The Inspiration of my Book

The concept of my book only came to me a few years ago, however, I have been fascinated by the term dark tourism ever since I heard it when I was a student at West Suffolk College. I remember going home that evening and researching its meaning, coming across places like Auschwitz and Ground Zero.

A student at the University of Northampton between 2014-2017

Throughout my college course, I focused my course work on the kinds of attractions that could be characterized as dark tourism, however, when it came to finishing my college course, I knew that I was still interested in this topic as I wanted to learn why people visited these places. I decided to attend the University of Northampton, where I learned what motivated people to visit sites of tragedy and disaster as well as the issues these places encounter from this form of tourism. As much of my work was focused on dark tourism my lecturers probably wondered if I knew about anything else other than dark tourism.

Milan Monument Cemetery

After graduating from university, I decided I wanted to learn some new skills and earn money to travel to some of the places I had written about. I worked as an activity’s coordinator, using my disposable income to travel across Europe, visiting numerous places like Auschwitz, the Catacombs of Paris and the Monument Cemetery of Milan. It was at this moment that I realized that they were similar sites in Britain, however they weren’t showcased enough and known about.

Joanna Penn: author name JF Penn

It was while I was visiting Paris, that I was reading an independent author, Joanna Penn (who writes fiction and travel memoir under J.F. Penn), I thought this lady has committed herself to writing and built a career from it and that I could do the same. It was while researching that I discovered that there isn’t a book that specifically covers dark tourism across Britain. I also knew from speaking to people that they weren’t aware of numerous sites like Rothwell Bone Crypt in Northamptonshire. This was the inspiration that motivated me to discover and write about more than 300 places throughout Britain.

Even though I’ve had a fascination with dark tourism for a long time, it was several factors that influenced me to write my book, from traveling to learning about the personal journey of Joanna and the motivation to share the darker history of Britain.