‘The medieval house where the modern novel was born’

Museum, gallery, garden, shop, literary house and lived-in home

Shandy Hall was the home of Laurence Sterne from 1760 until his death in 1768.  Here he wrote ‘A Sentimental Journey’ and his masterpiece, ‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman’ which has never been out of print and is still as astonishing today as when it burst into the late 18th century. 

This beautiful 15th century house is now a registered museum run by The Laurence Sterne Trust.  It is surrounded by two acres of gardens, including over 100 roses, cottage garden plants, and a woodland garden managed for wildlife.  It contains the world's finest collection of Sterne's works, letters, illustrations and ephemera, prints and paintings.  Artists, writers and musicians are inspired by Sterne to this day.  An extensive range of artistic and educational projects are undertaken by the LST and a wide variety of exhibitions relating to Sterne are held in the gallery.

Shandy Hall attracts visitors, enthusiasts, academics, writers and artists from around the world.  The house has been lived in for nearly 600 years, and as well as being a museum, is still a lived-in home where you are sure of a personal welcome.  To find out more, please visit the Shandy Hall website.

*** FORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS AT SHANDY HALL ***

Copywrong & Honourmastics - 9th May- 23rd Aug 2026

A T Kabe Wilson

This year’s summer exhibition at Shandy Hall features the work of A T Kabe Wilson, a multitalented artist, experimental poet and archival scholar, recently Artist in Residence at Jesus College Cambridge, the former college of Laurence Sterne.

The exhibition brings together three distinct aspects of Kabe’s practice.

Copywrong

Copywrong is an installation based on the treated text of The Tenth Man by Graham Greene. The story opens in a Second World War prison, where one in every ten prisoners is selected for execution. Among those chosen is a wealthy lawyer, who offers his fortune to whoever is willing to take his place. One man accepts, to ensure financial support for his family after his death.

In Kabe’s reworking, every tenth word of the text is excised and replaced with a synonym. The piece draws on the original meaning of ‘decimation’—the execution of one in ten. In Copywrong Kabe explores aspects of copyright law and the role of ten percent in avoiding copyright infringement.

The work forms part of an ongoing series of “conceptual translations”. A previous work in this series includes a complete reconstruction of A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, entirely reassembled into a novella using the same words.

Honourmastics

Honourmastics introduces a new style of portraiture where the abstracted geometry of a person’s name, rather than their physical appearance, results in a painted depiction.  In this exhibition, Kabe focuses on “Tristram Shandy”, whose name plays a central role in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, thus celebrating Shandy Hall’s literary heritage.

Prints and Paintings
Alongside these more conceptual works, the exhibition includes prints of Kabe’s hyper-realist acrylic paintings, available for purchase.

A T Kabe Wilson has performed poetic works for the Royal Society of Literature, the British Library, and the Institute of International Visual Art (Iniva). His paintings have appeared as cover art for publishers including W. W. Norton & Company, Routledge, Carcanet Press, Wasafiri, and Edinburgh University Press.

Telephone 01347 868465 if you would like further information.

The Laurence Sterne Trust at Shandy Hall