Novel places - East Midlands

With the Peak District as it’s jewel in the crown, the East Midlands is a region of wonderous and atmospheric locations...

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik

Laurence paused, and looked over his shoulder. Temeraire looked too, and thought the house looked very like a jewel. Its pale yellow stone glowed with warm and inviting light, streaming from the many windows in so interesting a variety of shapes; the dozens of intricate towers and ornaments all in perfect order.  (Extract from Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik)

Naomi Novik writes...

Though I write fiction, and speculative fiction at that, I generally prefer to use real and accurate historical locations in my work - both because they have their own inherent truth and realism, and because I have always myself loved visiting places mentioned in my favorite books and recognizing where I stand, even if I have never been there before.

When trying to find an ancestral home for my protagonist, Captain William Laurence, I set out to find a real country estate not only grand enough to suit the consequence of his family but beautiful enough to implant itself in the heart of a man willing to sacrifice that consequence in the pursuit of his duty. I wanted a home that he could ache for, long years away at sea or at war, and which would be a palpable loss to him, if the door were barred against him.

Wollaton Hall, a beautiful Elizabethan manor in Nottingham, immediately suited: the house is enormous, but not heavy or dark or forbidding; the stone in photographs is light, almost golden, and the house full of windows, and surrounded by the most vivid green (and, most usefully for my purposes, a vast garden and deer park, for the more convenient feeding of dragons). The kind of place you could belong to, and which would not easily let go.

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The spot that marks the boundary between the Dark Peak and White Peak, the contrasting halves of the Peak District, provides the perfect symbolism for Stephen Booth’s crime series...

Dancing with the Virgins, Blind to the Bones, One Last Breath by Stephen Booth

Normally, this was his favourite time of year - these few weeks of hesitation before the start of winter. He liked to watch the hills changing colour day by day, and the Peak District villages emptying of visitors. But he could tell that today wasn't quite normal. There was a feeling about this particular Sunday that made him uncomfortable to be alone on Ringham Moor. There was something strained and uneasy in the way the trees stirred in the wind, in the way the dry bracken snapped underfoot, and the birds fell silent in the middle of the afternoon.  (Extract from Dancing with the Virgins by Stephen Booth)

Stephen Booth writes...

The Peak District has everything I need as a setting for my novels – atmospheric locations, the unique conflicts of Britain’s most visited national park, and thousands of years of history visible in the landscape.
My fictional town of Edendale was inspired by a wonderful vista of the Hope Valley from Surprise View, above Hathersage. That spot also marks a boundary between the Dark Peak and White Peak, the contrasting halves of the Peak District which represent perfect symbolism for a crime series - sudden eruptions of black, twisted rock reminding us of the darkness that lurks below the surface.

Since then, a different location has been central to each book. Particularly memorable is the eerie Stanton Moor, which provided my inspiration for the Nine Virgins stone circle, scene of a shocking murder for DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry to investigate in Dancing with the Virgins.

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