About Literary Lady Tours
Book and period drama tours created by Nicola James, qualified Blue Badge Tour Guide
It all started in 1995.
I was 10 years old and utterly captivated by Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth Bennett and Colin Firth's Mr Darcy. The ultimate enemies to lovers (still to this day my favourite romance trope).
I had the VHS, the companion "making of" book and went on my first pilgrimage to Jane Austen's House in Chawton. I've been happily lost in Austen ever since.
Skip forward to my teenage years, to day trips to London with my mum. I always wanted to help tourists get the very best out of London, giving directions or recommending sights a little off the beaten track. A bit odd, I know! I just remember wanting visitors to have the best possible time. The seed of becoming a tour guide was planted.
Skip forward again through an English degree, a career in London that I fell into rather than loved, and finally settling in Winchester with my family. The seed began to grow. I contacted my local tourist office, and they recommended a training course to become a qualified Blue Badge Tour Guide for Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight, accredited by the Institute of Tourist Guiding. A year of study, many exams and many new friends later, my tour guide era began.
I qualified in 2023 and whilst I love a coach excursion to Stonehenge and meeting cruise passengers in Southampton and Portsmouth, my favourite tours are of Jane Austen's Hampshire: the villages of Steventon and Chawton and her final resting place, Winchester Cathedral. I didn't move to Winchester for this reason, but if feels serendipitous to live in a place so connected to the author I've loved for most of my life.
So after leading many of these tours and meeting lots of amazing Jane Austen fans from around the world, I've decided to set up my own tour operating business so you can book me directly. I hate photos of myself, but in a world of AI I think it's important to show that I'm a real person, and you can't beat a real person showing you the best bits of their city and region. Even if my eyes are closed in some of these photos!
And it's not just me; I work with lots of wonderful qualified Blue Badge Tour Guides and local drivers who know the lanes of Hampshire like a black cab driver knows London. If you come on one of my book and period drama tours, you will be getting the very best guides and drivers in the region.
Almost all of my clients so far have been women who love books, hence the name Literary Lady Tours. But gentlemen book lovers are very welcome too! And whilst most of my tours are about Jane Austen and literary heroines, we won't ignore the likes of Thomas Hardy when travelling through Hardy's Wessex or Charles Dickens in Portsmouth. My tours are for everyone.
I love nothing more than planning an itinerary, so please do get in touch via the contact form below if you're travelling to the UK and want to create the perfect book and period drama tour.
