Editing Dorking (section)

==Culture==
===Art===
[[File:Let there be light in Dorking high street - geograph.org.uk - 1407931.jpg|thumb|"[[Let there be light]]", a decorative moulding above one of the shops in the High Street.]]
The Dorking Group of Artists, established in 1947, exhibits locally twice a year, in [[Betchworth]] and at Denbies.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dga.org.uk/ |title=Dorking Artists |website=dga1 |access-date=18 June 2007 |archive-date=2 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102102024/https://www.dga.org.uk/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The Arts Society Dorking promotes local [[visual arts education|art appreciation]] and the preservation of the town's artistic heritage.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://theartssociety.org/dorking |title=The Arts Society Dorking |author=<!--Not stated--> |year=2020 |publisher=The Arts Society |access-date=3 January 2021 |archive-date=19 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019124247/https://theartssociety.org/dorking |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Leith Hill Musical Festival===
The three-day [[Leith Hill Musical Festival]] for local, amateur [[choir|choral societies]], founded in 1905, takes place at the Dorking Halls each year. Ralph Vaughan Williams was the Festival Conductor until 1953, a post currently held by [[Jonathan Willcocks]].<ref name=LMHF_About>{{cite web |url=http://www.lhmf.org.uk/about/ |title=Leith Hill Music Festival: About us |access-date=27 January 2021 |archive-date=2 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102102115/http://www.lhmf.org.uk/about/ |publisher=Leith Hill Musical Festival |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Corke_2005_pp16-17>{{harvnb|Corke|2005|pp=16–17}}</ref>

[[File:Ralph Vaughan Williams in Dorking.JPG|thumb|upright|right|Statue of Ralph Vaughan Williams outside Dorking Halls, created by [[William Fawke]]]]

Each day features a different group (or division) of choirs, which compete against each other in the morning and then combine to give a concert in the evening. Following the tradition established by Vaughan Williams, the ''[[Messiah (Handel)|Messiah]]'' by [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]] and the ''[[St Matthew Passion|St Matthew]]'' and ''[[St John Passion]]s'' by [[Johann Sebastian Bach|J. S. Bach]] are frequently performed.<ref name=LMHF_About/><ref name=Corke_2005_pp53-56>{{harvnb|Corke|2005|pp=53–56}}</ref>

After the death of Vaughan Williams in 1958, the festival committee commissioned [[David McFall]] to design a [[bronze]] bas [[relief]] likeness of the composer: one cast was placed in St Martin's Church and another in the Dorking Halls.<ref name=McFall_bronze>{{cite web |url=http://davidmcfall.co.uk/page114.html |title=1961/1 Dr Ralph Vaughan Williams OM |publisher=David McFall |access-date=27 January 2021 |archive-date=13 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913045228/http://davidmcfall.co.uk/page114.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Recording studios===
[[Strawberry Studios#Expansion and sale|Strawberry Studios South]] was opened in 1976, in a former cinema in South Street, by [[Graham Gouldman]] and [[Eric Stewart]] of the band [[10cc]]. They recorded the [[album]], ''[[Deceptive Bends]]'' there. Other artists also worked at the Studios, including [[Paul McCartney]], who recorded part of "[[Ebony and Ivory]]" (a duet with [[Stevie Wonder]]) there.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.surreylife.co.uk/out-about/music-history-created-in-surrey-s-recording-studios-paul-mccartney-stevie-wonder-radiohead-et-al-1-1635327 |title=Music history created in Surrey's recording studios: Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Radiohead et al. |last=Williams |first=Matthew |date=26 March 2015 |orig-year=2011 |publisher=Surrey Life |access-date=30 December 2020 |archive-date=2 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102102027/https://www.surreylife.co.uk/out-about/music-history-created-in-surrey-s-recording-studios-paul-mccartney-stevie-wonder-radiohead-et-al-1-1635327 |url-status=live}}</ref> The English [[rock music|rock]] band, [[The Cure]], recorded at Rhino Studios at Pippbrook Mill.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thehuntgroup.co.uk/why-the-hunt-group/mill-conversion/ |title=Mill Conversion |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=April 2014 |publisher=The Hunt Group |access-date=30 December 2020 |archive-date=2 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102102028/https://www.thehuntgroup.co.uk/why-the-hunt-group/mill-conversion/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Literature===
''[[The Battle of Dorking]]'', a novella written by Lt. Col. Sir [[George Tomkyns Chesney]] in 1871, was set in the town. Describing a fictional invasion and conquest of Britain by a German-speaking country, it triggered an explosion of what came to be known as [[invasion literature]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clarke |first1=IF |year=1997 |title=Before and after "The Battle of Dorking" |jstor=4240574 |journal=Science Fiction Studies |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=33–46}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=AM |year=2011 |title=Scrutinizing the Battle of Dorking" The Royal United Service Institution and the mid-Victorian invasion constroversy |jstor=41307873 |journal=Victorian Literature and Culture |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=485–407 |doi=10.1017/S1060150311000052 |s2cid=154627731}}</ref>
[[Benjamin Disraeli]] wrote part of his [[political fiction|political novel]] ''[[Coningsby (novel)|Coningsby]]'' while staying at Deepdene between 1841 and 1844. The novel was subsequently dedicated to his host, Henry Thomas Hope.<ref name=Mercer_Deepdene/><ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1000143|desc=The Deepdene (including Chart Park)}}</ref> The fourth chapter of ''[[A Fool's Alphabet]]'' by novelist [[Sebastian Faulks]], published in 1992, is set in the town.<ref>{{harvnb|Faulks|1992|pp=40–48}}</ref>