Beaminster all round, Wi' hedges, reachèn up between A thousand vields o' zummer green. </poem> It is a location for part of the story for the post-apocalyptic novel The Day of the Triffids. Samuel Hearne explorer, naturalist and writer grew up in Beaminster. Beaminster is the adopted hometown of actor Martin Clunes, and was where singer PJ Harvey went to school. Mat Follas had his first restaurant The Wild Garlic in the town square, though in 2013 it was moved to larger premises elsewhere. Beaminster is also home of Lynne Reid Banks, author of "The L-Shaped Room" and "The Indian in
Debut novel sales are anticipated, the advance can be larger. For an example of an unusually high advance: in 2013, the highly anticipated "City on Fire" by Garth Risk Hallberg captured the attention of ten publishers who started a bidding war that ended with Knopf buying the rights to the book for 2 million dollars. The book's film production rights were purchased soon after by producer Scott Rudin. For similar reasons that advances are frequently not very large—novels frequently don't sell well until the author gains a literary reputation. There are exceptions, however; YouTube star Zoella published her debut novel "Girl Online"