The Wreck of the Mary Deare, The White South (Hell Below Zero on film), The Lonely Skier (aka Snowbound) and Campbell’s Kingdom will be well known to fans of the novelist Hammond Innes, whose former home, The Green, near Kersey, is now on the market via Winkworth for £2m.
Born in Horsham and schooled in Kent, Innes began writing novels while a journalist in pre-war London, though some of the stories which helped launch him to success draw upon his war-time experiences — he served as an anti-aircraft gunner at the Battle of Britain and eventually rose to the rank of Major in the Royal Artillery before being demobilised.
After the war he took to writing again, producing his thrillers on a regular basis — all of which tended to involve an ordinary man thrust by chance into an extreme situation and having to use his wits and ingenuity to survive. He regularly travelled in the name of research, spending months at a time in he mountains, at sea or even — according to his obituary in the Independent — on a Norwegian whaler.
He would then return to the home he shared with his wife, the actress and author Dorothy Lang, to write — and this was the home at which 20 of his books were created. He lived here until his death in 1998.
This idyllic Tudor property, with its four bedrooms and three reception rooms, is Grade II listed and has been sympathetically restored by the current owners, who retained its wealth of period features.
The heart of the house is the Great Hall at the centre, off which are sitting room, drawing room and dining room, through which a passageway leads to the kitchen and scullery.
All four bedroom plus two bathrooms and a cloakroom are on the first floor, which is accessed by two separate staircases.
Outside, the property comes with some 1½ acres of landscaped gardens and grounds, which include a self-contained thatched studio (in which Innes wrote his novels) and a summerhouse.
The Green is on the market via Winkworth for £2m — see more pictures and details.
Credit: Strutt and Parker
Best country houses for sale this week
An irresistible West Country cottage and a magnificent Cumbrian country house make our pick of the finest country houses for
The best places to live for commuters: Suffolk
There are two places in Suffolk on our list of the best villages and towns close to London.
-
A lush, 'tropical' garden in Devon where bananas and ginger grow happily alongside the staples of an English country gardenSteep inclines and rocky outcrops are nothing to the owners of this coastal garden, which is filled with plants-many from the southern hemisphere-that thrive in such conditions, finds Caroline Donald.
-
How an imaginative couple created a sustainable haven that dreams are made of, complete with cider press, vineyard and farm stay accommodationSince leaving London in 2022, Sophie Brendel and Panu Long have been lovingly turning Thornfalcon Winery & Press, in Somerset, into a 'sustainable heaven' — with even more planned for the future.
-
A country house that's 'the finest-looking estate between the Humber and the Tweed' (at least according to Queen Victoria)Burn Hall is a treasure-trove of architectural features, from its sweeping staircase to its grand snooker room.
-
Six beautiful homes around the world, from Portofino to Provence to Palm BeachAn exquisite villa tucked into a hillside? A A breathtaking apartment created to make you feel like you're flying through the endless blue skies?
-
An idyllic home where the forest meets the sea, for sale for the first time in over half a centuryLittle Aston is a graceful, charming home with superb gardens and its own orchard, as well as some of the south coast's most beautiful areas right on its doorstep. Penny Churchill takes a look.
-
'Just look at those stairs. Just as an art form, they are bewitching, like the shell of a nautilus': The lure of buying a stairway to heavenIt seems like madness to buy a house purely because you fall in love with the staircase — but sometimes, they are simply so beautiful that it's impossible to resist. Toby Keel takes a look at some glorious examples of staircases we've seen in Country Life in the last couple of years.
-
The one-of-a-kind estate with two private beaches and a surf house on storied Martha's Vineyard islandBeach Farm on Martha’s Vineyard — a favourite summertime holiday destination with prominent American families — is a perfect melding of New England and Scandinavian design styles.
-
The architect who created the MI6 building only designed a tiny handful of houses — and one of them is now up for sale in one of London's most bucolic spotsSir Terry Farrell designed the beautiful, light-filled, T-shaped Drum House in Petersham, with gardens laid out by John Sallis Chandler, who has won multiple RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medals.
-
'True waterfront homes are finite... miss one and it could be years before you see another like it again': Why the best waterfront property always hits the spotThere’s no denying the appeal of waterfront property, which now sells for some 51% more than its inland equivalent, finds Knight Frank. Annabel Dixon explores the shore.
-
19 charming homes for sale, from picture-perfect cottages to beachside retreats, as seen in Country LifeThis week's selection of some of the best homes to come to the market via Country Life this week.
