Letters from Tolkien, Jane Austen’s writing desk: Gold Coast to get show of UK literary treasures

While swimwear and sunscreen are essentials for a trip to the Gold Coast, many people would not dream of going without a good book to read on the beach.

Now, the HOTA (Home of the Arts) Gallery in Surfers Paradise has announced it will showcase priceless relics of some of history’s most popular books and authors when the world-first Writers Revealed exhibition opens in April.

The show will bring together more than 100 rare manuscripts and first editions from the British Library, alongside 70 famous portraits of writers including William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf and Lord Byron from the National Portrait Gallery, London.

HOTA Gallery in Surfers Paradise is getting Writers Revealed, a show of historical portraits of UK authors as well as manuscripts and ephemera.Credit: © National Portrait Gallery, London/John Gollings

The exhibition features what is believed to be the only portrait of Shakespeare likely to have been painted during the playwright’s lifetime, as well as a copy of the First Folio of his plays, published in 1623.

An 1810 sketch of Jane Austen by the novelist’s sister, Cassandra, will accompany the writing desk used by the author of Emma and Pride and Prejudice.

This 1839 painting of Charles Dickens by Daniel Maclise is part of the Writers Revealed exhibition.Credit: © National Portrait Gallery, London

Also in the exhibition are a typescript of Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest featuring Wilde’s handwritten annotations, and hand-illustrated letters from JRR Tolkien to his grandson.

Authors Charlotte Bronte, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, James Joyce and JK Rowling also feature.

“This major new exhibition will bring HOTA’s visitors closer to some of the most important figures in English literary history,” said co-curator Catharine MacLeod, a senior curator at the UK’s National Portrait Gallery.

HOTA director Susi Muddiman said the exhibition was possible because of the facilities at the Gold Coast gallery, which opened in 2021.

“A lot of these rare objects and paintings have never left London before, so they had to be really convinced that the building was up to their exacting standards,” she said.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said hosting the exhibition was an “incredible privilege”.

“Securing exhibitions of this calibre underscores the emergence of HOTA as a real arts and cultural heartland for not only the city but the entire region,” he said.

While the exhibition was dedicated to UK and Irish literary figures, Muddiman said the accompanying events program would focus on Australian writers and writing.

She said visitors would be able to view Tolkien’s letters at the gallery then go see the musical version of The Lord of the Rings, which plays at HOTA’s Theatre 1 from July 4 to 20.

“That’s a really nice overlap, perfectly coincidental,” Muddiman said.

Writers Revealed: Treasures from the British Library and National Portrait Gallery, London will run from April 12 to August 3. Tickets start at $19.

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