Mariella Frostrup takes a literal and literary ramble up Haworth Moor, in the Yorkshire Pennines, to discover the wild, dark and changeable landscape which inspired writers from the Bronte sisters to Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Joined by John Bowen, Professor of 19th Century Literature at the University of York and Will Atkins, author of 'the Moor', she journeys to Top Withens, the supposed site upon which Wuthering Heights was based.

John Bowen talks about the sense of liberty that the moors provided for the Bronte sisters, whose personification of the landscape in their literary characters is crucial in their work. Will Atkins has travelled through most of the moorland in England and discusses the particular brooding quality of these northern moors, and their impact on authors who have passed through them. Author Ross Raisin tells Open Book why he chose his home territory, the North Yorkshire Moors, as the setting for his 2008 debut novel 'God's Own County', the book which won him the Times Young Writer of the Year Award and discusses the impact that growing up within an isolated landscape has had on his work.

Presenter Mariella Frostrup.
Producer Ruth Sanderson. Show less