Literary London Weekend

Events

'Book' ahead

London hosts many events for lovers of all things literary. We strongly suggest some forward-planning if you want to catch a signing, event, market or book auction. However, events take place in the capital all year round, so the odds of you catching something special are pretty high.

Hotel

Louche lodgings

E M Forster apparently lodged in the Kingsley Hotel (now known as the Thistle Bloomsbury) from 1902 to 1904 - probably for its proximity to his Bloomsbury comrades. Today, it makes a great central lodging for the discerning literary disciple.

Romantic poets Keats, Shelley, Byron and Coleridge, along with writers Robert Louis Stevenson, D H Lawrence and J B Priestley all lived in Hampstead. A favourite hotel in this area is the well-priced Hampstead Britannia Hotel.

If you want to push the boat out, try Hazlitt's in Soho Square, named after the 19th-century writer William Hazlitt. This is a hip hotel with rooms named after its former guests. You could stay in the Jonathan Swift room or the Lady Francis Hewitt suite. We've heard on the grapevine that JK Rowling is rather fond of this swish hotel – hang out in the lobby with a copy of a Harry Potter, and she might even sign it for you!

Friday Night

Declaration of Defiance

When Hemingway stayed in London, he stayed at The Dorchester. And we presume when he stayed there, he drank at the Dorchester Bar, so begin your evening here.

For dinner, head over to The French House in Soho. The fabulous French House has counted scores of writers and actors as patrons. Charles De Gaulle even wrote his declaration of defiance against the Nazis here, and it's the place where Dylan Thomas famously got drunk and accidentally left his manuscript for Under Milkwood.

Saturday Morning

What the Dickens?

If you can, get an early start with a guided Dickens Walk.

London is Dickens' domain and some of the city's most evocative areas are Southwark and Borough. Saturday is market day at Borough – which is a real bonus. There are lots of amazing place to stop for lunch, but if the weather's good, why not grab a picnic, linger a while and enjoy the surroundings.

Saturday Afternoon

Bloom in Bloomsbury

Dickens lived and breathed London, apparently walking the city from morning to night – so after lunch why not cross the river and walk up Chancery Lane to Staples Corner and Lincolns Inn Hall. Then onto 48 Doughty Street, Dickens' only surviving home and now a museum devoted to him.

Doughty Street is in Bloomsbury, once the literary heart of London. The shops, the transport, the fashion and locals may have changed, but the architecture and atmosphere of the place that George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf once called home still hold good.

Two real treats for bookworms in the area are the British Library and the Reading Room at the British Museum. Take a little quiet time out in either (or both) at the end of the afternoon.

Saturday Night

London Fields

Martin Amis's ambiguously titled novel isn't actually set in the London Fields Park in Hackney – but this trendy, gritty part of east London is home to many of the city's intellectuals.

Tonight, head for Hoxton Square. The area is filled with some seriously hip bars and pubs, we suggest The Bricklayer's Arms in Charlotte Road and the Barley Mow on Curtain Road. For dinner, try either Hoxton Apprentice or The Real Greek.

Sunday Morning

Hang Out in Hampstead

Hampstead hangs onto to its literary and artistic traditions and is packed with bookshops and art galleries - a lovely spot to spend a lazy Sunday morning. A little like Bloomsbury and Dickens-land, Hampstead is best enjoyed on foot.

Sunday Afternoon

Keats' House

Hampstead also holds fascination for those interested in the poet, John Keats. A moment's walk from Hampstead Heath is the house where Keats lived from 1818 to 1820; the setting which inspired some of Keats's most memorable poetry. Here, Keats wrote Ode to a Nightingale, and fell in love with Fanny Brawne, the girl next door. It was from this house that he travelled to Rome, where he died of tuberculosis aged just 25.