‘Falling into Fear’. Colledge writes stories for children that feature deaf heroes and issues affecting the deaf community.

At Beamish Museum , original buildings make up a real town, manor, colliery and farm in either 1825 or 1913. Ride trams and trains, talk to costumed characters and visit the old-fashioned sweet shop!

The links with Lewis Carroll continue in Sunderland, and it is thought that carpenters working at Sunderland’s shipyards inspired Carroll’s ‘Walrus and the Carpenter,’ a link that is commemorated with a walrus sculpture in Mowbray Park, winner of Britain’s Best Park 2008.

South Tyneside was home to Dame Catherine Cookson and setting of her books, including her children’s book, Joe and the Gladiator. World-famous as ‘Cookson Country’, it’s a place of pilgrimage for thousands every year.

Tynemouth is the location of Robert Westall’s ‘The Watch House’ and ‘The Machine Gunners’ (in which the town is known as Garmouth). The Machine Gunners’ won the Carnegie Medal and was made into a BBC serial.

In Newcastle, Seven Stories , the Centre for the Children’s Book, spells a perfect family day out, while the Theatre Royal has featured in Lorna Hill’s much loved Sadler’s Wells ballet series. Newcastle is also the birthplace of David Almond, author of the award-winning ‘Skellig’.

Hadrian’s Wall , is a 73-mile-long World Heritage site and the setting of Alice Leader’s ‘Power and Stone’ and Rosemary Sutcliffe’s ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’. Two of the Wall’s best forts and museums are Housesteads and Vindolanda .

Alnwick Castle is the film setting of Harry Potter’s school Hogwarts, and boasts impressive architecture, stunning landscape, fine art treasures and great children’s activities.

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne , site of the first Viking attack on England, inspired local author Rosalind Kerven to write her highly-acclaimed series for seven-eleven year olds, ‘Grim Gruesome Viking Villain.’