If we assume our surroundings can inspire us, the county can lay claim to helping the creative process of some of the world’s most celebrated authors over the years.

From the likes of Jane Austen, HG Wells, Noel Coward, Edith Nesbit to Ian Fleming, Frederick Forsyth and HE Bates, the county’s influence has run deep in the veins of many works of literature which continue to enthral readers today.

And, of course, no list of Kent’s most notable writers is complete without mentioning perhaps the most cherished and influential of all time – Charles Dickens.

In a new book published this month, Kent’s Literary Heritage, author Margaret Woodhams – a retired teacher who is now a tour guide at Canterbury Cathedral - takes an extensive look at the lives of those who were born, grew up, lived or were simply inspired by repeated visits to the county.

Says the book’s author: “The landscape, buildings and people of Kent have provided inspiration for writers for centuries. Whether the writers were natives of the county itself or came as visitors, its coastline, orchards, towns and villages have helped shape the imaginations of some of the most influential of authors.”

Here are just some of the famous faces featured:

Edith Nesbit

The Railway Children has become a classic – with only the most cold-hearted of individuals surviving its finale without a tear in their eye.

But while the common perception is that inspiration struck its author – Edith Nesbit – in Yorkshire, where it is set, the reality may be a little closer to home.

Explains Margaret Woodhams: “After the death of her father when she was four, her mother left London taking Edith and her sister Mary on a European tour in the hope of curing Mary’s tuberculosis. After their return to England, they moved to Halstead, just outside Sevenoaks. A railway line ran along the bottom of the garden and Nesbit used to walk to Chelsfield station to watch the construction of the tunnel connecting Chelsfield and Knockholt.

“She spent a considerable time in Kent and the inspiration for her most famous book most likely came from her life there as a girl.”

Among her many other works was The Phoenix and the Carpet.

Moving back to the county – Romney Marsh – after remarrying in 1917, she lived in St Mary in the Marsh until her death in 1924 and is buried there.

HG Wells

Born in Bromley, Herbert George Wells is the man behind some era-defining science fiction books. From his pen flowed the likes of The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and War of the Worlds. Following the success of which, he and his second wife moved to Sandgate, near Folkestone, in 1898. While there, he penned The First Men in the Moon – which saw the protagonists launched into space from a countryside retreat in Lympne. The – spoiler alert – sole survivor touches back down in Littlestone.

However, Wells’ womanising led to the couple returning to London after his wife tired of his affairs with local women. It didn’t stop him. Shortly after returning to the capital he took up with a woman 26 years his junior.

Joseph Conrad

Born in Poland, in 1857, Conrad moved to the UK and befriended fellow author Ford Madox Ford, who lived on the Romney Marsh. After moving to Postling, near Canterbury, Ford later rented his Pent Farm property to Conrad. It was while living here he penned his seminal Heart of Darkness.

His frequent bouts of depression were addressed by a desire to move to new homes, and he later lived at Orlestone, near Ashford, before a house in Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury. It was here, in 1924, he died of a heart attack. His grave is in the city’s cemetery.

William Golding

If you were a pupil at Maidstone Grammar School in the late 1930s, then you may well have been taught by the future author of a book which remains a cultural touchstone.

William Golding taught at the school as well as Maidstone Prison during his time in the town before the prison kicked him out under mysterious circumstances. He said it was because he was a heavy-drinking womaniser with left-wing tendancies. Whatever the truth, after a string of rejections, his masterpiece, The Lord of the Flies – about the exploits of a group of school children left to fend for themselves on a deserted island – was published in 1954. It is one of the best-read books of the post-war period. In 1983 – ten years before his death - he was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature.

HE Bates

Shortly after marrying in 1931, HE Bates moved to The Granary in Little Chart, near Ashford – a house in which he would stay for the rest of his life.

After being commissioned into the RAF during the war and tasked with writing morale-boosting short stories about the pilots’ courageous exploits, it was after the conflict, when he spotted the family which inspired him to write The Darling Buds of May in 1958, which rocketed him to fame. The exploits of The Larkins would see further books and, ultimately, a hugely successful TV adaptation starring David Jason in the 1990s. That was ‘perfick’ – unlike the more recent reboot starring Bradley Walsh.

Mervyn Peake

The writer and illustrator is best known for his Gormenghast trilogy – a fantasy series comprising the books Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone. He was also the author of Mr Pye – which has been adapted for both radio and TV.

He lived, briefly, in Smarden during the 1950s – moving there shortly after the publication, in 1950, of Gormenghast – working part-time at the London Central School of Art. It is thought it was during his time in Kent he started work on Mr Pye.

However, his father’s death and inheritance of the family home saw him move to Surrey. At which point Peake, himself, was demonstrating the early signs of dementia. He died, at the age of 57, in 1968.

Jane Austen

The iconic author may not have lived in the county, but had its blood in her veins. Her father was born in Tonbridge – he attended and then taught at Tonbridge School – and she is known to have spent plenty of time here.

As a 12-year-old, she visited Sevenoaks to see her great-uncle, while, as an adult, she made frequent visits to grand houses in Godmersham, near Ashford, and Goodnestone, near Canterbury, to visit her brother. It was during such visits she started work on the first drafts of Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey. There are also suggestions that the house in Godmersham inspired Mansfield Park.

She was also a regular visitor to Canterbury, and wrote in a letter to her sister, Cassandra, “Kent is the only place for happiness”.

Frederick Forsyth

The best-selling author of the likes of The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa Files and The Dogs of War, Frederick Forsythe was born in Kent in 1938, and attended Tonbridge School.

He started his professional career as a young reporter at the Kentish Express – the KM title in Ashford – before being called up to the RAF for his National Service. He continued his journalism career, working for the likes of the BBC and then covering war-torn areas as a freelancer.

But it was his fiction work he would find the greatest success – going on to sell in excess of 70 million books around the world. He is now 85 and lives in Buckinghamshire.

Ian Fleming

If James Bond himself was in charge of keeping Fleming’s Kent links a secret he would have long since been dismissed from the service. Because unless you live in a cave, the creator of 007’s Kent heritage is significant.

He had a house here – he bought White Cliffs house in St Margaret’s Bay from the celebrated playwright Noel Coward – and was a member of Royal St George’s golf club in Sandwich. He went on to live at the Old Palace in Bekesbourne, near Canterbury.

He penned parts of You Only Live Twice at the Duck Inn in Pett Bottom, near Canterbury, and even revealed Bond himself had been bought up in his aunt’s house neighbouring the pub. A number of passages in the 007 books are set in Kent, while Royal St George’s is poorly disguised as the golf club – Royal St Mark’s – in Goldfinger.

After a visit to the home of racing driver Louis Zborowski, in nearby Bridge, he was also inspired to write his book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Fleming died after suffering a heart attack after dining at Royal St George’s. He passed away at the Kent & Canterbury Hospital, aged 56, in 1964.

EM Forster

The author of such classics as A Passage to India, A Room With a View and Howards End, Edward Morgan Forster spent much of his childhood in Kent – but it wasn’t a particularly happy one.

Born in 1879, his mother had been widowed, but one of his aunt’s bequeathed him the equivalent of £1 million – enough to enrol him as a day-boy at Tonbridge School. His time there, however, was not one he enjoyed.

Margaret Woodhams book says: “A typical Victorian public school, Tonbridge placed great emphasis upon sports and traditional masculine pursuits and the young Forster hated it. The delicate boy struggled to cope with the daily rough and tumble of a male-only environment and in later life, he recollected how the other boys had teased him over his lack of ‘manliness’.”

He got his revenge in his book The Longest Journey, in which he renamed the school Sawston and described it in “distinctly unflattering tones”.

Charles Dickens

You may have heard of this chap. And, in truth, what is there to say that hasn’t been said before? Dickens, born in Portsmouth, followed his father’s dockyard career to Chatham as a child before returning with his family, after enjoying huge success in literary circles, to buy Gads Hill in Higham, near Rochester.

Kent landmarks litter his works and his influence hangs heavily over those areas he frequented today. For example, in Broadstairs – where he visited frequently and worked on the likes of Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge – there is Bleak House; named in honour of him (it was renamed after his book of the same name).

Great Expectations, recognised as his most outstanding piece of work, was written at Gads Hill and is very much based around the county. He was working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood when he died in 1870 after suffering a stroke. He was 58. Gads Hill is today an independent school.

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Born in Manchester and having spent many years living in America, the author shot to fame with Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Divorcing her husband and criticised in the US for her “advanced ideas” about women’s rights, she returned to the UK – renting Great Maytham Hall in Rolvenden, near Cranbrook.

While on a tour of the property, she was “led by a robin to an ivy-obscured door leading to a neglected walled garden”. It would provide the inspiration for what remains one of the best-loved of children's books – The Secret Garden.

She lived there for 10 years before returning to London.

Kent’s Literary Heritage by Margaret Woodhams, published on September 15 – which includes many other authors inspired by the county - is available directly from Amberley Publishing as well as all good local bookstores and online retailers.