I could find Summerhill anywhere on a map. Blindfolded, without pause or hesitation, I could draw it from my memory. It looked like a heart, Summerhill, its flank lining up with the edge of the river, the sharp end pointing out to sea. In reality, of course, the estate was more sprawling, a tumble of greens and browns tugged at by the tide, the house clinging onto the side where the river widened into the bay. But my mind had carved it out of the land exactly like that, a heart-shaped map of my childhood where I was safe and where nothing could touch me.
Cornwall is hands-down my favourite place in the world. In my second novel, Summer of Secrets, I had the privilege to explore that landscape with my characters, creating a beautiful, remote country house called Summerhill on the south coast of Cornwall. Summerhill is both refuge and prison for Maddy, who cannot shake the trauma of her father’s tragic accident years before, and who roams the familiar landscape of her childhood between cliffs and tidal rivers, drawing and collecting stories which will, seventy years later, bring photographer Chloe to Summerhill, carrying a heavy burden of her own…
Since I live far away from that magical place (and decidedly landlocked), I love fiction set in Cornwall and here’s a round-up of my favourite novels:
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
Told across two eras — WW2 and the present day — Penelope Keeling escapes the demands of her family and decides to return to her childhood home in Cornwall, reliving a secret past of heartache and love.
Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher
A sweeping family saga of love and loss as young Judith Dunbar grows up on the fringes of the turbulent and grand Carey-Lewis family but must ultimately find her own path to happiness.
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again… Freshly married, the young Mrs de Winter arrives at her new home, Manderley in Cornwall, where she finds her new husband a changed man and the memory of his first wife, Rebecca, an all-pervasive presence.
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
A visit to an abandoned cottage on the grounds of a family estate in Cornwall reveals dark family secrets going back almost a hundred years before.
The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware
An unexpected inheritance tempts a young woman into a dangerous charade as she unwittingly becomes a part in a dark family affair
One Cornish Summer by Liz Fenwick
Returning to the place they loved, two women struggle with their past: one cannot remember hers, the other cannot forget…
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
A series of dangerous coincidences that seem to threaten the life of young Nick Buckley brings Poirot to Cornwall, to help solve a murder before it’s even been committed.
