Editing Southwold (section)

==Culture==
===Film and television===
The fictional Southwold Estate, seat of the equally fictional Earls of Southwold, is the [[country estate]] of the family of [[Lady Marjorie Bellamy]] in the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] British drama ''[[Upstairs, Downstairs (1971 TV series)|Upstairs, Downstairs]]''.

The town and its vicinity has been used as the setting for numerous films and television programmes, including ''[[Iris (2001 film)|Iris]]'' about the life of [[Iris Murdoch]] starring [[Judi Dench]], ''[[Drowning by Numbers]]'' by [[Peter Greenaway]], ''[[Kavanagh QC]]'' starring [[John Thaw]], ''East of Ipswich'' by [[Michael Palin]], ''[[Little Britain (sketch show)|Little Britain]]'' with [[Matt Lucas]] and [[David Walliams]], and a 1969 version of ''[[David Copperfield (1969 film)|David Copperfield]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oldcity.org.uk/norwich/film/copperfield1.php |title=David Copperfield |publisher=Old City |date=8 November 2004 |access-date=23 February 2013 |archive-date=14 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014064352/http://www.oldcity.org.uk/norwich/film/copperfield1.php |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The [[BBC]] children's series ''[[Grandpa in My Pocket]]'' was filmed in Southwold, Walberswick and [[Aldeburgh]].<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/tv/2009/wk6/feature_grandpa.shtml BBC press release] Retrieved 26 April 2012</ref> Only exteriors of buildings were filmed, e.g. the Lighthouse – no acting was done there. An ITV1 drama, ''[[A Mother's Son]]'', first broadcast in September 2012, was filmed on location in Southwold.

===Novels===
[[Julie Myerson]] set her 2003 murder novel ''Something Might Happen'' in an unnamed Southwold – "a sleepy, slightly self-satisfied seaside town". She said that setting a murder in the car park made her feel as if she were "soiling something really good". She holidayed in the town as a child and remarked in an interview that everything else in her life had changed, but her mother and Southwold had stayed the same. She still owns a second home there.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/company/about-us.html/offthepage/guide.htm?command=Search&db=/catalog/main.txt&eqisbndata=0099453525 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514195049/http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/offthepage/guide.htm?command=Search&db=%2Fcatalog%2Fmain.txt&eqisbndata=0099453525 |url-status=dead |title=About us |archivedate=14 May 2008 |website=www.penguin.co.uk}}</ref>

Other books set in Southwold include [[Esther Freud]]'s novel ''Sea House'' (2004), with Southwold as Steerborough.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jul/06/fiction.features2 |title=Mysteries under an open Suffolk sky - once you've got your bearings |last=Kellaway |first=Kate |date=2003-07-05 |newspaper=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077 |access-date=2016-09-28}}</ref> Southwold native [[Stephen Southwold|Neil Bell]] in ''Bredon and Sons'' (1933) about boat-building people). ''Forgive us our Trespasses'' (1947), based on a true story of twin boys lost at sea, renames the town Senwich.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} ''[[The Bookshop]]'' by [[Penelope Fitzgerald]] (1978) drew on her experiences working in a Southwold bookshop in the 1950s.<ref>''The Independent'' 24 August 2008, review of her published correspondence: [https://web.archive.org/web/20141120160433/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/so-i-have-thought-of-you-the-letters-of-penelope-fitzgerald-ed-terence-dooley-904867.html Retrieved 31 May 2012.]</ref>

An earlier book thought to be set in Southwold is ''Beside the Guns'' (1902) by the Christian author Mary Elizabeth Shipley.{{citation needed|date=June 2012}} The German writer [[W. G. Sebald]] describes Southwold in ''[[The Rings of Saturn]]'', an account of a walk through East Anglia. Two recent additions are ''A Southwold Mystery'' (2015) and ''Shot in Southwold'' (2017) by the Herefordshire author Suzette A. Hill, both murder mysteries set in the 1950s.

===George Orwell===
[[File:Home of author George Orwell, Southwold - geograph.org.uk - 61720.jpg|thumb|Orwell's home in Southwold]]
[[File:Southwold from pier.jpg|thumb|Southwold from the end of the pier]]
The writer [[George Orwell]] (real name Eric Blair) spent periods as a teenager and in his thirties in Southwold, living at his parents' home. A [[Commemorative plaque|plaque]] can be seen next door to what is now a [[fish and chip shop]] at the far end of the High Street.

After his departure from [[Eton College]] in December 1921, Orwell travelled to join his retired father, mother and younger sister Avril, who that month had moved to 40 Stradbroke Road, Southwold, the first of four homes in the town.<ref name=Binns>{{Cite book |last=Binns |first=Ronald |title=Orwell in Southwold |publisher=Zoilus Press |year=2018 |isbn=9781999735920}}</ref> In January–June 1922 he attended an [[cram school|educational crammer]] in Southwold to prepare for [[Indian Police Service]] exams and his career in [[Burma]]. In 1929, after 18 months in Paris, he returned to the family in Southwold and was based there for most of the next five years. He tutored a disabled child and a family of three boys and wrote reviews and developed ''[[Burmese Days]]''. He also spent nearly 18 months teaching in West London, until struck by a bout of pneumonia. His mother then insisted he stay at home instead of teaching. He spent the time writing ''[[A Clergyman's Daughter]]'', which is partly set in a fictionalised East Anglian town called "Knype Hill". His final visit to Southwold was in 1939.<ref name=Binns/>

===Cultural events===
The town has long hosted summer [[repertory theatre]] by various companies. For several years, Suffolk Summer Theatres have offered a varied programme of plays from July to September, staged in Southwold Arts Centre (formerly St Edmund's Hall). Every November the "Ways with Words" literature festival is held, with notable speakers appearing at various venues.

In 2014 came the inaugural Southwold Arts Festival, which was repeated in future years. It offers a mix of literature, music, film and art exhibitions, with the main events over an eight-day period in the summer, bringing entertainers of diverse backgrounds together.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://southwoldartsfestival.co.uk/whats-on/ |title=2016 Festival – Southwold Arts Festival |website=southwoldartsfestival.co.uk |access-date=2016-09-28 |archive-date=1 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001190609/http://southwoldartsfestival.co.uk/whats-on/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2005, Southwold launched Suffolk's "answer to the Turner prize", the "Flying Egg" competition. This event also ran in 2006 and 2007, but not repeated in 2008.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/01/nart01.xml&DCMP=OTC-Autonolnk |title=Telegraph news 01/08/2005 |publisher=Telegraph.co.uk |access-date=23 February 2013}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>