Y is for Why have I not included literature …

Y because this is where it has fallen!  I am relying on you all to add to my list …

A poster

In my morass of books … I have lots of reference books … some scattered around in this post … but no novels, so let’s start and I take no prisoners!

Menabilly - which Daphne du Maurier leased
during her stay in Cornwall

Daphne du Maurier – an “incomer” who has written extensively about Cornwall … Rebecca / Frenchman’s Creek / Jamaica Inn. 

Fowey – the town … du Maurier lived near Fowey for many years, and at Menabilly, the in the dower house nearby where she died in 1981 ... drew other authors too ...

A Guide Book of Ward Lock and Co
my mother loved hearing articles
from here - see my post

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch – published under the pen-name “Q” was truly Cornish being born in Bodmin, while he lived in Fowey for many years.  He is mainly known for his monumental Oxford Book of English Verse 1250 – 1900 (– later extended to 1918).

Q guided the taste of many who never met him, including the American writer Helene Hanff, author of 84, Charing Cross Road … and the fictional Horace Rumpole, via John Mortimer, his literary amanuensis*.

Another Guide Book my
mother loved hearing
stories from 

*Amanuensis … I had to include this snippet … as one day I was chatting with my mother, in the Nursing Centre, about some letters in and out we’d received … she suddenly said “You’re my Amanuensis” … I had no idea what she was talking about and needed her to spell it for me!  Then I needed to check what it meant … essentially her scribe!  Nothing wrong with her brain – she may have had some major strokes, but she was full of repartee … and had us all laughing uproariously.

Kenneth Grahame lived part of the year in Fowey in the 1890s and early 1900s.  Grahame attributed Quiller-Couch as the inspiration for the character Ratty in his “Wind in the Willows”.

Poldark Cookery (1981)

Winston Graham – the Poldark series – he was also an “incomer” but based his Poldark books in and around Perranporth, where he lived for over 30 years.

The Poldark Cookery Book by Jean Graham (Winston’s wife) …which includes Y for Yeast Bread … I expect this will be reproduced too … lots of fun snippets and recipes …  

1,000 Cornish Place Names Explained … I didn’t use it – but now I’ve found it – I shall use it!!  Its description ‘Cornwall’s strange mellifluous place names give it a flavour quite different from other counties.  Many must wonder where they come from.

This book is designed to help not only the bewildered stranger, but also the born Cornishman who may have taken them for granted since childhood.”  Loved that description.

“The Spirit of Cornwall” by Denys Val Baker … he highlights artists, authors, potters, sculptors, poets who have all drawn inspiration from that mysterious and majestically beautiful western tip of England: J M W Turner, Thomas Hardy, D H Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Bernard Leach, Barbara Hepworth, du Maurier .. to name some …

But!! I see he was Welsh ... lived all over the place being Yorkshire born spent time in Sussex, where I am ... his Wiki page makes interesting reading ...  

“The Little Land of Cornwall” by A L Rowse – poet, historian, lecturer: Cornish born, bred and died … living in Oxford for many a year.  In this book he celebrates and illustrates the diversity and variety of Cornwall.  Its main theme is to establish its separate identity, its difference from an ordinary county.  Hence its title …

I quote more from the blurb at the back (what’s its proper name – you authors?!) “The author’s subjects are wide ranging – all the way from the Age of the Saints, through the Middle Ages, Tudor Times, and the Industrial Revolution to the present day (1986).  Fascinating and idiosyncratic personalities are described.  Literature, folklore and legend, as well as history, are drawn upon to describe the creation of a markedly individual people and a familiar and beautiful landscape that still has many secrets to reveal."

Lane down to the hamlet of
Trenarren

The result in “The Little Land of Cornwall” by Rowse is a feast for all who love this unique land.

Rowse lived at Trenarren House – takes me back almost all my life – to great friends of my father … at Oxford, the stove story, my school, and all our holidays in Cornwall … they also lived in Trenarren.

Now who have I missed … lots and lots of authors …

 Charles Dickens and William Thackeray visited St Nectan’s Glen, Trethevy in 1842 (see my posts V, W and X) …

John T Williams author of Pooh and the Philosophers lives in Trethevy.

Rosamunde Pilcher : “The Shell Seekers” ... she was born very close to St Ives... I have read ... 

 John Betjeman – the north Cornish coast inspired some of his most celebrated and evocative poetry … he authored the first Shell Guide on Cornwall …  he lived the last 10 years of his life at St Enodoc ... 

“There’s a gentle 4 mile walk: Sir John Betjamen Walk:  on the eastern bank of the Camel along part of the South West Coast Path through the dunes beside the golden beaches on the eastern bank of the River Camel, taking in his grave at St Enodoc Church.  Passing Brea Hill, site of a Bronze Age burial mounds and a later Roman encampment, and there’s an optional detour to the holy well used by the Welsh hermit Enodoc to baptise his converts.”  

William Golding – Cornish – “Lord of the Flies” and others … he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.

 

Richard Tangye
- the story of his
company and back
story of his start in
Cornwall 

Richard Tangye – he is not strictly an author, but his grandsons were … Derek and Nigel … their Cornish history though is interesting … see Wiki

Hawker's Hut

Robert Stephen Hawker (1803 – 1875) – priest, poet, antiquarian of Cornwall and reputed eccentric.  He is best known as the writer of The Song of the Western Men” – with its chorus line of:

And shall Trelawny die?

Here’s twenty thousand Cornish men

Will know the reason why!

Which he published anonymously in 1825 – Charles Dickens acknowledged his authorship in the serial magazine Household Words.

Cornish Fishing in the
days of sail

Richard Carew and his Survey of Cornwall, published in 1602, I mentioned under V for vocabulary, together with The Ancient Language, and the Dialect of Cornwall by Professor W P Jago.

We have at least three bloggers and/or authors that I know of – who live in Cornwall … one is “an import” I gather!

Annalisa Crawford - author of "Cat and the Dreamer" and her blog ... she has been participating in the A - Z.

 Suzanne Furness - is not doing the A -Z, but like Annalisa has been a good blogging friend for years ... 

Zannie Shaman, who lives in Perranporth ... I've only just met through the A-Z ...

Yiminy Crickets … boy do I have lots of reference books on Cornwall … but apparently no novels!!  I found the reference books on W day … not much help.   But I wasn’t really able to walk much as I was hip-hopping happily around getting used to that new inch and that new hip … can’t believe I’ve so many books/booklets – could easily do another ten A-Zs I reckon!  The subject is being changed for next year though.

Boy can I W for waffle ... I admit it!!

So that is Y for Why I eventually got to Yachting around and to Yammer to Yourselves out there in the A to YZ Yippee of reaching Y sphere … and realising Why could be for  Y  I have, until Y,  not included any literature … so that is my Y from Aspects of British Cornish …

Check out Goodreads – Best Books Set in Cornwall

List of Cornish Writers - Wikipedia

and all the suggestions you will all be leaving for us - and under Z I found some others ... and there are plenty of others.

PS I'm adding Sarah Foot (1939-2915) - a charismatic West Country writer and scion of the Foot clan.  She wrote atmospheric books on Cornwall and her personal memoir of her grandfather, Isaac Foot, threw fresh light on the Devon carpenter's son who rose to become a prominent lawyer, orator, Liberal politician and founder of an extraordinary dynasty.  Her first book, the best-seller 'Following the River Fowey', included interviews with old Cornish characters her grandfather would have known, such as the retired tinner Ralph Finch who recalled the appalling conditions he endured in the mines on Bodmin Moor.  Nine more West Country titles followed.

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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