Book Review - A Time For Living by Ruth Saberton - Cornish Week

Amazon UK

Title:  A Time For Living: Polwenna Bay 2

Author: Ruth Saberton

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: ARC supplied by Ruth Saberton

Publisher: Notting Hill Press

Publication Date: 17th August 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

Is there ever a right time for love? 

Feisty horsewoman, Morwenna Tremaine, has always known what she wants from life and success as a three day event rider is all she’s ever dreamed of. Mo has neither the time nor the inclination for love. Even if she did it wouldn’t be with a man who stands for everything she despises… 

Beneath a tough and determined exterior, businessman Ashley Carstairs harbours a dark secret that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear. Although aware that he is heading for trouble, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the one woman he knows he should stay away from – for both their sakes. 

As the autumn nights draw in and the trickling sands of time gather speed, emotions run higher than the tides and Mo finds herself unable to step away. What is Ashley hiding? Is there more to him that meets the eye? And will his secret destroy everything she now holds dear? 

I hadn't really given the title of this book much thought, referring to it continually in my mind as Polwenna Bay 2. It wasn't until I have just started this review that I can see just how apt and fitting this title is, to this particular book. 

I am not sure that I have the words to do justice to A Time For Living, it is a wonderful story, filled with heavily charged emotion, and a glorious romance. I have spent the majority of the second half of the book on the verge of tears, in a mix of sadness and complete happiness. There was even a very tender moment about a quarter of the way through the book, that touched me, and was almost my undoing. 

Ashley Carstairs is hiding a deep secret from Morwenna, one that he alternates between thinking he should reveal, and wanting to keep it hidden. As a reader we are let into the secret quite early on, and all I will say is its a health issue, so be prepared to have the tissues handy. 

There are times I just wanted to shake Ashley, and the rest of it, I was falling in love with him myself. Morwenna is a fiesty lady, who normally prefers the company of horses to men. But yet she can't get Ashley out of her head, and as it was said by Ashley, in the first book - "There is a fine line between love and hate", and it is so true. 

It was brilliant to return to Polwenna Bay, there is something about the place and the families that live there, that is so real, so community minded and very picturesque. As this features a different main characters to Runaway Summer I believe it can be read as a stand alone should you chose to. There are of course recurring characters between the books, which I always love to see. 

This book doesn't just focus on the story between Mo and Ashley, but also on the survival of the church in the village, and lets just say the fund raising efforts are some of the funniest bits in the book.. much to Jules the vicar's dismay!

Towards the end you start getting hints as to who book three may focus on, and I did guess before it was properly hinted at in the epilogue, and all I can say is I can't wait. I am so excited to know this is not the last we will be seeing of Polwenna Bay, 

My only small problem with A Time For Living is that it had to end. It was such an enjoyable emotional roller coaster ride of a book, that I didn't want to put it down. Very pleasurable reading experience, and anything that makes you have a reaction is always a great thing for me. 

Thank you so much to Ruth Saberton for this review copy, in time for Cornish Week!. This was my honest opinion. 

Guest Post - Why I chose beautiful Porthleven in Cornwall for my debut - Recipes For Melissa by Teresa Driscoll - Cornish Week

I was delighted when Teresa Driscoll offered to write something for us, for Cornish Week. So here are Teresa's reasons for choosing Cornwall as a setting for her debut book.

Picking a setting for a novel is a major decision for any author and I clearly remember sitting and drumming my fingers on the desk, thinking,  “where, oh where?”

The early part of the novel is set in Oxfordshire and Cyprus but the most emotional scenes – from Melissa’s past and also the book’s climax – needed somewhere truly magical and nostalgic. Somewhere very, very special…

When the decision finally came to me for these key scenes, I remember a smile broadening across my face. Of course, of course. 

There’s some history, you see.

I moved to Devon to present the local TV news for the BBC a long time ago after  working as a TV reporter in London. What a contrast. I've now lived in Devon for more than 20 years and am passionate about the whole south west region. I worked on BBC Spotlight for 15 years and loved every minute of it.

My work often took me to Cornwall for filming with some dramatic outside broadcasts from beautiful places such as Mousehole. But in my private life I also began to explore the lesser known but equally wonderful Lizard peninsula for family holidays. 

Oh my goodness. Year on year I fell more and more in love with it. Truly magical places such as Porthleven, Cadgwith and Coverack. My two sons grew to love the peninsula  too. It was where they learned to bodyboard. Where we all sat on the beautiful beaches come rain or shine. And so it inevitably came to hold a special place in my heart.


When I began to write Recipes for Melissa I realised that I needed a truly memorable setting for Melissa’s childhood  …a place she  would be drawn back to for the climax of the book.  It would need not only to be super special but a place readers could be convinced the main characters would still cherish later in their lives. Hmmmmm. Suddenly I had this very strong picture of beautiful Porthleven in my head with the fictional scenes playing out in front of me…and very soon I was tap, tapping away, with that big smile across my face!

Quite apart from anything else, the decision to feature Porthleven gave me the perfect excuse to revisit…strictly for research, you understand. Here’s a picture of me doing just that, along with a favourite sunset (above). 

What’s not to love…

Thank you so much Teresa for that fabulous insight as to why you chose to feature Porthleven in Recipes of Melissa. It sounds like a wonderful place, and one I will definitely try and visit next time I'm in Cornwall.

Recipes for Melissa


Melissa Dance was eight years old when her mother died. They never got to say goodbye. 

Seventeen years later, Melissa is handed a journal. As she smooths open the pages and begins to read her mother’s words, she is instantly transported back to her childhood. 

But returning to her past is painful and memories of her mother’s beautiful face are a cruel reminder to Melissa that she’ll never see her again.
As Melissa slowly makes her way through the precious book, reading the snippets of advice and cooking the dishes from the recipes she is also shocked to learn of her mother’s secrets – secrets that if shared, could change Melissa’s world forever. 
Recipes for Melissa by Teresa Driscoll is published by Bookouture and is available on Amazon UK
@TeresaDriscoll   
www.teresadriscoll.com 

Author Bio

Teresa Driscoll is a journalist and author with 25 years' experience across newspapers, magazines and television. After training as a newspaper reporter, she joined Thames TV for five years before 15 years as the anchor of the BBC's south west regional TV news programme Spotlight.

Teresa's debut novel RECIPES FOR MELISSA was auctioned at the Frankfurt book fair between seven German publishers and has since sold in seven countries. As well as the UK and Germany, it is to be published in Brazil, Israel, the Czech Republic, Korea and Portugal.


Teresa  lives in glorious Devon with her husband and two sons

Book Review & Giveaway - The Little Flower Shop by the Sea by Ali McNamara - Cornish Week - Paperback Summer

Amazon UK 

Title: The Little Flower Shop by the Sea

Author: Ali McNamara

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Purchased

Publisher: Sphere

Publication Date: 30th July 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

The blossom is out in the little Cornish harbour town of St Felix

But Poppy Carmichael's spirits aren't lifted by the pretty West Country spring. Inheriting her grandmother's flower shop has forced her to return to Cornwall, a place that holds too many memories.

Poppy is determined to do her best for the sake of her adored grandmother, but she struggles with the responsibility of the more-shabby-than-chic shop. And with the added complication of Jake, the gruff but gorgeous local flower grower, Poppy is very tempted to run away...

The pretty little town has a few surprises in store for Poppy. With new friends to help her and romance blooming, it's time for Poppy to open her heart to St Felix and to the special magic of a little flower shop by the sea!

Ali McNamara has done it again. Every time I think she can't write a better book, she comes along and does it. This is a fabulous summery read, set in the picturesque town of St Felix in Cornwall. I would be very surprised if you didn't fall in love with the town, the flower shop and Jake the way I did. 

Poppy Carmichael hates flowers, and she has never had any intention of returning to the town of St Felix , despite having spent happy summers there for most of her childhood, So when she inherits her grandmother's flower shop, The Daisy Chain, she doesn't have a choice to return, even if its just to get it ready to sell.

However the shop and the town are known to have mystical healing properties, and she soon decides to try and give running the shop a go, with the help of Amber, a florist her parents send to help Poppy out. Amber is also in need of the healing properties of the town. 

There is a lot in this book about the language of flowers and how each flower means something different, and when combined in bouquets they can cause almost miraculous things to happen. Whether you believe it or not, and Poppy is incredibly cynical about it, there does seem to be an increase in the fortunes of everyone once they start using them.

Within the town, there is a cast of fabulous characters, including Jake the local flower grower and Poppy's flower supplier, and he is recovering from his own heartbreak. Jake has 2 children and also Miley, his pet monkey. I am utterly convinced that Miley is the star of the book, and she is like a mini human. All the best scenes include her in some way, and a lot of the laughs do too. The town also has their own Ant and Dec, who run the bakery. 

The Little Flower Shop by the Sea is a story focusing on new friendships and relationships, and as Poppy digs into the history of the shop and the local castle, she uncovers a few mysteries. There is a good variety of sub plots going on, all of which are very interesting. 

I found The Little Flower Shop by the Sea to be a colourful story that I loved reading a lot. 

Giveaway to win a paperback copy of The Little Flower Shop by the Sea (INT)

If  you like the sound of this book, then this is the giveaway for you. I am giving the readers of Rachel's Random Reads a chance to win their own copy of The Little Flower Shop by the Sea, in paperback. 

Giveaway open to internationally (so long as The Book Depository ships to your country), all options are voluntary, but please do what they ask, as I will be verifying the winner. Giveaway closes 23:59 26/8/2015. Winner will be announced on twitter and emailed, and they will need to reply within 7 days, or forfeit the prize, and I will re-draw for a new winner.  Good luck everyone.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post - Cassandra Parkin on Perranporth, Cornwall - Cornish Week

Some places are so beautiful you forgive them for occasionally trying to kill you. For me, that place is Perranporth Beach in Cornwall. Two miles of tawny sand. A saltwater lido built into the rocks. The kind of surf that even Australians admit is worth a trip. Mysterious caves that bleed into the old mine workings. A cross-current that will have you halfway across the bay in a couple of minutes. Towering black cliffs with the occasional sign saying things like “DO NOT CLIMB THESE CLIFFS”, “NO, REALLY. DO NOT CLIMB THESE CLIFFS” and “IF YOU CLIMB THESE CLIFFS YOU WILL DEFINITELY DIE, YO”. A tide that, with the wind and the full moon behind it, pours up the beach in a great foaming rush, faster than you can run. 

My dad’s a Cornishman, and my whole family spent every summer of my childhood with our grandparents in Falmouth. Every day my brother and I were five minutes from the beach and six minutes from the ocean, throwing ourselves in and out of the waves, digging terrifyingly deep holes, going to chapel on Sunday mornings with our grandparents - immersed in these glorious Other Lives we’d somehow been lucky enough to be given. And - because we were kids and contractually obliged to be ungrateful - we spent really quite a lot of time nagging our parents to take us to the North Coast, so we could go to Perranporth and look at the caves and go body-boarding and get lost in the beauty and occasionally almost die. 

The sea off Perranporth’s had quite a few things off my family over the years. Once we slightly misjudged the speed that the tide was coming in, and had to run all the way up the beach to escape the surge, and the sea took my best bucket as tribute. (For the record, it was an excellent bucket. Bright yellow with a green handle, in the shape of an actual castle, with windows and a door and crenulations and everything. I hope the mermaids were grateful.) Once it took my bodyboard – just ripped the tie right off my wrist, I’ll have that thank you, and then it rushed off towards the horizon and my board was gone for ever. The biggest thing it ever tried to take was my mother, when she was climbing round the rocks on the headland and a giant wave nearly washed her off the rock. She was saved by my brother, who grabbed her as the water went over her head - so we compromised on her shoe, which the wave slurped off her foot as it retreated. It also stole a decent chunk of my heart, which – along with my bucket, my bodyboard and my mother’s shoe – now lies somewhere in the North Atlantic, just off the Cornish coast. 

Experiences like this leave their mark on a person. For quite a long time, my life-plan looked like this:
- Grow up
- Become a writer
- Build a house on Perranporth beach
- Live in house on Perranporth beach for ever

Obviously, houses being expensive, this house wasn’t going to be big. (I wasn’t completely clueless.) But since there was only going to be me living in it, that wouldn’t be a problem. Then one day I saw a beach hut, and thought, Yeah. That looks about right. I’ll live in a beach hut. Excellent.

In the years after the deaths of my grandparents, I felt as if my roots had been cut. Cornwall, and the ocean off Perranporth, became hard to visit. I was just a tourist. I felt bereft. Then my parents retired and moved back home to Falmouth, and suddenly I was connected again. My parents moved in September, by October I writing The Beach Hut and by November I was back on Perranporth beach, going for an out-of-season swim in the North Atlantic.

There are no lifeguards outside of the season and the waves get noticeably bigger and if you’re not acclimatised (which I wasn’t) the shock of the cold water can literally stop your heart; but I’m an idiot, so I didn’t worry about any of that. I just wanted to be in the ocean. And once I got past the first panicky minute of oh-my-God-this-is-it-this-is-how-I-die, it was magical. The water felt warmer than the air. I wanted to hide beneath the surface so the wind wouldn’t blow on me. As long as I stayed in the water, I thought I was invincible. My husband had to force me to come out. For hours afterwards I knew I was cold, but I was so high from the endorphin rush I couldn’t feel it. I could only deduce it by noticing that I was bluey-white all over and I couldn’t move my fingers or toes properly. 

Experiencing that urge to do something that could literally be the death of you, because it’s also glorious and you can’t bear not to, was how “The Beach Hut” began. It’s about a brother and sister, Finn and Ava, who build an illegal beach hut on a Cornish beach in the autumn, and the journey that led them there, and it was inspired by a moment that combined danger with a deep sense of coming home.

Thank you very much Cassandra, for your interesting account of Perranporth. It has been a pleasure to host you on Rachel's Random Reads for Cornish Week.

About Cassandra Parkin:

Cassandra Parkin grew up in Hull, and now lives in East Yorkshire. Her short story collection, New World Fairy Tales (Salt Publishing, 2011), won the 2011 Scott Prize for Short Stories. The Summer We All Ran Away (Legend Press, 2013) was Cassandra's debut novel and nominated for the Amazon Rising Stars 2014. Her work has also been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. 

The Beach Hut (Legend Press, 2015) is her second novel.

The Beach Hut by Cassandra Parkin

Amazon UK

It is autumn time and on a peaceful Cornish beach, Finn  and his sister Ava defy planning regulations and achieve  a childhood dream when they build themselves an illegal beach hut. This tiny haven will be their home until Ava departs at Midwinter for a round-the-world adventure. In the town, local publican Donald is determined to get rid of them. Still mourning the death of his wife, all he wants is a quiet place where he can forget the past and raise his daughter Alicia in safety. But Alicia is wrestling with demons of her own.

As the sunshine fades and winter approaches, the beach hut stirs old memories for everyone. Their lives become entwined in surprising ways and the secrets of past and present are finally exposed.

Guest Post - Rachael Richey's Thoughts About Cornwall - Cornish Week

I'm delighted to welcome Rachael Richey, author of the NightHawk to my blog and to my Cornish Week. She has written about her thoughts on Cornwall, where she lives.

My first experience of Cornwall was as a tomboy twelve year old, going there on holiday with my best friend and her family.  They owned a little cottage right down near Land’s End, and we spent a brilliant week climbing on rocks, jumping over waves and generally getting sandy and sunburnt.  It was great fun and I really fell in love with the place.  Over the years I went back there on holiday many times, and when I introduced it to my husband nearly twenty years ago, he fell in love with it too.

We finally moved to Cornwall at the end of 2000, when our second child was just six months old, and since then have discovered so many more exciting parts of the county.

In both Storm Rising and Rhythm of Deceit, the heroine Abi lives in Sennen which is the most wonderful long white sandy beach near Land’s End.  It’s probably still my favourite place in Cornwall and we’ve spent many happy hours playing there.

My three other favourite places in Cornwall are Polridmouth Cove, where Daphne du Maurier had a cottage, and which she used as the location for Rebecca’s boathouse; Boscastle, and St Ives. 

I can guarantee that anyone visiting Cornwall will fall in love with it.

Author Bio

Rachael Richey lives in Cornwall with her husband and children. She writes Women's Fiction, and Storm Rising is the first book in the NightHawk Series. She has been writing since she was a child, starting with stories about her teddy bears and dolls. 

She lived in the Hebrides for nearly fourteen years, having originally gone there to work for the summer season. She met and married her husband David whilst there, and had two children, before moving to Cornwall at the end of 2000. 

There are currently four titles in The NightHawk Series.  The first, Storm Rising was published in February, 2015, and the second, Rhythm of Deceit was published at the end of July, 2015.  

Facebook | Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon author page UK | Amazon author page US


Storm Rising - NightHawk Book 1

Frontman of the grunge rock band NightHawk, Gideon Hawk has had enough of the rock star life. He is jaded, disillusioned, and haunted by the memory of an unresolved heartbreak. On a whim, he leaves the band in New York and heads to England in search of answers.

After attending the funeral of her estranged mother, Abigail Thomson makes a shocking discovery in her parents’ attic. The still-raw memories that surface, along with even more startling discoveries, force Abi to face a devastating truth that leads to a series of life-changing events. She and Gideon must race against time to reclaim the life stolen from them a decade before.

Purchase Links

Amazon UK | Amazon US  | The Wild Rose Press

Rhythm of Deceit - NightHawk Book 2

Two years after finally being reunited, Abigail Thomson and Gideon Hawk are happily married and living in Cornwall with their children.

While Gideon is busy focusing his energies on his musical career, Abi makes an unexpected discovery of old diaries dating from 1950. As she and her daughter read through them, the reasons behind Abi’s mother’s destructive actions become much clearer, and they discover a shocking sixty-year-old deception.

Meanwhile, Simon Dean, the vengeful ex-drummer of Gideon’s band NightHawk, is about to make life very difficult for them all—again—and he is prepared to go to desperate lengths to achieve his goals.

Purchase Links

Amazon UK | Amazon US  | The Wild Rose Press

Thank you so much Rachael for your thoughts in Cornwall. Next time I'm in the area I will try to check out your favourite places. 

Book Review - Sugar and Spice by Angela Britnell - Cornish Week

Amazon UK

Title: Sugar and Spice

Author: Angela Britnell

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Purchased

Publisher: Choc Lit

Publication Date: 1st April 2014

Rating: 4 Stars

The Way to a Hero’s Heart… 

Fiery, workaholic Lily Redman is sure of two things: that she knows good food and that she always gets what she wants. And what she wants more than anything is to make a success of her new American TV show, Celebrity Chef Swap – without the help of her cheating ex-fiancé and producer, Patrick O’Brien. So when she arrives in Cornwall, she’s determined to do just that. 

Kenan Rowse is definitely not looking for love. Back from a military stint in Afghanistan and recovering from a messy divorce and an even messier past, the last thing he needs is another complication. So when he lands a temporary job as Luscious Lily’s driver, he’s none too pleased to find that they can’t keep their hands off each other! 

But trudging around Cornish farms, knee deep in mud, and meetings with egotistical chefs was never going to be the perfect recipe for love – was it? And Lily could never fall for a man so disinterested in food – could she?

Lily Redman is a chef, and also does TV. She is currently working on confirming the line up of Celebrity Chef Swap, a programme where chefs will swap kitchens. She is going to make this an international show and comes to the UK to try and convince some people to take part. She is also trying to get away from her ex manager and fiancee Patrick. 

Lily arrives and heads to Cornwall, where she then decides she will need a driver to get her around not only Cornwall but also the rest of the UK as she has a lot to fit in, in a short space of time. Betty, the woman she is staying with, recommends Kenan Rowse for the job. 

Kenan is an ex-soldier, having served in Afghanistan, but is now back and looking for work. He agrees to be Lily's driver, but the job is a lot more than he bargained for. There is a simmering attraction between the pair the whole time, despite them being complete opposites. 

He is the strong, silent type and Lily loves to talk. Lily is also a complete foodie and Kenan just sees it as fuel, which is a perception Lily is determined to change. 

At the base of his book there is a story about food and about love. The food descriptions are nice, but didn't really make me too hungry, but everything else I thought was really good. There are lovely descriptions of Cornish farms and cooking, including the Cornish Pasty! 

Both Lily and Kenan's exes appear, mainly to cause trouble, and to add to the drama of the book, as well as the will they get together or not vibe. 

I found this to be a largely enjoyable book, full of some incredibly sweet moments, and I think I fell just a little bit in love with Kenan. 

Promo & Giveaway - The Postcard by Lily Rose Graham - Cornish Week

Do the people we love ever really leave us?

                 

When Ivy Everton, a children's book illustrator, moves to Cornwall to start a new life with her husband Stuart, she's given her mother's old writing desk, a bittersweet token from a mother who made childhood magical.

When she clears it, she finds that the desk holds an unexpected surprise; one she wishes, in a way, that she hadn't found, as hidden inside is a blank, faded postcard addressed to her, in her mother's hand. At first, the postcard serves only to haunt her; as she can't help but wonder what unwritten secret lies unsaid.

Yet, as the days pass mysterious things begin to happen, odd items go missing from her studio, only to reappear, ethereally transformed in the seemingly empty desk.

Soon Ivy realises that the postcard was never really blank, it was simply waiting ... waiting for her to find it.

Part ghost story, part magical Christmas tale, The Postcard is about finding hope, even in the darkest times, and about the kind of love that transcends time and space to heal. 

Amazon UK | Amazon US

About Lily Rose Graham

Lily Graham is a writer and wellbeing features journalist. In her head she divides her time between her sprawling sea cottage in Cornwall and her pied-à-terre in Paris, in reality, she manages her country living aspirations by bringing them to life in her fiction while she lives in the city with her husband, and a bulldog named Fudge, the latter got her fiction debut as the slobbering, yet endearing inspiration behind illustrator Ivy Everton's children's series about a talking bulldog who solves crime in her first novella, The Postcard, a magical ghost story set in Cornwall.

She writes contemporary romance that feature drama, humour, and sometimes a bit of magic. She is the author of The Postcard and most recently, An Invincible Summer.

Social media

Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Website 

Giveaway to win an e-copy of The Postcard (open internationally)

Lily Rose Graham has kindly offered readers of Rachel's Random Reads a chance to win an e-copy of The Postcard as part of Cornish Week

Giveaway open to everyone, all options are voluntary, but please do what they ask, as I will be verifying the winner. Giveaway closes 23:59 26/8/2015. Winner will be announced on twitter and emailed, and they will need to reply within 7 days, or forfeit the prize, and I will re-draw for a new winner.  Good luck everyone.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Review - A Seaside Affair by Fern Britton - Cornish Week

Amazon UK

Title: A Seaside Affair

Author: Fern Britton

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Purchased 

Publisher: Harper Collins

Publication Date: 26th March 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

When the residents of the Cornish seaside town of Trevay discover that their much-loved theatre is about to be taken over by a coffee chain, they are up in arms. It is up to Penny Leighton, hotshot producer and the vicar’s wife, to come up with a rescue plan. Armed with only her mobile phone, she starts to pull in some serious favours.

The town is soon deluged by actors, all keen to show their support and take part in a charity season at the theatre. One of the arrivals is Jess Tate, girlfriend of TV heartthrob Ryan Hearst. His career is on the rise while her own is in the doldrums. But everything is about to change. Trevay must put on the show of its life – but can the villagers, and Jess, hold on to the thing they love the most?

What a wonderful book, this is the ultimate tale of  a seaside town, banding together to try and save their much-loved, iconic Pavillions theatre, from the grips of a global coffee chain. And the town of Trevay are definitely up to the task.

Although the overall outcome of the book at least in regards to the Pavillions may have been predictable almost from the time the predicament is mentioned, the story surrounding the various people in the town trying to save it, and the outside help they get, is so entertaining and enjoyable, I honestly didn't care. 

There are many main characters to this book, of which I could either sit and wax lyrical about all the different people and their various personalities, and run the risk of confusing you, or I could suggest you take a look at the book yourself, where Fern Britton will introduce you to everyone when they become relevant and keep you updated with all the threads of the story, without it ever becoming confusing. 

There are also loads of famous names mentioned, partly as people donating items to help the cause, but also there is a cameo by an extremely sexy actor right towards the end, although you would probably never guess the reasoning for him being there. 

This is a fabulous book of friendship, camaderie, many romances and ultimately how people can all pitch in when its a cause close to their hearts. 

A Seaside Affair is set in the lovely seaside town of Trevay, and the locals are generally a very friendly bunch of people, and the town itself sounds like a lovely place to visit. But it is the theatre that I fell in love with, the history of the place, and the stories of the actors and actresses roped in to help the fight to save it. 

I loved every second of this book, and felt it really summed up small Cornish town life really well. 

Guest Post & Giveaway - Why Cornwall? by Liz Fenwick - Cornish Week

 Why Cornwall? It is a question I’m asked frequently because, well, I’m not Cornish, not even British. In truth Cornwall didn’t come in to my life until I was twenty-six and my then boyfriend, now husband, took me too to meet his parents who lived there. I thought I was being subjected to the parent test, but, in truth, it was the Cornwall test. Did I pass? Yes, with flying colours, as I fell in love with the Duchy. My first trip was a glorious June weekend when the sky was eye achingly blue and the hedgerows filled with foxgloves. The only thing that didn't enchant me on that first visit in 1989 was the temperature of the sea. It was arctic. It was a total shock to me. I had spent my summers on the south side of Cape Cod where the summer sea temperature about 70 degrees Fahrenheit!

There is something raw and untamed about Cornwall that speaks to those susceptible to the possibilities of the past and its magic. Crossing the Tamar River is often spoken about and it is something I have experienced whether on a train or in car. I must confess it is much more special on Brunel’s beautiful bridge than in a packed car on the A30. As soon as that threshold has been traversed the air feels different. The civility of the Devon slips away and the power of the land marked by wild seas, bleak moors, jaw dropping cliffs and gentle hidden valley draws you in.

When I'm in the Duchy I find myself ‘seeing’ stories in the landscape and catching glimpse of tantalizing ideas set in the backdrop of the countryside. A perfect example of how this happened was with the setting for A Cornish Stranger. For years I’d walked Frenchman’s Creek and we frequently took our boat up the Creek in an evening when the tides are right to enjoy a glass of wine and the peace of the setting. At the mouth of the creek almost hidden behind the pines that mark the entrance sits a wooden cabin. You can only see from the water and it remained lodged in my mind until another tidbit came my way. While researching another book I found an old Cornish saying…save a stranger from the see, he’ll turn you enemy. Ping went my brain. Story ideas collide and I knew then I wanted to tell the story of a grandmother and granddaughter both hiding away from the world for different reasons.

I know other writers find their inspiration from other parts of the world but for me Cornwall unlocked my muse and continually feeds the creative well. It could be because I can't be in Cornwall all the time and writing about was a way to keep me there…at least in my mind.

Thank you so much to Liz Fenwick for taking time out of her busy schedule, to contribute to my Cornish Week.  I'm impressed that Cornwall, our wonderful tourist destination, can not only inspire British authors, but non British authors too.

Giveaway to win a PB copy of The Cornish Stranger by Liz Fenwick (open internationally)

Liz Fenwick  has kindly offered readers of Rachel's Random Reads a chance to win a paperback copy of The Cornish Stranger as part of Cornish Week

Giveaway open to everyone, all options are voluntary, but please do what they ask, as I will be verifying the winner. Giveaway closes 23:59 26/8/2015. Winner will be announced on twitter and emailed, and they will need to reply within 7 days, or forfeit the prize, and I will re-draw for a new winner.  Good luck everyone.

a Rafflecopter giveaway




Author Bio

Writer, ex-pat expert, wife, mother of three, and dreamer turned doer....

Award winning author of The Cornish House, A Cornish Affair, A Cornish Stranger and Under A Cornish Sky. After nine international moves, I'm a bit of a global nomad. It's no wonder my heart remains in Cornwall while I'm forever on a plane. I can be found tweeting from 36,000 feet or enjoying the sunshine in Dubai while wrangling my manuscript and my cat..


I'm currently researching my next book - The Returning Tide due in 2016.

You can follow Liz on Twitter

Book Review - The Cornish House by Liz Fenwick - Cornish Week

Amazon UK

Title: The Cornish House

Author: Liz Fenwick

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Purchased

Publisher: Orion

Publication Date: 24th May 2012 

Rating: 4 Stars

When artist Maddie inherits a house in Cornwall shortly after the death of her husband, she hopes it will be the fresh start she and her step-daughter desperately need. Trevenen is beautiful but neglected, and as Maddie discovers the stories of generations of women who've lived there before, she begins to feel her life is somehow intertwined within its walls.

But Maddie's dream of a calm life in the countryside is far from the reality she faces - and as she pulls at the seams of Trevenen's past, the house reveals secrets that have lain hidden for generations.

I have been meaning to read a book by Liz Fenwick for a few years, to the extent that I keep buying them for my kindle, but not getting around to reading them. Finally this week, I have put that right and started at with the first book she had published, The Cornish House. 

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Cornish House,  however I did really enjoy the book. I did find it took a while to get going for me, partly because of Hannah and Maddie clearly still being grief-stricken. Makes for some slightly harder reading,. 

Maddie inherits Trevenen, in Cornwall shortly after her husband dies, and she has full custody of her step-daughter Hannah, who is devastated at the loss of her father, and is also behaving like a typical teenager towards her step-mum. 

It doesn't take long for Maddie to fall in love with the house, and for the house to reveal some of its secrets, mainly towards Maddie's birth family. There is a lot of history of the house dealt with, and its prior occupants, including some diary entries. As not a huge fan of history, I wasn't too enthralled by all of this, it was interesting, but not really a preferred part of this story. 

There are many arguments between Maddie and Hannah and their relationship is one of adjustment, as to how to deal with the other without Hannah's father to intervene. It is a fascinating relationship, and I loved seeing how it grew and changed as the story progressed. 

I found the descriptions of a Cornish winter in a house that didn't have proper heating to be quite harrowing, as I know how cold that part of the country can get, especially with the sea breeze too, and I am amazed they were coping as well as they did. 

It was Hannah's friendship with OT that really touched me, it was great to be able to see her confide in someone, and it seemed like OT was getting a lot from the friendship too. 

The Cornish House was an enjoyable debut from an author I have every intention of reading more from. 

Thoughts on Cornwall from the Book Community - Cornish Week

A couple of weeks ago I asked my friends in the Book Connectors facebook group, to send me any thoughts they had on Cornwall, for this Cornish week. I have had a lovely response to this, and so without further ado, here are various bloggers and authors thoughts on Cornwall.

Anne Williams from Being Anne - Twitter - Facebook

I haven't been to Cornwall in many years - it's such an almighty trek from Yorkshire! But I must admit I've been googling accommodation recently - I've never been to the Eden Project or the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and watching Poldark has reminded me how very beautiful it is. I might just leave it until after the school holidays though, let the car park that is the M5 clear a little.

One of my favourite reads set in Cornwall is Somewhere Beyond The Sea by Mandy (Amanda) James. Her time traveller books - A Stitch In Time and Cross Stitch - have since stolen the spotlight a bit, but this one's still my personal favourite. With an idyllic Cornish setting, it deals with blackmail, abuse, death and betrayal - a real page-turner, never losing its gentle touches of humour, and I really loved it. 

Katey Lovell from Books with Bunny - Twitter

"When I was a child my Mum, Gran and I often took our annual holiday in Cornwall.  I remember knickerbocker glories in a little café, sitting on the rocks at St Ives and paddling in the sea at Newquay.  However, one of my favourite memories is of visiting Jamaica Inn.  They had a lairy parrot that I found scary and yet wouldn't stop going to see!

I didn't read any of Daphne du Maurier's books until I was in my twenties, but now I class her as one of my favourite authors.  Rebecca is an absolute classic read, so full of tension and intrigue, and du Maurier herself seems an interesting character.  I'm hoping to return to Cornwall one day soon because it holds so many special memories from my childhood summers."

Sarah Jasmon, author of The Summer of Secrets - Twitter - Website

My eldest daughter was born in Cornwall. We were very young parents, and moved down on a whim because my sister in law and her boyfriend had gone to live there because of the surfing. I remember driving down with them straight after our wedding, finding a house to rent, and then hitching back up to Southport to pack (I was about six months pregnant at the time!). We rented a converted barn as a winter let in a tiny village outside of Penzance. My daughter was born at home (the midwives were a fiercely independent bunch, which suited us just fine), and the day after she was born, we were due an inspection by the letting agents. They knew about the baby, but not the home birth, so it was as well they turned up the day after. When they heard, they immediately said they'd come back another time, but my husband had cleaned ferociously and wasn't letting them get away with that. They crept in to say hello, had a tiny look round, and the next day sent us flowers and chocolates. We stayed in the area for about a year. It was such a relaxed place to be a new parent, everyone just popping in and out whenever. In our next house, the neighbour was a retired farm worker who'd go round his old fields picking cauliflowers and leaving them on our doorstep, and he'd take our washing in when it looked like rain. Then we moved on again, to Eastbourne, and suddenly needed to make a real effort to meet people, and then book visits in advance. Everyone had proper jobs and mortgages and grown-up stuff like that. It was lovely in the end, but that Cornish year is a very special one in my memory. My marriage ended some 15 years later, and it's funny now to look back at this time, when everything seemed so easy!

I have a real soft spot for Derek Tangye's books, collectively known as The Minack Chronicles. I read them first as a teenager, having picked a couple up at a jumble sale. (I also loved Lillian Beckwith, and still have a tiny fancy to run away to the edge of the world!). They relate the true story of an idealistic couple from London who move to the Cornish coast and try to make a daffodil and potato farm work. There's an incredible sense of place, and Tangye writes beautifully about the locals, and the oddballs who turn up in their day to day life. The farm is always just about to go under, but they always pull through in the end, and the land is now a nature trust.

Joanna Lambert, author, Website - Twitter - Facebook

When I think of Cornwall it’s all about holidays which started in my teens and never seem to have stopped.   In those days it was all about packing a tent and sleeping bags into the car and a six hour - yes six hour – journey to reach our destination.  Today we can achieve it in three and have swapped canvas for a comfortable bed and a proper roof over our heads.  To me Cornwall was, and still is, all about small fishing villages, sea mist and mystic places like Tintagel.  And if I’m asked to make a connection between Cornwall and reading then there is only one book for me - Susan Howatch’s Penmarric. Published in 1971 and eventually turned into TV drama, it was a huge best seller.   Conflict, jealousy, infidelity and betrayal, it has all the ingredients of a great read:-

 ‘When Mark Castallack sees his longed-for inheritance Penmarric, a gothic mansion on the bleak cliffs of Cornwall, and the mysterious, mesmerising Janna, he knows that he will make them his and nothing will stand in his way. Spanning the Victorian era to the Second World War, this gripping story of one man and his two feuding families chronicles the tempestuous clashes between warring sons, wives and mistresses, and between a house divided against itself.’

This is a book I would definitely recommend adding to your TBR pile…

I would like to thanks all four contributors for taking the time out of their busy lives to send me their thoughts about Cornwall. I hope you have all enjoyed reading this.