Books set in fictional places

Books set in fictional places we wish were real

I was looking in the window of a travel agent the other day and thinking if I could go anywhere in the world, where would I go? Usually I dream about going to the Amsterdam of Jessie Burton’s The Miniaturist or the Portugal of Rebecca Mascull’s Song of the Sea Maid, but what about the places further inside our imaginations? Fictional, fantasy places we’d quite like to see for ourselves?

Everyone would probably think of Narnia, Hogwarts, Emerald City or Neverland but what about the fictional places in more adult books and even real places fictionalised so much that you can barely recognise them but would really like to go all the same? – well it is safe in the fictional world….( London as featured in The Ship for example or in Ben Aaronovitch for example would both be quite fun)

Dorset

Katherine Webb

Place – Blacknowle

Blacknowle is the place where Mitzy grows up in the wild foraging for her food and trying to keep away from her mother. She makes a friend on the beach one day – the landscape here is stunningly evoked – and it’s then she meets the artist called Charles Aubry who will change her life in ways no one could have expected. How I wanted to live in that cottage on the cover of the book. Filled with paintings by Charles Aubry and walk on that beach….

Italy

Andrea Camilleri

Place : Vigata

Have you been to Vigata? Because if you do, you’ll get to meet the one and only Inspector Montalbano who pays as much attention to his food and drink as his police work, if not more. When he’s not solving crime, he ‘s in a bar enjoying some good food or a cool beer and these novels made me want to eat any kind of Italian food as I read. I don’t think I’ve been to Vigata without joining the good inspector over a dish of something. Now this town is based on the real Porto Empedocle where the author lived as a child and it’s almost turned into Vigata as many bars and street signs have been adapted! There is also a statue of the great inspector himself in the town and I just love the fact that the inhabitants have taken this fictional setting and its characters to their hearts.

France

Celia Imrie

Place: Bellevue-sur- Mer

This place sounded so delightful and real that for a moment I really thought it was! A little seaside resort on the French Riviera where a number of expats live and yes, it could be real. There are quite a few characters there you’’ll love to meet as, well, let’s just say they belong on the stage which is quite apt really given the fact that in the novel the Cannes film festival is in town and Sally who lives in Bellevue wants to be there. The sun, French je-ne-sais-quoi and the whole cheery feel of this book makes me want to go to Bellevue sur Mer for real.

England

Jill Mansell

Place: Stanton Langley (The Cotswolds)

Even just judging by the cover on this lovely book, I want to go to Stanton Langley and have a garden and roses bushes like these characters. The village and the people there are just lovely and despite their problems and troubles in life, the fact that the village is like a small community really helps them to see life through different eyes. It’s the peace and quiet, the lovely haven tucked away from prying eyes that makes it so nice and Jill Mansell is just the perfect guide. I think when I’m there I might pop over to fictional Carsely and visit that quirky Agatha Raisin as she ‘s bound to up to something and it would be fun to join in her Cotswold capers.

And for the place that a mix of fact and fiction? Well it has to be Poldark’s Cornwall. I would go down to the bottom of that copper mine and work all day if it meant sitting down at that wooden table in Nampara and eat pie and drink ale with Poldark himself.  I would also love to meet Vera from Ann Cleeves’ Northumberland and take a ride in that jeep of hers over the Northumberland hills.

And at the end of the day, I would come home to my little book filled room and sleep with all the memories of my adventures around me – the books on the shelves and the stories and locations in my memories.

Susan Booktrailer