George Eliot Country
“A human life, I think, should be well rooted in some spot of a native land.”
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
Internationally famous novelist George Eliot was born on the Arbury Estate as Mary Anne Evans in 1819. She went on to spend the first 21 years of her life in the borough.
Her books are rich in detail describing a landscape that is both rural and urban, agricultural and industrial and inhabited by rich and poor.
Today you can walk in her footsteps visiting the church at Chilvers Coton where she was christened, her childhood home at Griff and other sites described in her works.
You will have the opportunity to see artefacts which belonged to her displayed at Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery and can see the George Eliot Collection at Nuneaton Library.
Within the town centre is a statue of the lady herself and her monument sits in the George Eliot Gardens.
To get a flavour of your visit watch our film about the Bicentenary Celebrations held in the borough during 2019.