Whilst Thornwood High - and Harrogate Grammar - along with certain other places in The Headmaster's Flame are fictional, most all places are real. That includes neighbourhoods, villages and towns, pubs, museums, shops, stately homes and hotels!
Explore below all the British places we go... from Killingbeck to Kensington, Haworth to Harrods, Scarcroft to Snowdonia! I won't give too much away below - just enough to whet your appetite to go read the book and follow the characters' adventures for yourself!
In time, I will also create a page for all the real TV programmes, films, books, music, food and more, featured in the book. The Headmaster's Flame is a fun cultural tapestry ;-) - LS x
Locations
GIPTON
Where our fine heroine hails from in East Leeds, and that you'd call working class - if the inhabitants weren't actually all on benefits. Fairly quizzical in sight to a headmaster from Richmond. ‘Why is there a sofa in their front yard? Do they sit watching the sunset over the chippie?'
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TEMPLE NEWSAM HOUSE
Not far from Killingbeck, in Leeds, where the fictional Thornwood High is set. This Tudor-Jacobean estate may just be the place to launch a thousand adventures of two like-minded spirits, or watch the doggers. Dogwalkers, of course.
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OULTON HALL
Poshest place to stay in Leeds, outside of the city centre? The historical charm of the Swaledale Suite could inspire some mischief, and the teapots might do with a clean once our characters have finished quaffing...
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SCARCROFT, WETHERBY
Our main man Neill, arrived from London and bought a cottage just outside of Scarcroft - known as the poshest village in Leeds. Naturally. Will Natalia ever see his cottage, and if she does... will she ever get out?
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HARE & HOUNDS PUB
What might happen in this country Leeds pub, to a girl familiar only with the likes of the ropey Roundhay in Harehills? As long as she can eat fish and chips with a silver fork this time.
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THE CORN EXCHANGE
Built in 1863 in Leeds to the designs of Cuthbert Brodrick for the viewing and trading of corn kernels. Now it's where lush schoolgirls meet at weekends for shopping, nail varnishing and lashes of gossip.
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BMW, STRATSTONE
Stratstone, I'll do it in 12, ma bichette! ...Vroom, blush - does Natalia dream it, or does what happen here, really happen? You'll only know when you read The Headmaster's Flame, whether it's all an Alice dream or not.
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ST. AUGUSTINE'S CHURCH, LEEDS
Ah, so you're religious? ...No, but Natalia's RC primary school was where plenty of hymns stuck inside her head enough to make her want to go back and sing her heart out when Neill makes her soul shine, Jesus! - shine.
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CHINAWHITES CLUB, MANCHESTER
Far enough not to see anyone she knows, surely? Maybe after dark? Out of Leeds altogether, in Jane Eyre's words: 'to reach the busy world, towns, regions full of life I had heard of but never seen…'!
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HAWORTH
'It looks just as it does in the 1900s!' The streets of Haworth are a school trip from heaven and lightyears from Gipton, but will the boozey Headmaster really sit waiting in the Black Bull pub whilst the teenagers chug there on the peasant bus?
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BRONTË PARSONAGE MUSEUM
The very room in the Haworth mansion where Jane Eyre was written! Bookworm Natalia will hardly believe her eyes, but lewd Neill will be disappointed when he sees what Emily Bronte etched into the table.
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CABINET OF CURIOSITIES
In Haworth, where you might find the most beautiful book you've ever seen. Or, spend the cash instead on a truckload of wares from Miss Beighton's Sweet Shop as a convenient sicknote for a fairytale ending.
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CÔTE, KENSINGTON COURT
Ooh la la! What kind of etiquette is required in this poncey brasserie? What the fuck is a flat white, to a girl used to PG Tips? Why do Londoners kiss each other twice? A Gipton girl will be learning on the job in more ways than those.
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BAGLIONI HOTEL
If you want a hotel and not a hovel, it's no less than 5 stars for this Kensington Turkish beauty. You'll either feel like a million dollars - or Kevin from Home Alone. A perfect place for the Headmaster to take his 39-year old Harrogate Headmistress, n'est ce pas...?
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TATE MODERN
The infamous London gallery showed Kabakov's Soviet exhibition in January 2018, when our novel is set. How perfect for our heroine's Russian roots! But will it be as fun as the swings set up in the entrance?
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BOROUGH MARKET
A perfect place for the munchies in the capital, to flash your flash purchases, or fall in deeper love with your Headmaster when you watch him speak French to a charcuterie stallholder.
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ROYAL ARTILLERY MEMORIAL
'Whenever I passed him, he always got me... that soldier with his gas mask hanging, like Jesus on the cross.' Will the Hyde Park monument inspire sadness or something higher?
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HARRODS
What would the fashionable girls at Thornwood High say if they knew the school loner was able to choose whatever she wanted from the most famous shop in the world?
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BALA
Llyn is welsh for lake, and Llyn Tegid is the lake that runs through Bala, Snowdonia, Wales. The Bulls’ Head pub, the local Spar, and even Cyffdy Cottages all feature in the book.
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LADIES OF LLANGOLLEN HOUSE
'Welcome, welcome, to 1780! We are the high class Irish women of Llangollen who own Plas Newydd!' Will our Leeds headmaster get chance to have a break ogling the most celebrated virgins in Europe?
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BETWYS-Y-COED
'It's like a Swiss mountain village!' The quirky Alpine Coffee Shop, the charming Conwy Valley Rail, and a candle-cup of Aber Falls Gin is just the ticket for the visitors to this rustic Welsh train concourse.
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DOLBADARN CASTLE
These picturesque old ruins by the Lake Padarn in Wales are perfect for a view across the Valleys, and for a sightseeing spot of Ugly Sausages after.
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LLANDUDNO
Pronounced, Lan-DID-no!... the Victorian seaside town where Alice Liddell holidayed, the girl who inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice In Wonderland. Even the Wetherspoons pub is the glorious old Palladium theatre!
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PORTMEIRION
Is this really in the UK? This dreamscape of a private village designed by Sir William Clough-Ellis is the real-life setting for the annual fan parade for 1960s series The Prisoner - brought to life in the book with comedy, sex and drama!
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MARINE HOLIDAY PARK
This real-life caravan park in the crummy town of Rhyl at least gives you more for your money than glamping in a stuck-up Shepherd's Hut. It's a perfect place to Come Together, even if the pool is full of Scouse smegma.
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EL GALEÓN ANDALUCÍA
'A full-scale, seaworthy 17th-century Spanish galleon made of pine and iroko wood!’ To the toffs it's just a replica, but good enough for a boozey evening out puffin-spotting!
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THE SEA SHANTY CAFÉ
Buoy, it's like a nautical museum! A perfect place to dine next to oars, portholes, and jars of sea trinkets and tell stories with more holes than Titanic, but let's hope there's no stolen treasure to sweat over.
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