Planché's personal life inspired two works. In 1864 he published "A Corner of Kent, or some account of the parish of Ash-next-Sandwich", the result of three years' work on what was originally intended as a short guidebook to antiquities within the parish of his son-in-law, the Rev. Henry Mackarness. In 1872 he published his autobiography, a two-volume work entitled "The Recollections and Reflections of J. R. Planché (Somerset Herald): a professional biography", containing many anecdotes of his life in the theatre.