That’s novel: book-themed, vegan guesthouse opens in Torbay

Torbay’s first ever completely vegan guesthouse will open for business this year and is already taking bookings.

Opening from 1st May, The Miggi has guest suites themed on books and named after their authors.

The Mary Shelley room is a romantic, dramatic, gothic suite with red velvet covered armchairs. The Frankenstein author stayed in Torbay for a Summer, writing a children’s book that was only recently discovered in the attic of an Italian villa.

The Oscar Wilde room is decorated in an art nouveau style with a peacock theme. Wilde also has a Torbay link, spending months with his lover Bosie in Babbacombe. While there he completed work on some of his most successful works.

An Alice Walker twin room, themed on The Colour Purple, offers a great option for friends travelling together.

On the ground floor, a spacious accessible room has been themed on Tolkien’s The Hobbit – warm colours and cosy features that would be at home in The Shire. A brand-new accessible shower room has been added to make the room as accessible as possible for folk with mobility needs.

The owners, Mark and Naomi Ridley, who moved from Brighton to set up the business, plan to add more rooms in future. Naomi says, “We’re planning a Virginia Woolf A Room Of One’s Own single suite on the ground floor which will be great for people travelling alone, and for carers who need to stay somewhere close to someone staying in our accessible suite next door. There will also be a Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy twin room. It’s been great fun decorating the rooms over the last few months. We hope guests will find their stay comfortable, enjoyable, interesting, and memorable.”

Guests will enjoy a completely plant-based breakfast in the Agatha Christie dining room, which will also host dining events run by housemate business All Good Things Vegan. Naomi says, “We’ve been vegan for over 30 years. Although more and more places are adding vegan options to their menus these days, we love eating at places that are 100% plant-based because we can relax and enjoy anything we want from the menu without having to check on the ingredients or worry about cross-contamination – alongside our unique rooms, that’s something special that we can offer guests at The Miggi.”

To find out more, see miggi.co.uk.