Cornwall books?

[Jouley]

Hi
I've decided to try the 50 books in 2019 and I'm planning ahead. I'm going to Cornwall for the first time ever this summer and I'd love to read some atmospheric books to get a bit of a sense of place, etc. Please send me some recommendations!
I'm not into thrillers, I loved Rosamunde Pilcher's Coming Home and The Shell Seekers.
Thank you

Goldengrove, and it's sequel, Unleaving - by Jill Paton Walsh.

The Camomile Lawn.
Rebecca
The Poldark Novels

The Holiday Home by Fern Britton is set in Cornwall

You might like Emma Smith's memoirs of growing up in Cornwall -

The Great Western Beach: a memoir of growing up in Cornwall between the wars

As Green as Grass

A wonderful non-fiction book is artist Ithell Colquhoun's The Living Stones: Cornwall

Also this Goodreads' list night give you some ideas:
www.goodreads.com/list/show/18130.Best_Books_Set_in_Cornwall

Patrick Gale lives in Cornwall and has set at least one novel there

Helen Dunmore’s Zennor In Darkness, set during WWI, and about a young female artist, her relationship with her cousin home from the trenches, and DH and Frieda Lawrence.

Two by Patrick Gale — The Cat Sanctuary. Two estranged sisters brought back together by the girlfriend of one of them, at their Cornwall farmhouse. Also, probably my favourite of his, Notes from an Exhibition, about the family of a female artist with a mysterious past, all set in and around Penzance at St Ives, and told from the perspectives of all the family members.

Rebecca, and a lot of other Daphne du Maurier

The Salt Path is an amazing book - it's not set totally in Cornwall and is non fiction, but is one of the most powerful books I read last year.

Oh, and Sarah Moss’s Signs for Lost Children, partly set in 19th c Falmouth, partly in Japan.

And if you like children’s books, two of Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series — Over Sea, Under Stone and Greenwitch — are set in Cornwall.

Why The Wales Came - Michael Morpurgo.

It’s is a children’s book (9-10 I DH age group I’d say) but I loved it, and it is set on the Scilly Isles about 100 years ago. It has a real Cornish flavour to it.

Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca is a thriller though.

Thank you so much for all of these replies! I'm going to see if I can get hold of these. 😁

I mean it is, but not in the sense that Ben Affleck might be in a movie version. Du Maurier is nonetheless good for atmosphere.

There's a set of books by derek tangye (sic) non fiction. He and his wife left jobs at clarifies I think to live on the cliffs in far west Cornwall and sort of farm. They are called things like 'sun on the lintel' 'a gull on the roof' easy reads and really beautiful.

Liz Fenwick has written a few set in Cornwall.
If you like Rosamund Pilcher you'd like hers too.

And I've got a feeling she's a mumsnetter too.
She uses ds etc on Twitter.

I enjoyed ‘The gathering storm’ by Rachel Hore, I’m sure it was set in Cornwall.

Fern Britton has written a few set in Cornwall too.

Also Jenny Colgan.

You won’t better Rebecca or My Cousin Rachel though.

Jamaica Inn
Frenchman’s Creek
Rebecca

All Daphne Du Maurier

Tangye’s nature reserve is very lovely up in the cliffs.

Whereabouts are you going OP?
I recommend 'Zennor in Darkness' too. I like the pub in Zennor.

Notes from an Exhibition is also my favourite Patrick Gale book; I rather feel like re-reading it now, having been reminded of its existence.

Camomile Lawn is good, and Mary Wesley's other Cornwall-set books are Jumping the Queue and Harnessing Peacocks.

Lists of Cornwall books

www.goodreads.com/genres/cornwall

If you read Jamaica Inn (Daphne Du Maurier) you can go there - it's two seconds off the A30 not long before you get to Bodmin. They have some of Du Maurier's things there so if you read her stuff it will all feel a bit more 'linked'. I don't really do thrillers, but I LOVE Rebecca.

Black Rabbit Hall - Eve Chase. I live in Cornwall and we read this for my book group, and had a giggle at the accuracy of her descriptions of driving along tiny country lanes...