- published: 26 Sep 2012
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Coordinates: 53°12′47″N 1°40′41″W / 53.213°N 1.678°W / 53.213; -1.678
Bakewell is a small market town in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, deriving its name from 'Beadeca's Well'. It is the only town included in the Peak District National Park, and is well known for the local confection Bakewell Pudding (often mistaken for the Bakewell Tart). It is located on the River Wye, about thirteen miles (21 km) southwest of Sheffield, 31 miles (50 km) southeast of Manchester, and 30 miles (48 km) north of the county town of Derby; nearby towns include Chesterfield to the east and Buxton to the west northwest. According to the 2001 Census the civil parish of Bakewell had a population of 3,979. The town is close to the tourist attractions of Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall.
Although there is evidence of earlier settlements in the area, Bakewell itself was probably founded in Anglo Saxon times, when Bakewell was in the Anglian kingdom of Mercia. Bakewell Parish Church, a Grade I listed building, was founded in 920 and has a 9th century cross in the churchyard. The present church was constructed in the 12th and 13th centuries but was virtually rebuilt in the 1840s by William Flockton. By Norman times Bakewell had gained some importance—the town, and its church (having two priests) being mentioned in the Domesday Book.
Sarah Bakewell is an author of fiction and non-fiction. She currently lives in Clapham, in south London, writing and working as a part-time cataloger of rare books at the National Trust in London.
Bakewell was born in the seaside town of Bournemouth, England, where her parents ran a guest house. When she was five, the family began traveling through India in a camper, and continued to do so for two years before settling in Sydney, Australia. There, her father worked as a bookseller and her mother worked as a librarian. She was educated at Essex University in England, and spent some of her young adulthood working in bookstores.
The first readings that especially interested Bakewell included Kafka’s short stories and Thomas Bernhard’s collection of 104 micro-narratives, The Voice Imitator, and she calls The Land of the Thinsies, by Dorothy Ann Lovell "one of her first loves." Now, however, she says she has "a thing about monster-books – the kinds that make outrageous demands on the reader and defiantly outstay their welcome."
Actors: Marc Zuber (actor), Kathleen Byron (actress), Richard Wilson (actor), Philip Madoc (actor), Ronald Leigh-Hunt (actor), Harry Towb (actor), Paul Maxwell (actor), Patrick Holt (actor), John Bird (actor), Jay Benedict (actor), Freddie Jones (actor), David Kelly (actor), George Fenton (actor), Gregory Snegoff (writer), Liz Smith (actress),
Genres: Drama,