Rudyard Kipling
Simla, as Shimla was then known, was the summer capital of the Raj. As a young reporter, Kipling covered "the season", when the cream of the empire fled the scorching plains. This inspired Plain Tales from the Hills, his sometimes "tragic stories about the idiosyncrasies of British India". It is "no longer a half-timbered Haslemere in the Himalayas" the town has grown hugely. But there's still plenty of charm along the central piazza of The Ridge, "with its holiday atmosphere: horse riding, balloons, candyfloss and much promenading".
The Oberoi Cecil hotel was built on the site of the Tendrils, one of Kipling's homes, and is furnished in Raj-style luxury". Many rooms "offer panoramic views over the mountains, with ranges silhouetted against each other".
A ten-night private tour, with flights and train travel, costs from £3,295 per person. Contact: CoxAndKings.co.uk, 020-7873 5000.
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Agatha Christie
Torquay "makes an ideal starting point for a Christie-themed tour of the county". Just head to the seafront and pick up the Agatha Christie Mile "a series of sites with strong links to the author".Be sure to visit Torre Abbey along the way. It's home to the Agatha Christie Potent Plants display, inspired by the poisons used in her murder mystery novels.
As for a place to stay, further up the coast Burgh Island offers "an isolated slice of 1930s glamour". Cut off from the mainland at high tide, it is home to the Burgh Island Hotel. The potential for a murder scene was "not wasted on the author". The Art Deco property inspired two of her novels: Evil Under the Sun, and "her masterpiece"And Then There Were None.
From £310 a night. See BurghIsland.com for details,or call 01548-810514.
Mark Twain
"Both The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that evocative cocktail of small-town Americana and juvenile mischief and its successor The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were the products of this creative cauldron." The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum is "abutted by the fabled white picket fence which Sawyer is regularly asked to paint as punishment for his assorted misdemeanors".
The Mississippi river flows through both adventures. It is also the river on which Twain worked as a steamboat pilot and where he got his pen name "Mark twain!' being a steamboat man's call to declare that the water in front is sufficiently deep". For those looking "to ride in his wake", Noble Caledonia is running an 11-night river cruise on the paddle-steamer the America next September, charting Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
From £4,495 per head including flights (020-7752 0000, Noble-Caledonia.co.uk.)
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