Tuesday 4 June 2013

Cornish writers


Regular followers will have noticed that I have been absent for a while. I was on holiday in Cornwall with my wife, daughter and her fiancĂ©. We didn’t set out to make it a literary journey but we did manage to see some places with literary connections.

Tywardreath – the house on the strand – has obvious connections with Daphne du Maurier. It was also once the home of the Vanson family, my mother’s ancestors. The Vanson family was also part of the ancestry of Dr A L Rowse, the noted Cornish historian and writer. We found the lodge gate house at Tregrehan where Rowse’s grandfather (My great great grandfather) raised sixteen children.

We found Menabilly (the village) and Menabilly (the farm) but were unable to get a view of Menabilly (the house) the model for Manderley. But we did see Ferryside in Fowey where Daphne once lived and where her son now lives. Fowey was also, of course, the home of the nineteenth century Cornish writer Sir Arthur Quiller Couch.

Coming up to date, we visited the lovely little fishing village at Mevagissey where the late novelist E V Thompson once lived.

Now I am home again and filled with the need to get back to work on my own writing. I don’t claim to be on a par with the great writers of Cornwall, but I do have a passion for writing. Maybe there is something in the Cornish air…?

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