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111 illustrations - 50 in colour - 3 maps

Available post-free in the UK from the publisher's website, www.lifeisamazing.co.uk.

Join local writer Matt Wingett and see Portsmouth through the eyes of writers such as Charles Dickens, Beatrix Potter, P G Wodehouse, H G Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Olivia Manning and even Mahatma Gandhi.

From the heights of Portsdown Hill to the crowded streets of Portsea, from the chaos that was Old Portsmouth to the beaches of Southsea and even the skies above, discover just what writers famous and obscure wrote about the town. On the way, you will meet carousing sailors, enterprising bumboat women, obsessive fortune-tellers, fallen women, moral and immoral landladies, treacherous pilots, disapproving generals and many more characters both fictional and historical in this personal and slightly eccentric tour.

In this book you will discover -

- Which Portsmouth woman wrote America's first ever bestseller

- Why St Jago the monkey became famous at The Common Hard

- What H G Wells hated about Portsmouth

- Where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first set foot in Southsea

- What Lawrence of Arabia was doing in Southsea

- Where midshipman Peter Simple was sent for his cocked hat

Crammed with 111 illustrations, many in colour. Each location is illustrated with a picture taken from the author's personal collection, and he shares stories, facts, quasi-facts and complete fictions in an exploration of the literary heritage of the town.

For anyone interested in Portsmouth, great writing and history, this is the perfect read.