10 literary figures from Norwich and Norfolk
PUBLISHED: 10:21 05 May 2020

Charles Dickens set part of David Copperfield in Yarmouth (photo: Photos.com/Getty Images)
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Norwich is a Unesco city of literature – here are 10 people who have helped put Norwich and Norfolk on the literary map
- Anna Sewell was born in Yarmouth in 1820 and wrote the children's novel Black Beauty in Old Catton, near Norwich.
- Charles Dickens set part of David Copperfield in Yarmouth.
- Emma Healey, who wrote Elizabeth is Missing, arrived in Norwich to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia, and fell in love with the city.
- Sarah Perry's novels include The Essex Serpent and Melmoth.
- Philip Pullman wrote the world-famous His Dark Materials trilogy. He was born in Norwich in 1946.
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- Henry Rider Haggard, born in Bradenham, near Dereham in 1856, wrote adventure novels set in Africa.
- Luke Hansard, was a printer, born in Norwich in 1752. His company produced the record of Parliamentary debates which is still known as Hansard's.
- Julian of Norwich's account of her religious visions was the first book by a woman to be published in English. Another 14th century Norfolk mystic and author, Margery Kempe, wrote the first known autobiography by an English woman.
- Arthur Ransome set some of his Swallows and Amazons children's books on the Norfolk Broads.
- Jack Higgins was based in Blakeney while researching his novel The Eagle Has Landed.