St Margarets
The bay seems to hold a special appeal for writers.
In 1945 Noel Coward took the lease of the
beachside house, White Cliffs, which was to be his weekend retreat
for the next six years. His diary entries convey his delight in his
new home. 'Another perfect day at White Cliffs. I don't think I
can fail to be happy there,' he writes on 16th September
1945.
Coward spent his time writing and painting and entertaining such
well-known friends as John Mills and Ivor Novello. But the very
delights of living by the sea proved too much of a distraction and,
regretfully, Coward decided to leave the house in 1951. 'I
shall miss the sea and the ships... White Cliffs has given me
immense pleasure but I have never worked really well here -
there is something curiously distracting about it; someone
crunches by on the beach or a big ship passes and one's
concentration snaps.'
(DIARY 2nd July 1951)
When Coward left White Cliffs, Ian Fleming
moved in, and so the house continued its literary associations.
SOUTH FORELAND LIGHTHOUSE
In Charles Dickens' novel, DAVID
COPPERFIELD, the young David arrives in Dover, looking for his
great aunt, and one of the more outrageous suggestions put to him
is that she 'lived in the South Foreland Light, and had singed
her whiskers by doing so.’ The Lighthouse had been built in
1843, six years before DAVID COPPERFIELD was published,
and was obviously already a well-known local landmark. David
eventually finds his great aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood, by climbing
the heights and carrying on to 'some houses facing the
sea.' This must be St Margaret's and here David spends many
happy years in his aunt's 'neat little cottage', flying
kites and helping her chase the donkeys off the green.