There have been many writers in Rye over the centuries but it was from the late nineteenth century onwards that writers came to live in the town. By then it was more accessible because of the railway and it was seen as an unspoilt place of great charm. Henry James’ decision to live in Rye enhanced its already fashionable status amongst those wanting a rural retreat,
All the writers listed below lived in Rye and the immediate area.  Still more who visited or lived slightly further afield will be the subject of a future article.
AITKEN, Conrad (1889 – 1973)    American poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, and editor, regarded as important influence on modern poetry. Lived at Jeake’s’House, Mermaid Street between 1923 and 1939. Works include Great Circle and King Coffin. His children also became well-regarded authors, e.g. Joan Aitken wrote a number of successful novels for children and teenagers such as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and  Black Hearts in Battersea.
ATTWELL, Mabel Lucie (1879 – 1964)   Illustrator for books and magazines. Lived at Robin Hill, Mermaid Street, in the 1920’s. Developed a trademark style of sentimentalized rotund cuddly infants, which became ubiquitous across a wide range of markets: cards, calendars, dolls….
BATSFORD, Sir Brian Cook (1910-1991) Publisher, illustrator, painter and politician.  Lived at 10 Watchbell Street, then Lamb House, 1980 – 1987. Best known as Brian Cook, the illustrator/designer of the dust jackets of the highly-collectable Batsford books from the 1930s to the 1950s.
BENSON, A.C. (1862 – 1925) Biographer and one of the most prolific and popular essayists of the Edwardian period. Son of an archbishop of Canterbury, editor of the selected letters of Queen Victoria, and author of “Land of Hope and Glory” Lived at Lamb House 1919-1925. Works include  The Trefoil, Maggie Benson, From a College Window and Rossetti. He sometimes shared Lamb House with his brother E.F. Benson.
BENSON, E.F. (1867 – 1940) Prolific novelist, autobiographer and biographer and now more famous brother of A.C.Benson. Best remembered for his Tilling novels, social comedies set in Rye in the 1920’s and 30’s and featuring the rivalry between Mapp and Lucia. Mayor of Rye 1935 – 7. Lived at Lamb House 1917 -1940. Other works include Do Do, Our Family Affairs, Charlotte Bronte, Secret Lives and Final Edition.
BRADLEY, Arthur G (1850 – 1943).  Biographer and travel writer. Lived at West Watch, Traders Passage. His books include Canada, Life of Wolfe, the Highways and Byways series and The Story of the Kentish Cinque Ports.
CLARK, Dr. Edmund (1790 – 1836)Â Mountaineer who wrote The Ascent of Mont Blanc in 1825n
CHRISTOPHER, John (b 1922) , chief pseuudonym of Samual Youd, of Whitefriars, Conduit Hill. An award-winning writer of science fiction, much of it for teenagers, he has written some 50 books, the  best known of which are The Death of Grass , The Guardians and The Tripods trilogy (The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, and The Pool of Fire) whch was dramatized on TV.
DARWIN, Bernard (1876-1961).  Writer, authority on Dickens and golfer.  Grandson of Charles and Emma Darwin, and mostly  raised by his grandparents  Lived at the Dormy House by the Landgate in the 1950’s.   Wrote for The Times for 45 years, also for Country Life.  Twice Captain of Rye Golf Club, in 1906 and 1956, a gap of 50 years! Of his book of essays On Golf It has been said that “Nobody ever knew more about golf than Darwin or wrote about it so intuitively.”
DICKINSON, Patric (1914 – 1994) Poet, playwright and broadcaster. Lived at 38 Church Square. Edited several anthologies and collections of his own poetry. Works include This Cold Universe, Rift in Time, Not Hereafter, Durable Fire and The Good Minute.
FABES, Gilbert (1894 – 1973) Antiquarian Bookseller in Rye and writer. Works include Autobiography of a Book and Romance of a Bookshop.
GODDEN, Rumer (1907 – 1998) One of the foremost English language authors of the 20th century, writing novels, biographies, children’s books and poetry–some 60 works altogether including an autobiography, A  House with Four Rooms. Lived at Lamb House 1967 -1974 and also at Hartshorn House in Mermaid Street. Her books include The River, This House of Brede, An Episode of Sparrows, Black Narcissus, Greengage Summer, Time to Dance, No Time to Weep and several booiks for children and teenagers, e.g. A Kindle of Kittens, The Diddakoi, Thursday’s Children and A Peacock Spring.  Several of her books were made into films.
 HALL, Radclyffe (1880 – 1943). Novelist who lived in Rye with her great friend, Lady Una Troubridge between1928 and 1943.    She lived in various houses including  Santa Maria in West Street, 8 Watchbell Street, The Forecastle in Hucksteps Row, off Church Square, and Black Boy (later Charles II Guest House) in the High Street . Her best-known book is the lesbian-themed The Well of Loneliness . Other critically acclaimed works include Adam’s Breed, The Unlit Lamp, The Well of Loneliness  and The Sixth Beatitude (about life on Hucksteps Row).
HYDE, H. Montgomery (1907 – 1990) Biographer and historian, specialising in the 1890’s as well as a barrister and politician. Lived at Lamb House 1963 – 196; he was a distant cousin of Henry James. His books include  Famous Trials: Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, Henry James at Home, Mexican Empire, Lord Castlereagh and Princess Lieven,
IRWIN, Margaret ( d. 967) Historical novelist and noted authority on Elizabethan and early Stuart England. She lived at Fir Crest (now Arling House) in Hilly Fields, Rye Hill in the 1940’s. Her fifteen novels were esteemed for the accuracy of their historial research and the first in a trilogy on Queen Elizabeth, Young Bess, was made into a film. Other works include The Bride, Royal Flush, That Great Lucifer: a portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh and Gay Galliard (the story of Mary Queen of Scots).
JAMES, Henry (1843 – 1916) American born prodigious writer of fiction as well as travel, biography, plays and criticism , regarded as a key figure of literary realism. He  lived in Britain for the last 40 years of his life and at Lamb House 1898- 1916 , where he wrote several of his major works.  Books include The Turn of the Screw, Daisy Miller, What Maisie Knew, Washington Square, Portriat of a Lady, The Wings of a Dove, The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl, the last three written in Rye.
JEAKE, Samuel (1623 – 1690). Writer, astrologer, polymath.  Lived on Mermaid Street. Wrote on the Cinque Ports and also wrote the first history of Rye. Lived in what is now Hartshorn House, his wool store is now Jeake’s House.
MERYON, Charles (1783 – 1877) Doctor who accompanied Lady Hester Stanhope on her travels in the Middle East. He published  The Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope in 1846. The Meryon family lived in what is now known as The White Vine.Â
Dr. MERYON, Edward  (1807 – 1880). Natural son of John Meryon (one time mayor)  and nephew of Charles Meryon (above).  Became a distinguished and respected doctor, a Vice President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society and a Council member of the Royal College of Physicians. He did extensive research on muscular dystrophy in the early 1850’s .  It has been argued that the disease should be known as Meryon’s Disease rather than Duchenne’s Disease as his was the earlier work and more significant; the reason given for the lack of recognition is that  Duchenne’s work was published in a more prominent journal and more widely. Other works included The Constitution of Man and History of Medicine (1862).
RYAN, John (1922-2009) Author, illustrator and animator, creator of Captain Pugwash and other well-loved characters of book and TV. Lived at Gungarden Cottage near the Ypres Tower with artist wife Priscilla Blomfield Ryan, a staunch Rye Museum supporter. Captain Pugwash animated shorts became a long-running BBC series and the Captain Pugwash books are still popular.  There is a Captain Pugwash display in the  Rye Museum.  More background to the man and his work is available here.  Â
TODHUNTER, Isaac (1820 – 1884) Son of the first minister of Rye’s  non-conformist church (now The Studio) on Watchbell Street. A Cambridge mathematics don, he was also a Latin and Greek scholar,  familiar with at least 8 other languages, and knowledgeable in other fields.  He was a prolific writer of textbooks on mathematical subjects which were widely translated (e.g. into Urdu) and thought to be the most widely used in the world. He is considered one of the great mathematicians of the 19th century because of his many works on the history of mathematics.
VIDLER, Alec (1899 – 1990). Born in Rye, son of Leopold Vidler (below), he became a clergyman, later Dean of King’s College Cambridge and after retirement,  Mayor of Rye.    A writer of many books on aspects of religion, including Marriage and Religion, God’s Judgement of Europe, A Variety of Catholic Modernists and the autobiographical Scenes from a Clerical Life.
VIDLER, Leopold (1870 – 1954) born in Rye and father of Alec. Mayor of Rye and a Freeman, also founder and first Curator of Rye Museum. Lived at The Friars of the Sack in Church Square, owned by the family since 1801. He wrote A New History of Rye, still the most thorough history of the town.
WARRENDER, Lady Maud (1870 – 1945) Socialite who lived at Leasam on Rye Hill and entertained Edward VII, Edward Elgar, Henry James and E.F.Benson. She wrote an autobiography, My First Sixty Years
WHELPTON, Eric (1894 – 1981) Writer of nearly 30 travel books and guides popular in the 1950’s and ’60’s.  He lived at West Watch in Traders Passage.  At Oxford he had became a close friend of Dorothy Sayers who based her character of Lord Peter Whimsey on him and who later became his literary secretary. During WWII he was a BBC news correspondent in Europe. His last two books, The Making of a European (1974) and The Making of an Englishman (1977), are largely autobiographical.
In medieval times the shipyard at Smallhythe was one of the most important on the south coast.
