C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien used to walk on the Malvern Hills . The story goes that walking home from the pub one evening, it started to snow. They saw a lamp shining out through the snow and Lewis turned to Tolkien and said "that would make a very nice opening line to a book". He later used the image in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as the characters enter Narnia.
William Langland perhaps the best known medieval English poet set The Visions of Piers Ploughman on the Malverns.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived at Hope End near Ledbury for much of her early life. Her poem The Lost Bower talks of this area. The picturesque setting in a secluded valley near the Malvern Hills is reflected in Elizabeth
WH Auden taught at the Downs School
George Bernard Shaw was closely involved with the Malvern Drama Festival from its start in 1929. The Apple Cart was written for the first festival, and five of his plays had their premiere at Malvern Theatre in the years from then.
Peter Mark Roget of Roget's Thesaurus died in West Malvern (1869) and is buried there.
Charles Darwin's daughter Annie Darwin was brought to Malvern when sick hoping to benefit from the water cure, but she died aged 10 and is buried in Malvern Priory graveyard.
Evelyn Waugh was a frequent visitor to Madresfield after becoming friends with Hugh Lygon at Oxford
Henry Fielding placed the hero of his novel Tom Jones for a night at The White Lion Hotel, situated in Malvern High Street.
William Symonds wrote extensively of the area in his two novels, Malvern Chase (1881) and Hanley Castle
