The Dacorum Heritage Trust cares for a large collection of fiction, poetry, natural history, local history and many other genres written by authors who were born or lived in the Dacorum area.
These include well-known and loved authors like Graham Greene from Berkhamsted and Jennifer Worth, who wrote the Call the Midwife series, based on her own experiences, and lived in Hemel Hempstead, through to writers such as Fredrick Sadleir Brereton, another Hemel Hempstead resident, who wrote over forty novels and local history tomes during his lifetime, but is now some-what forgotten.
Therefore we want to promote these fantastic minds, like Brereton, so they are never lost and don’t forget you can still read many of their works at your local library!
Here is an overview of some of the author’s works held in our collection and the area within Dacorum they were associated with: (please follow the links for more information)
Sir James M. Barrie (Berkhamsted) – Novelist and playwright
Vicars Walker Bell (Little Gaddesden) – Memoirs and local history
Gordon Beningfield (Water End) – Wildlife artist and author
Frederick Sadleir Brereton (Hemel Hempstead) – Novelist and local history author
T. R. Burch (Berkhamsted) – Historical Novels
William Cowper (Berkhamsted) – Poet and hymn writer
Freda Downie (Berkhamsted) – Poet
Maria Edgeworth (Northchurch) – Novelist and children’s books
William Ellis (Little Gaddesden) – Agricultural subjects
Graham Greene (Berkhamsted) – Novelist
Scott Hastie (Berkhamsted) – Poet
W. J. Locke (Hemel Hempstead – Novelist and Playwright
Richard Mabey (Berkhamsted) – Naturalistic topics
Gerald Massey (Tring) – Poet
Edward Popple (Berkhamsted) – Travel Journal
Marjorie Quennell (Berkhamsted) – Illustrated history books
H. E. Todd (Kings Langley and Berkhamsted) – Children’s book
G. M. Trevelyan (Berkhamsted) – Historical books
Mrs Humphrey Ward (Aldbury) – Novelist
Jennifer Worth (Boxmoor) – Memoirs