The most recommended books about Cornwall

A slight genre shift from the typical romantic suspense novel is the Gothic romance, and Victoria Holt (the pen name for Eleanor Hibbert) was one of the best. Like many of the stories published in this genre, there is a young woman, Martha Leigh, hired on as a governess to a troubled widow whose wife died under mysterious circumstances. Settings—as in all gothic novels—play a strong role in this story with its foreboding mansion and the untamed cliffs of Cornwall.

I’ve had a passion for de Bernieres’ writing style since being consumed by Captain Corelli’s Mandolin as a teenager. This book, though, is a very different kind of narrative–richly comic while dealing with an apocalyptic vision of the near future. It follows the adventures of Q, a quantum cryptographer who has bought a remote Cornish farmhouse where he intends to ride out a crisis for civilization.

Despite its grim premise, it is a heartwarming novel that paints a picture of Q's self-sufficient lifestyle while interacting with everything from a reintroduced lynx to the spirit of an Arthurian knight. The author’s real skill is distilling our generation’s fears and hopes within an entertaining tale while compelling readers to consider what we hold most dear in our lives.

Zennor is a tiny village perched on the cliffs of Cornwall’s rugged north shore and battered by Atlantic storms. I’ve often visited it, have run my hand over the legendary mermaid chair in its little church and walked the cliff path, which Virginia Woolf reported doing once at night, a dangerous event that inspired Dunmore’s novel. 

Zennor in Darkness is based on a true story. D.H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda settled in a remote cottage on the cliffs during the First World War. They were regarded with suspicion because Frieda was German and the couple kept an irregular lifestyle – were they in fact enemy spies?  Their story is tenderly told through the eyes of a young local artist, Clare Coyne.

Dunmore writes beautifully, with lucidity and a suspenseful air.

Just love reading James Stevens words as he wrote them: "February 23 – Cut a batten 20 ft long and made trough and rack for the calves. Much rain falling this last week. Great war on with South Africa."  "October 26 – Drove mare and trap to St Ives. Bought 500 pilchards at 1s 4d per 120."

This diary gave me a great insight into the daily life of a 19th-century Cornish farmer, which I needed as I began to write my book.

Walter Langley was a 19th C English artist who specialized in watercolor paintings. His journey began in the Industrial city of Birmingham UK where he developed great skill and mastery of watercolor. His career took off when he moved to the Cornwall fishing village of Newlyn. There he found the subjects and characters that would feature in his work and with which he would make his name. He was elected to the prestigious RI in London. 

This book is a biographical in-depth study of his life and work featuring numerous full-color plates. The incredible skill sets in the paintings he made show that watercolor as a medium, used with passion and care, deserves total respect. In the hands of a true master any subject can be rendered in a convincing and moving manner.

Every chance I get to skip across the pond I take in a heartbeat, and one of my very favorite places to visit is the coast of Cornwall. You don’t have to spend a ton of money on airfare, though, to do the same. The descriptions in this book are positively scrumptious. You’ll feel as if your toes are in the sand with seagulls circling overhead. Plus there’s a fantastic mystery involved. Win. Win.

More Jane Eyre than Jane Austen.

Cornish Folk Tales takes the reader on a journey into the heart of Cornish Storytelling.

I have listened to Mike O’Connor many times and he is a master storyteller. I love the Cornish Droll telling tradition; droll tellers went from place to place telling tales for a bed and a bite to eat. The narrators of Cornish Folk Tales, blind droll teller Anthony James and his guide young Jamie are a perfect combination.

Mike O’Connor, through Anthony tells the tales with anecdotes, music, history, and Cornish language. This book taught me how to approach folklore retelling in an accessible way.

Reading I felt myself beside the firesides of Cornwall, listening to tales of dragons, mermaids, giants, and saints; puzzling over riddles, and learning about Cornish traditions and music

As a writer I admit that I’m beguiled by Cornwall as a literary setting for high romance and adventure, yet it’s important to me to remember that ordinary people live and work there. 

I was impressed by In Her Wake because it manages to encompass both extremes. Its overarching gothic narrative about a stolen child is used by the author to examine the extraordinary experience of some very humble, loving people whose lives have been put into suspension by tragedy. It’s incredibly moving and truthful.

This is book one of a wonderful series: The Spindrift Trilogy. Because it’s set in Cornwall, where I grew up and where I set most of my books, it naturally drew me in quickly. The series features a rich cast of characters, mainly female at the start, although as male children are born, and grow up, the balance shifts a little. It follows the fortunes of an artistic community that springs from a personal crisis, and the rich mixture of characters keeps the story lively and optimistic while still dealing with the darker side of human nature, and the uncertainty in any new venture where so many almost strangers are brought together. This sense of community is something I myself try to convey in my work, and here it’s done beautifully.