OXFORD has been named one of the country's top literary hotspots.
The home of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Colin Dexter and Philip Pullman has long been associated with books.

What is perhaps surprising though is that it only came in fourth place – behind London, Edinburgh and, bizarrely, Brighton.

Following World Book Day, new research looked at thousands of books on Goodreads, a book cataloguing website, to discover the areas in the UK that most commonly feature as the backdrop to stories.

Oxford Mail: Oxford's skyline. Picture: Ian Marriott, Oxford Mail Camera Club.Oxford's skyline. Picture: Ian Marriott, Oxford Mail Camera Club.

It also estimated the average book rating for each location and the most common genre set there.

Bath took the final place in the top five.Read more: World Book Day: The best costumes in Oxfordshire

The average rating of books set in the 'city of dreaming spires' is 3.9 out of five, matching that of London and Edinburgh.

Oxford Mail: Matthew Goode and Teresa Palmer in A Discovery of Witches Photo: Sky One Matthew Goode and Teresa Palmer in A Discovery of Witches Photo: Sky One

Findings from the South Western Railway research also revealed that the most popular genre for stories set in Oxford is fantasy, such as Pullman's The Golden Compass or Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches.

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