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These days Hoveton and Wroxham
are indistinguishable from one another - rippling out
from the banks of the River
Bure in all directions. Technically, though, Hoveton
occupies the north side of the river and Wroxham the
south. However, the waters are muddied by the fact
that Roys of Wroxham is actually located in Hoveton.
Hoveton and Wroxham
Station
Alan Hunter, the detective writer and poet, was born
in Hoveton in 1922 and grew up in the village. He was
educated at Wroxham school and, before serving in the
Royal Air Force during WW2, worked on his father's
poultry farm. In 1944 he published a collection of
poetry called Norwich Poems which contains:
Saturday at
Wroxham - a delightful picture of boating
holidays at the time. It captures the hustle and bustle
of tourists arriving by train from London and their
scramble to get provisions before heading off down
stream to Horning. The
collection also contains a nice portrait of war-time
Norwich - full of period charm - called
Evening in
Norwich.
After the war Hunter entered the book trade in
Norwich - first as a manager of antiquarian books for
Charles Cubitt and then running his own shop in the
Maddermarket. He published his first Gently novel
Gently Does It in 1955. He then proceeded to write
another 45 episodes all featuring his pipe-smoking
inspector. Many of the locations in the novels were
inspired by Norfolk, particularly the Broads, which
provided the back-drop for Gently Down Stream,
Gently Floating and Gently French. Norwich
was also fictionalised as Norchester in many of the
novels.
George Gently's stoic and methodical character may
have owed something to Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret.
The BBC have adapted many of the 'Gently' stories for
television - with Martin Shaw taking the lead role.
Unfortunately, however, the location has been changed
from East Anglia to County Durham. The series is set in
the 1960s and requires many period props.
Hunter retired to the riverside village of Brundall
with his wife Adelaide - a place where he continued to
pursue his interest in sailing and wildlife. He lived
all of his life in the county and died in 2005.
Another detective writer from Hoveton is the retired
pilot Chris Crowther who has written four whodunits -
all set on the Broads: Still Waters, Water
Under the Bridge, The Water Frolic and
Waterproof. The novels feature the sleuthing skills
of navigation ranger Jack Fellows who stumbles across
mysteries while patrolling the waterways. |
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by Norfolk Tourism