This free online course offers learners the opportunity to explore the work of four writers or groups of writers from the Romantic & Victorian era with strong links to Bristol and the South West. The course covers Bristol’s Romantic poets (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Lovell, Robert Southey), Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, and Thomas Hardy, and addresses the following two overarching questions:

• What has been the importance of place to writers in the South West?
• What is the importance of writers to places in the South West today?

The course invites learners to consider how the featured writers were inspired by the landscapes and cityscapes of Bristol, Bath, and the West of England and how they engaged in a local or regional context with social and political issues of national importance. Learners will also consider how these same writers are remembered today and how they contribute to the cultural economy of the region; here in particular there will be scope for learners to share their own knowledge and experiences in an interactive learning environment.