9+ Books to Take Me Back to England

At the end of August, my family took a trip to England. It was a whirlwind of a trip (notice I don’t use the word “vacation”) and we saw so much in just a short amount of time! Even though we were exhausted upon returning, I wasn’t ready to stop thinking about and spending time in that great country.

Books are a wonderful way to travel! Thankfully, I have many at home that can whisk me back across the sea. Just in case you’d like to go, too, here are a few books for each of the main places we visited.

London

There are seriously too many books set in this magnificent city to name in this post. You're very smart. I know you can think of some off the top of your head already. 

Here are the first ones I came to on my bookshelf:

For a rip-roaring romp through Victorian London, The Thief of Blackfriars Lane and its sequel, The Bride of Blackfriars Lane by Michelle Griep.

For Regency London with sophistication and mystery: The Debutante’s Code and Millstone of Doubt by Erica Vetsch.

World War 1 intrigue? The Codebreakers series by Roseanna M. White will keep you turning the pages, starting with The Number of Love.

(I cannot get started on World War 2 novels set in London. The list is nearly endless. You understand.) 

Oxford

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, of course! Also, many readers will immediately think of Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan. Even more than that, I enjoyed Callahan’s Once Upon a Wardrobe.

For captivating memoir, check out Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber for her journey from atheism to Christianity while a student of literature at Oxford.

The one I picked up as soon as I got back from our trip, however was the nonfiction book, A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 by Joseph Loconte. It gave me a whole new perspective on these classic works.

Side note: We did go to The Eagle & Child pub where Lewis, Tolkien, and the other Inklings frequented, but it has been closed since 2020. So sad!

Stratford-Upon-Avon

This is Shakespeare’s birthplace, so help yourself to anything he wrote. Or, for a story set firmly in this location, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell is the story about Shakespeare’s son. This is a general market book.

The Cotswolds

We were fortunate enough to visit some smaller villages in the Cotswolds, too, which were so charming, and would be even more so if it were not for tourists like us overtaking them. (I’m sorry, Bourton-on-the-Water! We’ll leave you alone with your traditional artisan Cotswolds ice cream now.)

For a series set in an English village, I’m going to reach for Julie Klassen’s Ivy Hill books, starting with The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill.

Another village we visited was Bampton, which was used in the filming of Downton Abbey. For an upstairs-downstairs drama vibe within Christian fiction, I'll read the Edwardian Brides series by Carrie Turansky, starting with The Governess of Highland Hall. 

*You may be wondering why this list doesn’t mention Jane Austen, the Brontes, Winston Graham, or James Herriot. Simple! I didn’t visit those areas of England represented so well by those authors. At least not on this trip. But I sure know what to read if I want to go there vicariously. 

Did any of the books in this post catch your eye?

Where do you enjoy visiting through fiction? Let me know in the comments!

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