Travel Postcard: 48 hours in literary London

LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters Life!) - Got 48 hours to explore the literary haunts of London? The British capital is a treasure trove of pubs, museums and hotels steeped in booklore. Reuters correspondents with a mix of local knowledge give tips on how to spend a short stay.

FRIDAY

7 p.m. - You'll be thirsty for a drink when you arrive, but don't waste time searching for George Orwell's mythical perfect public-house, the "Moon Under Water". Start your weekend in the world of P.G. Wodehouse's butler Jeeves by drinking and dining in the historic pub "I Am the Only Running Footman" on Charles Street in Mayfair. The 1749 pub, rebuilt in 1937, was once the haunt of servants and is said to have inspired Wodehouse to create the fictional Junior Ganymede, the club for "the gentlemen's gentleman" where Jeeves took his ease. As you head back to your hotel, take a look at Number 48, where Winston Churchill lived as a child.

SATURDAY

9 a.m. - Start your day with more than 13 million books! Head to the London haven of book lovers, the British Library at St. Pancras. You can view the 1215 Magna Carta and many manuscripts, including Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens.

10:30 a.m. - Walk down Upper Woburn Place past the gardened Tavistock and Russell Squares in the heart of Bloomsbury - home to the "Bloomsbury Group", or "Set" as it is also known. See where the Bohemian artists who so influenced Edwardian London lived and exchanged views - as well as lovers. Modernist literary giant Virginia Woolf lived at 46 Gordon Square.

11 a.m. - A short walk from Russell Square is the Dickens House Museum at 48 Doughty Street. Tour the rooms where Dickens lived with his young family during a particularly productive period. It was here that he completed "Oliver Twist" and "Pickwick Papers" between 1837 and 1839.

12 p.m. - You've seen where Dickens lived, now why not sip a pint where he did. The Lamb on Lamb's Conduit Street is a pub full of history. Not only a local for Dickens, it was also the meeting place for the Bloomsbury Group. Built in the 1720s and done up in Victorian times it has beautifully preserved and rare "snob screens" - panels of etched glass at head height at the bar to conceal the drinker's identity. After a traditional pub grub lunch take the tube to Leicester Square.

2 p.m. - Exit the tube onto Charing Cross Road, where there are a plethora of bookshops to suit any budget. You can find rare books, first editions, antiquarian sets and modern classics. Be sure not to miss 84 Charing Cross Road, once home to the bookshop in Helen Hanff's book of the same name, later made into a film with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. Lose yourself in the massive independent bookshop Foyles (113-119 Charing Cross Road). If you're lucky you might even meet an author, as they regularly pop in, sometimes unannounced, for signings. If you can't wait to flick through your new purchases, take a breather in the organic Café inside Foyles.