Literary Maldon

The Maldon District is home to a wealth of talented authors and has been the inspiration to many more – so why not curl up with a good book that has a local connection?

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Here are some ideas for novels to read that are set in and around the Maldon District:

Patrick Forsyth lives near Heybridge, overlooking the Blackwater estuary, and as a professional writer has created more than 100 different books over his career, mainly business and travel guides. He recently branched into creating novels, mainly set in and around Maldon. A Rather Curious Crime tells the story of a young reporter, Alice Carter, in her first local newspaper job in the town. His other novels include Once A Thief, Long Overdue and Loose Ends. Talking about his fifth novel, Where There’s A Will, Forsyth said: “I guess it’s what has recently been christened ‘cosy crime’, and like my previous novels the protagonists are ordinary people caught up in circumstances that involve them with difficulties or crime of some sort – here a planned assassination.”

The wilder parts of the Dengie Peninsula are the setting for two novels by rural Essex-based writer Ash Greenslade – The Fate of Edwin Craugh and Beneath Dead Oaks. The events take place in the early 20th century, with the characters speaking in the traditional rural Dengie accent of the time. Greenslade also writes contemporary espionage thrillers set around Essex, Suffolk and London.

Wanda Whiteley had spent a career working in publishing, but finding herself at home during lockdown she decided to finally write her own novel, set in the marshlands around Goldhanger and Osea Island and set in the time of Mary Tudor’s attempt to flee via the River Blackwater. The Goldhanger Dog tells this historical story through the eyes of Dela, a teenager with a strange gifts, who rescues Turnspit the dog who becomes her faithful companion.

Joseph Chadwick is a young author living in Maldon, who set up his own publishing company, Crescent Swan Publishing, to get his debut novel The Briarmen onto the market. While the novel is set in the fictitious village of Brombury, it was inspired by an event that occurred while Chadwick was running at Beeleigh, and a plane flew low overhead. The story is set during World War II, when an evacuated boy meets four fantastical creatures living in a wood, where a German plane is rumoured to have crashed.

Michaela Trueman is a young romance writer from Bradwell-on-Sea, whose novels are all set in Essex. Their novels include Cue Romance, Home is Where the Heart Is and The Christmas Genie’s Wish, with locations including Hylands Park and Colchester.

Owen Knight lives in Little Baddow, but it’s the surrounding Essex countryside that his inspired his work, which includes Another Life, which mixes folklore and time travel, and the YA series The Invisible College Trilogy.

Ryan Mizzen is a children’s author based in Maldon who specialises in raising awareness of the climate crisis through his writing. His beautifully illustrated picture books include Hedgey-A and the Honey Bees and Nanook and the Melting Arctic.

Sam Scott lives in the north of the district and writes books for children and young adults, including House of Hundred Doors, a YA supernatural horror story and Sophie Spirit and the Batting Manor Mystery, a children’s ghost story. She has just released her fourth novel, a horror story called House of a Hundred Doors, based around a former asylum close to where she grew up in Chigwell.

Recently adapted for TV, award-winning The Essex Serpent by Essex-born Sarah Perry, has a variety of settings around the River Blackwater, where Victorian naturalist Cora Seaborne (played by Claire Danes in the TV adaptation) and vicar William Ransome (Tom Hiddlestone) investigate a mysterious sea monster that has terrified the village.

Also on a river theme, Blackwater by James Henry is the first of a series of detective thrillers set in and around Colchester in the 1980s, with this book set in the Blackwater Estuary in the Maldon District. The second in the series, Yellowhammer, revolves around the world of Essex antique dealers, with the third volume, Whitethroat, featuring his hero, DI Lowry, investigating a murder in the garrison town of Colchester.

For even more local detective action, check out DS Anne Edwards, the lead character in two new books set in the district by Barrie Jaimeson. Death at the Queen’s Head and Murder on South House Chase follow the detective around a series of familiar locations, including Hythe Quay and the sea wall.

The famous Flambards trilogy of novels was inspired by writer K M Peyton’s childhood stay at Flambirds Farm in Cold Norton in the 1930s, and was later turned into a 13-episode TV series. The disused World War I airfield nearby that gave her inspiration for the award-winning novels, is now the Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome historical attraction. The author, whose home overlooks the River Crouch, was awarded an MBE in 2014, the same year her most recent book, All That Glitters, was published.

One of the Maldon District’s most famous authors, who has a road named after in her home village of Tolleshunt D’Arcy, was Margery Allingham, a prolific writer of detective stories best known for the novels featuring gentleman sleuth Albert Campion, made into a TV series starring Peter Davison. The first book featuring Campion, The Crime of Black Dudley, was published in 1929 and the last one, Cargo of Eagles, posthumously in 1968. She also wrote the popular non-fiction volume, The Oaken Heart, which follows life in the village during World War II. Allingham died in 1966 and is buried in the newer Tolleshunt D’Arcy burial ground.

If non-fiction is more your thing, then there are some interesting volumes of local history available, including:

The 1953 Essex Flood Disaster: The People's Story was written by Patricia Rennoldson Smith, a retired headteacher and Ofsted inspector from Maldon. Her account of the tragedy tells stories of victims and survivors of that terrible night.

One of Howard’s: The life & Times of John Howard, Maldon Shipwright by David Patient. Patient has been a shipwright for 42 years and ran his own bargeyard in Maldon, and here he tells the story not only of John Howard and his elegant barges but the whole history of sailing barge making in the town.

The Borough of Maldon: 1688-1800: A Golden Age by J R Smith. The author was an archivist in the Essex Record Office for 35 years, during which time he gained a deep knowledge of the Maldon Borough archives and other records relating to the town which he used to create this richly illustrated history.

In and Around Heybridge in the 19th and 20th Centuries is an incredibly detailed account of the area created by longstanding parish councillor and Chairman, Beryl Claydon.

Good Ghosts of Maldon Essex - Supernatural Stories From The Maldon District, The Maldon Earthquake, and Maldon's People From The Past are three short booklets of local tales by Robert J S Long MBE, a long-serving parish and district councillor, and former council chairman, who designed Maldon District Council’s coat of arms.

Going with the Flow: A History of Langford Waterworks and the Museum of Power was written by Dr Patrick Chaplin of Maldon, who published the history book about Langford where he was raised, documenting the story of the waterworks that was built there in the 1920s.

Goldhanger an Estuary Village by Maura Benham has long since been out of print, but the trustees of her estate have kindly put a copy online to read free of charge. You can find it here. Maura was born into a well-known Colchester publishing family, and after studying at the London School of Economics she took a post in Hong Kong as Principal Almoner. On her retirement she lived in Goldhanger and wrote a number of local history books.

Migration to Maldon: The Story of the Evacuees and Others Who Came to Maldon District During World War II by Margaret Rooke-Matthews features recollections of evacuees compiled from letters and interviews.

If you've come across any more great stories set in the Maldon District do let us know on tourism@maldon.gov.uk and we will add them to the list!