Cornwall’s Mark on Fiction

Cornwall is a beautiful county, with loads of places to explore, gorgeous sights to see and wonderful things to do. It’s no wonder then that so many people go there year after year for holidays, to relax and unwind in Sennen Cove cottages. Of course, these elements that are so appealing to holiday makers are equally appealing to artists, writers, poets, directors, actors and all other manner of creative types. When you consider this, it’s no wonder that Cornwall has featured so many times in literature.

Daphne du Maurier lived in Cornwall, and many of her novels are set there, including the famous ‘Jamaica Inn’. Alfred Hitchcock made a film version of Jamaica Inn, and later went on to make films of another of her novels, ‘Rebecca’, and one of her short stories, ‘The Birds’. Both of these, when written, were set in Cornwall, though when Alfred Hitchcock directed his version of ‘The Birds’ the location was changed to Bodega Bay in California.

Arthur Conan Doyle also made use of Cornwall for the Sherlock Holmes novel ‘The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot’. When looking at this and Daphne du Maurier’s use of Cornwall to create atmospheres of isolation and terror, you might wonder why the county is so popular with holiday makers, but of course these authors are simply twisting the large, sparsely populated and dramatic landscapes so that they have a sinister spin. In reality, it’s hard to think that anything bad could happen in Cornwall on a bright, hot summer’s day on the beach.

Even the Harry Potter books have travelled there, with Shell Cottage, visited in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’, being in Cornwall. It’s a far cry from the beautiful St Ives cottages that many people choose to stay in though.

In addition to all those books and film adaptations of said books, the second act of ‘Tristan und Isolde’ by Richard Wagner takes place in Cornwall, as does the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ and ‘Ruddigore’.

Poetry has also flourished in Cornwall, presumably because of the sea air and dramatic landscapes. The late Poet Laureate John Betjeman loved Cornwall, and it featured in many of his works. He’s even buried there. Another poet, Laurence Binyon, is also remembered in Cornwall, as a stone plaque was raised in the place that he wrote his poem ‘For the Fallen’.

So, for some reason Cornwall has an effect on some people, and inspires them to write great things. For others, of course, it inspires them to build sandcastles and jump in the sea.