This month VisitEngland proudly welcomes exciting news of a four-night Jane Austen literary tour around Bath, Dorset and Winchester; a £3.5 million luxury touring caravan site and glamping resort in Shrewsbury; a new Festival of Food & Drink in the Chilterns; and a film biopic of Winnie-the-Pooh author AA Milne and his son, Christopher Robin. See below for more information, plus a roundup of more news just in from around the country.

Just opened

Sir Peter Blake artwork covers renovation of Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London
Until June 2017
The multi-million-pound renovation of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel has been screened by a temporary façade by Sir Peter Blake. The 'Godfather of British Pop Art' was commissioned to create a collage in the spirit of Blake's cover for The Beatles' 1967 Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. The piece, Our Fans, features 100 prominent regular guests at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park as well as fans of the group's hotels around the world, including Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Joanna Lumley and – in the 50th anniversary year of the Sergeant Pepper's album – Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney. At the size of 38 double-decker buses, the artwork is the largest Blake has ever created. The hotel remains open throughout the 18-month renovation, which will complete in spring 2018.
www.mandarinoriental.com/london

Discover England's Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy tours, Southern England
Throughout 2017
Discover England Tours has two tours dedicated to two giants of English literature. New for 2017, to mark the 200th anniversary of the writer's death, is the four-night Jane Austen Literary Tour, which visits: Austen's family homes; Bath and Lyme Regis, which both inspired Austen; her grave in Winchester Cathedral; and film locations from screen adaptations of the author's novels. For four nights and three full days, the tours are priced at £1135 per person, based on a group of two people. Not new but decidedly noteworthy in VisitEngland's Year of Literary Heroes is the two-day Thomas Hardy Literary Tour. It visits: Dorset villages typical of Hardy's novels; places that inspired some of his finest works; Hardy's cottage and birthplace as well as his later home; the church where his heart is buried next to his two wives; and the extensive Hardy Collection in Dorset County Museum.
www.discoverenglandtours.com/jane-austen-thomas-hardy-literary-tours

New mystery tour of the Cotswolds
January 2017
Building on the success of their tours of the Cotswolds' hidden villages, the people behind Secret Cottage have launched a new day tour for 2017. Like the Secret Cottage Tour, the guided six-hour Cotswold Mystery Tour explores picturesque hidden North Cotswold villages that are inaccessible by public transport. The tour winds through stunning countryside and, occasionally, private estates with glorious parkland and magnificent houses that are usually inaccessible to the public. The tour commentary is sprinkled with anecdotes about living in the Cotswolds, gossip about the celebrities who live here, and historical factoids. It's an excellent way to experience the Cotswolds away from the area's better-known and consequently busier honeypots. Tickets cost £75 per person.
www.cotswoldsmysterytour.co.uk

Coming soon

New boutique hotel, Sussex
February 2017
A new boutique hotel is set to open in Bexhill. The Driftwood will have six bedrooms and a 28-seat restaurant headed up by Austrian chef Micheal Roessi – hailed as “the next Jamie Oliver”. The hotel is backed by Seng Loy, who runs the five-star Hastings House in St Leonards and the Bexhill Beach Residence B&B, and two other local residents, and is in a fantastic location for the beach and the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill's pioneering arts and culture centre.
www.thedriftwoodbexhill.co.uk

New Chilterns Festival of Food & Drink
25 March – 2 April 2017
Once known as 'the larder of London', the Chilterns is launching a new foodie festival to showcase the area's produce. As well as samples of the best food and drink from the Chilterns, there will be beer and gin tastings, vineyard tours, guided countryside walks with a foodie touch, an Iron Age-style meal in a Chilterns hillfort, and demos in the 1,000-year old Redbournbury watermill. Details on how to book will be revealed soon.
www.visitchilterns.co.uk/foodanddrink

New vineyard tours and tastings, Kent and Sussex
March 2017
Best of England, a carefully curated portfolio of tourism-related attractions, will launch vineyard tours and tastings to some of the country's finest vineyards and wineries. Best of England champion English wine and have forged strong relationships with some of the south of England's top wine producers, including Rathfinny, Bluebell, Bolney and Ridgeview. The half day, full day and overnight tours will include transport, tours of one or two vineyards, and a gourmet picnic in the grounds of a vineyard or a pub lunch. They have also negotiated special discounts on wine purchases, and will launch with the Sussex-based tours, adding new Kent tours to their portfolio later in 2017. Tickets cost £179 per person.
www.bestofengland.com/tours

The Hardy Way walking tour, Dorset/Wiltshire
1 April – 31 October 2017
Inntravel's new walking tour, The Hardy Way, follows the footsteps of Thomas Hardy characters along Britain's first literature-themed long-distance path. Inntravel collaborated with Margaret Marande, author of The Hardy Way – A 19th-century Pilgrimage, to create this six-night self-guided holiday that cherry-picks the highlights of her 220-mile curated walk through Hardy's quintessential Wessex landscapes. Walking prices from £598 per person based on 2 sharing for 6 nights from 1 April-31 October.
www.inntravel.co.uk

News just in

The Deep launches marine art exhibition, Hull
Throughout 2017
In celebration of Hull as the City of Culture 2017, The Deep will host a series of six marine-themed art installations highlighting the diversity of marine wildlife and habitats, as well as the threats they face. The works of six artists will be on display for two months each, starting with Mandy Barker, an award-winning photographic artist whose work involving marine plastic debris has received global recognition (January – February). Barker will be followed by: Nick O'Neil, who specialises in contemporary marine and wildlife art (March – April); a collection of images from The National Zoo Photography Awards (May – June); underwater photography by Nick Hunt (July – August); extraordinary images from Ernst Haeckel, a 19th-century German biologist, naturalist and artist (September – October); and Alexander Reichardt, the artist and designer behind the internationally acclaimed Fish & Olive gallery in Halki, Greece.
www.thedeep.co.uk

New luxury glamping site, Shrewsbury
Spring 2017    
Love2Stay is a new £3.5 million luxury Caravan Club-affiliated touring caravan site and glamping resort. The 22-acre site will feature a natural swimming pond, superfast wifi, wooden adventure play area, boot camp, outdoor yoga/pilates studio, wellness centre, barefoot trails and a log-fired pizza oven. Guests will be able to stay in one of the luxury heated glamping tents with double beds and private bathrooms, or at one of the 122 existing plots for caravans, which are being retained as the plot is developed.
www.love2stay.co.uk

New Wellness Suite at Thermae Bath Spa, Bath
Spring 2017
The existing four aroma steam rooms at Thermae Bath Spa are being transformed into a new multi-sensory Wellness Suite. There will be a state-of-the-art infrared sauna, an invigorating ice chamber, an astral relaxation room, and two aroma steam rooms reflecting the spa traditions of the Romans and Georgians. The steam rooms are closed until early spring, but the rest of Thermae Bath Spa is open as normal.
www.thermaebathspa.com

Goodbye Christopher Robin, South East 
Late 2017/early 2018 
Fox Searchlight is making a biopic of much-loved Winnie-the-Pooh author AA Milne and his son, Christopher Robin, whose cuddly toys were the inspiration behind the books' endearing characters. The film stars Domhnall Gleeson as AA Milne and Margot Robbie as his wife, Daphne, and was shot on location in England. Ashdown Forest, which is still recognisable from the original book illustrations, is sure to make an appearance. The release date is unconfirmed, and the title may yet change, but the film is already being tipped as an awards contender. Pooh fans will also want to check out the V&A's upcoming exhibition, Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring A Classic (16 December 2017 – 8 April 2018).
www.ashdownforest.org; www.vam.ac.uk

For more information on what's new for 2017, go to:
www.visitengland.com/biz/media-centre/media-resources

For a copy of What's New 2017, please email press@visitengland.org
 

Ends 

For further press information and images please contact:
Evelina Andrews/ Louise Ferrall / Laura Dewar
VisitEngland Press Office
Tel: 020 7578 1447 / 020 7578 1437
Email: Evelina.Andrews@visitengland.org / Louise.Ferrall@visitengland.org/ Laura.Dewar@visitengland.org

Notes to Editors:

About VisitEngland

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