A varied company
The list of authors linked to Cornwall is long and uneven. It includes people born in the county, people who moved there, people who came for holidays and some who only wrote about it from a distance. Their books range from poetry and historical novels to travel writing, children’s stories, crime fiction and local history. This article mentions a handful of well-established names as examples, with careful descriptions, and avoids ranking or detailed claims about their lives that cannot easily be checked.
The general themes of the writing are discussed in the pillar article on Cornwall in literature. This one concentrates on the people.
Victorian poets and clergy
One of the best-known nineteenth-century figures is Robert Stephen Hawker, a clergyman and poet who served in the parish of Morwenstow on the north Cornish coast. He wrote verse, local sketches and legends, and he is also associated with the song “Trelawny.” He is remembered as an unusual character, and accounts of his habits sometimes mix fact and anecdote, so it is sensible to read biographies critically.
Other Victorian writers visited or described the county. Poets drew on the Arthurian material, and travel writers recorded their journeys by rail and road. The story of Arthurian Cornwall is its own subject, but it explains why some poets were drawn to the cliffs of the north coast.
Novelists of the period also used Cornwall as a setting. One of the most often mentioned is Thomas Hardy, whose early novel A Pair of Blue Eyes is set partly on the north Cornish coast; Hardy visited the area in connection with his first wife. Its landscape scenes, including a famous cliff episode, show how a major author could use the setting for drama.
Writers of place and community
Several authors were closely identified with Cornish life. Arthur Quiller-Couch, often known by the initials “Q,” lived in Fowey and wrote fiction, essays and criticism, and he was also active in local affairs. Later in the twentieth century, historians and poets from the county wrote about its past and its people, sometimes from a strongly Cornish viewpoint. Charles Causley, a poet associated with Launceston, is often cited for ballads and lyrics that draw on local memory and ordinary speech.
Poets from industrial communities, including the china clay district, brought a different perspective, with images of tips, chapels and quarries rather than harbors and sunsets. Readers who want to understand the working landscape often find these voices valuable.
Novelists and the popular imagination
The twentieth century produced a number of bestselling authors who set stories in Cornwall. Daphne du Maurier is probably the most famous. Her novels and short stories made use of coasts, moors and old houses, and several have been adapted for film and television, as noted in the article on screen locations. Her work helped to build the image of a brooding, romantic Cornwall, and she also wrote history and memoir about the county. Another widely read author, Winston Graham, wrote a long historical series about the late eighteenth century, which drew heavily on mining and village life.
Alongside them were many popular novelists whose names are less widely known today. Their books, often in the form of family sagas or romances, reflect the tastes of their time and are still found in libraries and secondhand shops.
Visitors and settlers
Not all authors associated with the county were locals. Some lived there for short periods and wrote while resident. One example is D. H. Lawrence, who spent part of the First World War in west Cornwall, near Zennor, and drew on the experience in his writing. Another is Virginia Woolf, whose childhood summers in St Ives are often linked to her later novel To the Lighthouse, although the book’s setting is described as a Scottish island. These examples show that a writer’s link with a place can be indirect and sometimes the subject of scholarly debate.
Because many writers arrived from elsewhere, their view tended to be that of an outsider. This is neither good nor bad, but it affects what they noticed. Strangers often highlight strangeness, and those who grew up in a place tend to write about everyday matters.
Writing in and about Cornish
A separate strand consists of writing in the Cornish language itself, from medieval texts to modern poetry and prose. It is covered in the article on Cornish literature in that language and in the introductions to the Cornish language. Authors writing in Cornish today often translate works as well as producing original ones, and their audience is smaller but dedicated. This tradition should not be confused with English-language writing set in Cornwall.
How to approach the list
A few cautions are worth keeping in mind.
- Be wary of confident claims that “famous author X wrote this book here.” Many such stories are told by local businesses and guides, and they are not always supported by evidence.
- Remember that a writer’s link may be brief. A short stay does not make someone a “Cornish author,” and people may reasonably disagree about who counts.
- Read widely. A single novel will give you one writer’s idea of Cornwall, not the full picture.
- Check publication details if you want to find a particular book, since titles and editions vary.
Where to begin
For a first reading list, many people choose one book from each type: a poet from the county, a popular novel set on the coast, a work of local history and a travel account. Libraries in Cornwall often have local collections and can suggest further titles. The authors mentioned here are only a few among many, and the exercise of finding your own favorites is part of the pleasure. Different readers will end up with very different lists, and that variety is probably the best evidence of how much Cornwall has inspired.