Oxford, USA: literary Mississippi

The "cultured university town" of Oxford, Mississippi, is a mecca for writers and lovers of American literature, says Richard Grant in the Daily Telegraph.

William Faulkner spent most of his life there - a bronze statue of him sits opposite the "magnificent" courthouse, where he loved to eavesdrop and found many plots for his novels; and his "beautiful" house, Rowan Oak (above), is open to visitors.

With his death in 1962, "literature departed from the town", only to return in the 1980s with the rise of authors like Willie Morris, Larry Brown, Barry Hannah and, most famously, John Grisham.

Today, Oxford's literary scene centres on its superb bookstores and the atmospheric bars and "excellent" restaurants scattered around its historic courthouse square. Downtown Oxford Inn and Suites (+1 662 234 3031) has standard rooms from $107 b&b.