Gone are the days when struggling writers lived in attics suffering for their art, well, at least in the case of these best-selling authors who have earned riches beyond their wildest dreams. From John le Carré and JK Rowling, via Stephen King and Dan Brown, click or scroll through and let's explore the dream homes of the world's wealthiest writers...
In the late 1960s, David John Moore Cornwell – known around the world as spy thriller author John le Carré – bought three fisherman's cottages perched on the edge of a dramatic Cornish clifftop. Over the years, he and his wife transformed the dwellings into one spectacular home, known as Tregiffian Cottage. Pictured here in his study at the house in August 1974, le Carré died in 2020, aged 89, worth a staggering £79.6 million ($100m). Now, his incredible creative sanctuary is up for sale – let's take a look around...
Fittingly, the home features a showstopping library with bespoke floor-to-ceiling bookcases. According to the listing, the feature window is said to be glazed with what is believed to be part of the canopy from a Second World War fighter plane. We'd expect nothing less from the man who made his name writing Cold War espionage novels, including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Although the four-bedroom, five-bathroom home has been transformed from its original state, le Carré beautifully preserved the historic character of the home, opting for slate flooring in the kitchen and dining room and keeping the wood-beamed ceilings throughout. The large drawing room is home to an impressive open fireplace, oak panelled walls and a west-facing bay window with a door that opens out onto 3.3 acres of land.
The writer – who intriguingly was a spy himself, working for both MI5 and MI6 in the 50s and 60s – worked in this detatched studio. Many of le Carre's novels were written at Tregiffian and were subsequently adapted into successful films and TV shows, such as The Constant Gardener, The Night Manager and The Little Drummer Girl. The remote location is certainly a fitting backdrop to create dark and thrilling tales. “In winter, you bank up a log fire and listen to the wind around the house and feel as if you’re in a castle or a lighthouse,” le Carre's son, novelist Nick Cornwell (known as Nick Harkaway) recalls. “The storms are dramatic and beautiful and when they’re gone you get that wild horizontal sun. It’s a wonderful place to rest, or work, or just be yourself.”
The rocky coastline that lies immediately below the jagged cliffs of Tregiffian is not fit for swimming, but this detached indoor pool certainly is. Heated, with its own changing rooms and a wall of sliding floor-to-ceiling doors that give a view out to sea, we can imagine it would have been the perfect place for le Carré to take a break from work or to swim lengths while he thought through a particularly tricky plot point.
The cottage is set on one of the most breathtaking stretches of the picturesque Cornish coastline, between the villages of Lamorna and Porthcurno, itself a filming location, mostly notably for BBC's Poldark. “My earliest memories are of playing in the garden at Tregiffian and adventuring along the coastal path,” said the writer’s son, according to Mansion Global. “The whole place is alive with butterflies, rabbits, swallows, foxes and occasionally badgers." With such a beautiful setting – and a rich literary history to boot – we don't imagine it'll be long before someone snaps up Tregiffian, despite its £3 million ($3.8m) price tag.
A politician and inventor, Dame Barbara Cartland is best known as one of the world's most prolific romantic novelists. By the time of her death in 2000, aged 98, the 'Queen of Romance' had sold between 750 million and one billion books worldwide. Pictured here in the 1990s, Cartland was born into a wealthy family whose fortunes took a turn for the worse when her father was killed fighting in the First World War. Tragically, she later lost her two brothers in the Second World War. During the roaring 20s, Cartland became a successful society reporter before venturing into romance novels. Her daughter, Raine McCorquodale – better known as Countess Raine Spencer – became Princess Diana's stepmother. Now, Cartland's incredible former Mayfair mansion is on the market – for a mere £35 million ($44m).
Originally built in 1902, the imposing five-storey property was the birthplace of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, a Prime Minister of the UK in the 1960s. Bought by Cartland in 1936, it's where she raised her now-famous daughter and two sons, according to Robb Report. She was pictured in the property in August 1965, seated at her desk, surrounded by dahlias. Diana and her stepmother were said to have had an extremely rocky relationship, but it appears the young princess had a better relationship with Cartland and was apparently a fan of her novels. "The only books Diana ever read were mine, and they weren't awfully good for her," she once remarked, according to Tina Brown's The Diana Chronicles.
The elegant home was designed by renowned architect Detmar Blow and while it still retains many of the period features, it has been updated and modernised since Cartland's day. Some rooms in the 8,500-square-foot house – such as a the dining room and the vast master suite that spans the entire second floor – have a romantic and luxuriously self-indulgent air we imagine Dame Barbara would have felt right at home in. Others – like this drawing room – have a much more contemporary feel, although the current owners did preserve the coffered ceiling, neo-classical cornices and Beaux-Arts style floral decorations.
While the grande dame of romantic fiction last walked among these rooms over 20 years ago, there is still a beautiful study where we can imagine her writing one of her 720-plus books or perhaps dreaming up another invention. It's not widely known that the woman who favoured pink chiffon gowns, a blonde wig and heavy make-up, in 1931 invented an aeroplane-towed glider, which reportedly led to troop-carrying gliders and won her an aviation award. Defying stereotypes, she became a politician in 1955 and served as a Conservative councillor for nine years, campaigning successfully for improvements in midwifery, nursing homes and education.
We can only imagine what Dame Barbara would have made of the achingly modern "wellness suite," comprising of a pool, bar, sauna and relaxation zone, all set around a glazed courtyard with soaring glass ceiling. As someone who "routinely" wrote 23 novels a year and was named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's best-selling author, we suspect she may not have had time to use it. Shockingly, despite her extraordinary success, the value of her estate at the time she died was reportedly just £1.1 million ($1.4m) and after her debts were settled, it was nil.
JK Rowling has come a long way since she was a struggling single mum writing her first book in cafés around Edinburgh. Despite being rejected 12 times before she secured a deal, her debut novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, along with the six other books in the series, has sold over 500 million copies, spawning a media franchise of movies, games, toys and theme parks, and making the author a billionaire.
The writer was so nostalgic about the house in Gloucestershire where she grew up that she bought it for £400,000 ($501k) in 2011. She lived in Church Cottage in Tutshill between the ages of nine and 18, and the house is said to have inspired key elements of Harry Potter’s story, including the cupboard under the stairs where the young wizard slept. Her scrawling “Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982” remains to this day.
Although she has said she came up with the idea of the Harry Potter story on a train ride from Manchester to London, she revealed in a post on Twitter in 2020 that the true birthplace of Harry Potter was a flat above a sports shop, now the Pro-Kut salon, in Clapham. She rented here for a short time after studying French at Exeter University, and was working for Amnesty International.
The Harry Potter books were so successful that the author was soon living in a style that reflected her newfound earnings. This charming townhouse in an exclusive area of Edinburgh was home to Rowling and her husband Dr Neil Murray and family until 2009. Listed with real estate agents Rettie & Co, the Victorian property attracted a wave of interest and sold for more than £2.2 million ($2.8m).
The eight-bedroom stone period property, which retains many of its Victorian features, including original sash windows, cornices and fireplaces, represents a happy period for the writer, who penned four of her seven-book Harry Potter series here. It was also the family home to the couple’s three children, Jessica, from Rowling’s ill-fated first marriage to journalist Jorge Arantes, son David and daughter Mackenzie, from her marriage to Murray.
The two-storey detached house boasts discreet landscaping, a summer house and an office building in the garden which Rowling revealed was her favourite place to write. She was uneasy with her growing celebrity, however, and installed security fences and reinforced doors to protect her privacy. The house subsequently became known as ‘Fortress Rowling’.
By the time Rowling bought Killiechassie House, a stunning estate north of Edinburgh, the highly anticipated film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone had been released. She married anaesthetist Neil Murray in the library of the 19th-century mansion that same year. The house boasts seven bedrooms, a drawing room, morning room, dining room, kitchen and dressing rooms, as well as the west wing, a self-contained two-bedroomed house for guests.
Set in the Perthshire countryside, the estate has a small loch, or lake, apparently with its own murderous water sprite. Beyond her Harry Potter series, the author is the brains behind the Fantastic Beasts movies, as well as adult books including The Casual Vacancy. She also gives generously to philanthropic causes and founded her own charity Lumos, which aims to end the institutionalisation of children.
Stephenie Meyer is famous for writing the vampire romance series Twilight, which has sold more than 100 million copies and has been adapted into equally successful movies starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattison. With an estimated net worth of $120 million dollars (£95.7m) the mother-of-three has published two adult novels, The Host and The Chemist, while her company Fickle Fish Films produced both Breaking Dawn movies, as well as The Host and Austenland.
A committed Mormon who grew up in Phoenix Arizona and studied English Literature at Brigham Young University, Meyer stayed close to home when she bought this 3,242-square-foot home in Cave Creek in 2007 for $819,000 (£653k). The relatively modest five-bedroom, three-bathroom property is home to Meyer and her husband Christian (who she met at church aged four) and their three sons, and includes an acre of land, pool, patio and deck with mountain views.
With its wide-open spaces, pristine stretches of the Sonoran Desert and stunning views of Black Mountain, you can see why Meyer decided to stay in Arizona. The low-key writer, who is teetotal, admits she found the pressure of her new-found fame difficult to deal with at first. She clearly found comfort in the familiarity and seclusion of her desert landscape home.
British-born EL James, whose real name is Erika Leonard, shot to fame and fortune in 2011 when her first novel, Fifty Shades of Grey, became an overnight success. The original novel was quickly followed by Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, plus movie adaptations starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. As a result, the former TV executive is thought to be worth something in the region of $150 million (£119.6m) and counting…
James tried her hand at writing for the first time in 2009, in response to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. She had intended to create a fan-fiction sequel to the vampire romance story, but it morphed into her own, more erotic trilogy, which went on to sell 100 million copies. Her life was transformed as a result, and she now lives in West London in a 1930s house she bought in 2013 for just shy of £2.7 million ($3.3m), glimpsed here on her Instagram.
Christian Grey would certainly approve of this ultra-modern mansion James bought in Los Angeles in 2016 for just shy of $7.3 million (£5.8m). The glass-walled home, atop LA’s highest ridge, has 5,600 square feet of space, including a great room with a living-dining area divided by a double-sided fireplace, a media room featuring a wet bar, a wine room and five ensuite bedrooms.
The newly-constructed residence has unrivalled views across Los Angeles and of the ocean beyond, and there are multiple terraces where the writer and her guests can soak up the glamourous atmosphere. The 60-year-old has been married to screenwriter Niall Leonard for 36 years and the couple have two sons and two beloved West Highland terriers, who feature regularly on her Instagram posts.
With its open fire, balcony and views across the valley, the master suite would be a worthy backdrop to a Fifty Shades Trilogy bedroom scene. Floor-to-ceiling windows open up on to a private terrace and the suite is furnished exquisitely in neutral shades and natural materials that would earn Christian Grey’s approval, plus there’s a hot tub downstairs should things get raunchy.
Outdoor spaces allow plenty of indoor-outdoor living and the expansive deck features an infinity pool, which cantilevers over a cliff. The swanky mansion must be an inspiration in itself for the author, who is currently working on a sequel to her 2019 novel The Mister, which was on the New York Times' Best Seller list for nine weeks and is being made into a movie. Her books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.
Born in Maine in 1947, Stephen King has dominated the world of horror fiction for the past four decades, writing his first published novel, Carrie, in 1974 and his most recent, Fairy Tale, in 2022. Many of his novels, including Carrie, The Shining, and IT, have been successfully adapted for film and television, earning the author a fortune estimated at $500 million (£399m).
There’s definitely a 'haunted house' vibe going on at this scary-looking house in Bangor, Maine, which was home to the author and his wife, Tabitha, also a writer, for almost forty years. Located close to where the author grew up, the red-brick Victorian mansion, with its creepy wrought-iron gate featuring a three-headed dragon, bats and spiders, has become a mecca to his devoted fans and is inextricably linked to many of his novels.
The author wrote Salem’s Lot here, and the fictional town of Derry, where IT is set, was inspired by the author’s hometown of Bangor. Built in 1858, the family lived in the property from 1980 until 2019. According to reports, it has since been converted into a retreat for writers and an archive for King’s manuscripts and documents, as well as the HQ of King’s charitable foundation, which has supported many projects in his hometown.
More recently, King and his wife have been spending time at their other homes in Maine and Florida. The couple rented this Modernist Longboat Key mansion for three successive winter seasons in the late 1990s. The spectacular bay-front house would have been beyond the wildest dreams of the writer before his success with Carrie in 1974, when he moonlighted as a janitor and gas pump attendant to make ends meet.
The 6,000-foot property, with its glazed frontage and views of Sarasota Bay, was a world away from the doublewide trailer where King and his wife Tabitha lived when he was a struggling author. Despite the hardships, Tabitha insisted he turn down the chance of a full-time job at the school where he taught English because it would prevent him from writing. A wise call. Within the year King had penned Carrie.
Global success followed, but King suffered a setback in 1999 when he nearly lost his life, and his right leg, when he was hit by a car in Maine. The author thankfully survived and recuperated here in splendid isolation among the mangroves at Longboat Key. It’s also where he conceived the plot for his classic novel Duma Key.
With many of his books and stories having been adapted for television and the movies, including Misery, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, King gained fame and fortune beyond his dreams. He bought this ultra-private estate on Casey Key in 2001 for nearly $9 million (£7.8m) and owns another smaller house on the island which it is thought to be used for family and friends, including his three children.
Brought up in poverty by his mother after his father left home when he was two, King could never have never imagined that one day he would be living in this vast sprawling compound, which includes a swimming pool, tennis court, spa and private dock and pier. According to reports, Casey Key, off the coast of Florida, was renamed 'Treasure Island' during the real estate boom of the 1920s. How appropriate!
New Hampshire-born author Dan Brown wrote three novels, Digital Fortress, Angels & Demons and Deception Point, before he hit the big time with his best-selling historical conspiracy thriller The Da Vinci Code, later made into a block-buster movie starring Tom Hanks. His books have sold over 250 million copies worldwide and earned the 58-year-old writer an estimated fortune of $160 million (£127.6m).
Despite his immense wealth, the author has not wandered too far from his childhood stomping grounds in New Hampshire, where his mathematician father and musician mother taught at his old school Phillips Exeter Academy. Surrounded by beautiful landscaped grounds, this three-bedroom English Cotswold-style stone cottage is located in the heart of picturesque Rye, which was named after the borough of Rye in East Sussex, England, by the early settlers.
The home, an atmospheric warren of dimly-lit passage ways and secret rooms, is perhaps what you would expect from the writer, whose plots revolve around intrigue and conspiracy. His library – or "Fortress of Gratitude", as he calls it – is stacked with thousands of books, mainly global editions of his books, which have been translated into 56 languages.
Hidden behind a painting is the door to the study where he writes, a treasure chest of antiques and vintage finds, including this early 20th-century typewriter. In one interview, the author revealed he keeps an hourglass on his desk and breaks every hour to do pushups and sit-ups. He also revealed he starts work at 4am, otherwise, he feels he is missing his “most productive hours”.
The "great hall" is a magnificent wood-panelled room with soaring rafters, a wrought-iron decorative chandelier and casement windows. The dark wood furniture is in keeping with the Tudor-style vibe, while in the far corner you'll Brown’s beloved piano. The writer wanted to be a singer/songwriter and pianist before he started writing. He even relocated to LA and released a couple of CDs, none of which made an impact.
Another secret panel in the library opens out onto the garden, which has been landscaped to evoke a faerie glen where magical creatures are supposed to roam. It hasn’t been a fairytale for the writer in recent times however. Brown’s 21-year marriage to Blythe Brown came to an acrimonious end in 2019 when his wife sued him for leading a double life. According to reports, the couple reached an amicable settlement in December 2021.
Romance novelist Danielle Steel has written more than 170 books over her five-decade career, selling some 800 million copies and earning her an estimated fortune of $420 million (£335m). The Queen of the beach reads, many of which have been adapted for film and television, has been married five times and has nine children (two of whom can be seen here at a 2009 Paris fashion show), so she has plenty of real-life experience to draw on.
Danielle Steel bought the French Baroque mansion, aka Spreckels Mansion, in Pacific Heights, in 1968. Built by sugar magnate Claus Spreckels in 1912, the 55-room mansion, has a ballroom and antique-filled library, and was the venue for her daughter Vanessa Traina’s wedding in 2012. The fiercely private author caused controversy a few years ago when she grew a huge hedge which blocked views of the building for passers-by.
The author wrote many of her books in her tiny office here at this fabulous desk, she had made to look like a pile of her books. Though Steel still owns the home, she spends most of her time in her Paris apartment these days. “San Francisco is a great city to raise children, but I was happy to leave it,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “There’s no style, nobody dresses up – you can’t be chic there."
She has certainly made up for it in her Paris apartment, to judge by the stylish interior shots she posts on her Instagram. The author of Summer’s End, Kaleidoscope, and Zoya has created an eclectic vibe in her living room, where Chinese and Japanese antiques sit alongside Napoleonic chairs and a stuffed tiger, brought together by some vibrant blue and purple hydrangeas.
With its lavishly upholstered canopy bed and dotted with sentimental items that remind her of her children, her bedroom is no less decorative. “I have always loved canopy beds. They’re like a nest,” she told Vanity Fair. Her pet Chihuahua Minnie seems to think so too. We wonder if Minnie has her own luxury bed?
Steel sold her beloved 3,000-square-foot cedar-shingled beach house in California in 2012 for $2,579,000 (£2.1m), suffering an almost-$4 million (£3.2) loss, having bought it a decade previously for $6.5 million (£5.2m). The laidback property overlooking Stinson Beach was the setting for her 2003 novel Safe Harbour, which was made into a television movie starring Melissa Gilbert.
Lively, bright and crammed with colourful collectables, the house was less formal than her other properties. Yet, with its calming sea views, this was where she most liked to write. Its loss doesn’t seem to have slowed her down, though. The 76-year-old author still manages to turn out a novel every year. Her latest, Happiness, arrived in July 2023. "I want to go on forever, just writing," she has said.
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