There are many writers who could be said to be writers of Thanet insofar as these writers came from or have been connected to Thanet.
I’ve divided this list of Writers of Thanet by town. My primary source of information for this list was Wikipedia. As a result, many new and emerging writers of Thanet will not be listed. Perhaps this could be the topic for an article you might like to submit?
Thanet’s Writers: Ramsgate
Anthony Buckeridge (20 June 1912 – 28 June 2004), an author best known for his Jennings series of novels, lived in Ramsgate and taught at St. Lawrence College.
Francis Burnand (29 November 1836 – 21 April 1917), was an English comic writer and dramatist who lived much of his life in Ramsgate.
Jefferson Hack, (born 20 June 1971), publisher, journalist and model, lived for many of his childhood and teenage years at Beach Grove, Cliffsend, near Ramsgate.
Karl Marx (1818–1883) is known to have stayed in the town some nine times.[1] as did his comrade Friedrich Engels One known spot is in Hardres Street. His eldest daughter Jenny Longuet Marx (1844–1883) lived for a period at 6 Artillery Road.
Thanet’s Writers: Broadstairs
John Buchan (1875–1940) was rumoured to have based his thriller The Thirty Nine Steps on the set of steps on the beach at North Foreland, Broadstairs, where he was recuperating from a duodenal ulcer in 1915.
Brian Degas, author, writer and creator of the TV Series Colditz, lives in the town.
Charles Dickens, novelist, had a holiday home in Broadstairs, where he wrote David Copperfield. For a period he owned Fort House on a promontory above the town, where he wrote Bleak House, which the location is now called.
Frank Richards (pen name of Charles Harold St John Hamilton; 1875–1961), the writer of the Billy Bunter novels, lived in Kingsgate, Broadstairs.
Bruce Robinson, author of Withnail and I etc., was born in Broadstairs in 1946.
Stevie Smith, poet, spent several years on and off in a sanatorium near Broadstairs while suffering from tuberculous peritonitis as a child.
Thanet’s Writers: Margate
Iain Aitch is an English writer and journalist who was born in Margate.
T. S. Eliot, poet, wrote part of The Waste Land in Margate in 1922, whilst recuperating from nervous strain.
Marty Feldman, comic writer and comedian, began his career aged 15 as part of a circus-style act at Dreamland Funpark in Margate.
Mike Stock is a British songwriter and record producer best known as a member of the songwriting and record production trio Stock, Aitken, and Waterman. He was born in Margate on 3 December 1951.
Which Writers of Thanet have we missed?
I know for a fact that the Wikipedia hs not listed all the published authors of Thanet. Would you be interested in writing a follow-up list of writers from Thanet that the Wikipedia does not list?
Have we missed any of the famous (or not so famous) writers of Thanet? Who else would you add?
How many of these writers had you heard of before today?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Sybil Burr. Life With Lisa. My favourite book as a child. The story is set in Ramsgate and you can follow places in the town. Laurie Webb, a teacher, lived in her house and campaigned to have a blue plaque installed there. Lisa visits the author there in the book! It’s in South Eastern Road
What a wonderful Thanet connection. Thank you for sharing it.
L.P. Hartley who wrote The Go Between went to school in Cliftonville. Hartley uses some of his own childhood memories to describe the train trip that Leo takes along the North Kent coast.
Baroness Orczy who wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel series lived, I think, near Minster for a time – I forget which village it is.
And it’s possible that Jane Austen had some connections with Thanet as her brother inherited an estate in Kent.
I did not know this. Thank you for sharing.