Ten Books Based In Cornwall

“Everything that comes from the ground has to go back down… eventually.

Merryn grew up on the wilds of Bodmin moor, raised by her mother and her aunt in an old farmhouse. Here, the locals never leave the village, fear for the future of their farms and cling desperately to the folkloric tales that are woven into their history. Except Merryn, who has escaped to Manchester for university, briefly untethering herself from her past.

When Merryn returns home for the memorial service of her ex-girlfriend Claud, she finds her childhood home stranger and more secretive than ever. She’s sure that her mother is hiding something. The villagers are hunting on the moors at night, but for what? And then there’s a notebook, found in an old chest of drawers, full of long-forgotten folklore that seems to be linked somehow to Claud…” 

This was one of those books that I couldn’t put down. Set in a village on Bodmin Moor, Meet Me at the Surface is a portrayal of Cornish life away from the paradisical coastal summers that the world sees from the outside. While it’s not a full-scale horror, there’s an eerie element that keeps you on the edge of your seat right the way through as you’re pulled into a world of suspicious village life.

One for lovers of Cornish myth and folklore, Meet Me at the Surface is best read in a cosy chair by the fire as evening draws in.

“When Charles Arrowby retires from his glittering career in the London Theatre, he buys a remote house on the rocks by the sea. He hopes to escape his tumultuous love affairs but unexpectedly bumps into his childhood sweetheart and sets his heart on destroying her marriage.

His equilibrium is further disturbed when is eccentric friends all decide to come and keep him company and Charles finds his seaside idyll severely threatened by his past.”

While this book is not explicitly set in Cornwall but rather a fictional coastal location, it’s remoteness and the descriptions of Charles’ surroundings led me to imagine small towns like St Ives and Padstow. Having earned the Booker Prize in 1978, this is a read that should be on everyone’s list.

Charles has probably done what many people still come to Cornwall to do today – seek out a fresh start on new shores in search of another perspective. While a famous man seeking anonymity in a remote location (which he does not achieve), he’s quite a relatable character, and you can’t help but hope he figures things out, whilst reserving just a little bit of judgement.

One scene in which he descends the steps built into the cliff outside his home straight into the sea for a swim has stuck with me, and I picture it every time I find myself taking an ocean dip.

“Winter. Bleak. Frosty wind, earth as iron, water as stone, so the old song goes…

The shortest days, the longest nights. The trees are bare and shivering. The summer’s leaves? Dead litter. The world shrinks; the sap sinks.

But winter makes things visible. And if there’s ice, there’ll be fire.

When four people, strangers and family, converge on a fifteen-bedroom house in Cornwall for Christmas, will there be enough room for everyone?”

The second novel in her acclaimed seasonal cycle, following Autumn, Winter is the season that teaches us survival. Set against the backdrop of a sprawling Cornish house, you can’t help but be drawn in by an almost claustrophobic gathering of characters: Sophia, the formidable matriarch; her long-absent sister Iris; her son Art; and Lux, a sharp and intriguing young woman Art has hired to pose as his girlfriend. What struck me most was how seamlessly the story wove together themes of fractured family ties, the weight of personal and collective history, and the unsettling slipperiness of truth in our “post-truth” age.

One reporter from The New York Times compares her writing with Iris Murdoch and Angela Carter, and I completely agree. Just like Autumn, Winter is completely spellbinding in the way she tells this story, which will leave you yearning for Spring.

“Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft’s family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken.

But Dr Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the same disease in the cliffs beneath his new Cornish home.

Forty years later, Hester Why arrives at Morvoren House to take up a position as nurse to the now partially paralysed and almost entirely mute Miss Pinecroft. Hester has fled to Cornwall to try and escape her past, but surrounded by superstitious staff enacting bizarre rituals, she soon discovers that her new home may be just as dangerous as her last.”

A gothic tale set on the Cornish coast, Laura Purcell blends historical details with supernatural elements for a mysterious story of grief, loss, and the crossover between reality and folklore.

With rich descriptions and a haunting atmosphere, there’s an ambiguity that runs throughout the novel, so you’re never quite sure whether it’s magic or madness at work. From Hester running from her past to the eerie goings on within Morvoren House, there’s an element of having jumped from the frying pan and into the fire.

Best read with a glass of wine and the flicker of a candle nearby, beware of reading after night has drawn in.

“The serene and maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the tragic yet absurd Mr. Ramsay, and their children and assorted guests are on holiday on the Isle of Skye.

From the seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse, Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between men and women.

As time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and simultaneously, the greatest of human challenges and its greatest triumph—the human capacity for change.”

No, this one isn’t technically set in Cornwall either. However, it is true that the lighthouse within the story was in fact based on Godrevy Lighthouse, which inspired Woolf to begin this novel. And so, although the story is set on the Isle of Sky, it’s those Cornish dunes looking out to sea that I picture.

In her own stream-of-consciousness style, she examines each characters unique perspectives and feelings of one another that culminate to form a tragically beautiful portrait of the human condition.

Widely recognised as a literary masterpiece, alongside the rest of her novels, To the Lighthouse is a perfect piece of prose. Thought provoking, illuminating, and emotional, carefully chosen imagery and metaphors give you an insight into the deepest recesses of Woolf’s heart as she writes.

“On a trip to the South of France, the shy heroine of ‘Rebecca’ falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower. Although his proposal comes as a surprise, she happily agrees to marry him.

But as they arrive at her husband’s Cornish estate, Manderley, a change comes over Maxim, and the young bride is filled with dread.

Friendless in the isolated mansion, she realises that she barely knows him. In every corner of every room is the phantom of his beautiful first wife, Rebecca, and the new Mrs de Winter walks in her shadow.”

Some novels earn their place as classics not merely through their age, but through the enduring power of their craft — and this is unquestionably one of them.

I was captivated by its richly layered characters, whose complexities reveal more with each reread, and by the way the slow, almost imperceptible build of tension kept me in a constant state of anticipation.

This book will keep you on your toes, and if you’re anything like me will have you turning page after page to uncover the truth.

The atmosphere of Manderley itself — ominous, majestic, and deeply gothic — felt so vividly drawn that it became a character in its own right, haunting the pages long after I’d finished the final chapter.

“Aged thirty-one, barely making the rent and homesick for the landscape of her childhood, Catrina Davies moves away from the city and into a tiny, dilapidated shed in Cornwall.

As a child, she saw her family and their security torn apart; now, on this battered granite peninsula, she slowly rebuilds the shed and, piece by piece, her own sense of self. 

This is the story of a personal housing crisis and a country-wide one, showing how it can trap us or set us free, and what it means to feel at home.”

This is a book that will resonate with many people today, particularly those navigating the housing crisis here in Cornwall. However, it’s not a sad read (although a true and inspiring account) but rather the opposite.

After coming to terms with the fact that her claustrophobic living situation in Bristol wasn’t going to work, Catrina finds freedom in the most simple and stripped back setting – a tiny shed in west Cornwall.

With the freedom to write, surf and make music on the border between civilisation and wilderness, she discovers the true value of home, while trying to find her place in a fragile natural world.

“Tired from a grim war in America, Ross Poldark returns to his land and his family. But the joyful homecoming he has anticipated turns sour, for his father is dead, his estate is derelict and the girl he loves is engaged to his cousin.

But his sympathy for the destitute miners and farmers of the district leads him to rescue a half-starved urchin girl from a fairground brawl and take her home – an act which alters the whole course of his life…” 

While this story has now become a very successful TV series (for good reason), I’d urge anyone who enjoys historical fiction not to overlook this book.

Marking the start of a heart-warming saga, Ross Poldark introduces you to an unforgettable cast of characters who occupy 18th century Cornwall. Winston Graham’s ability to illustrate each one in perfect detail has you feeling as though you know them already.

Although the pace can be a little slow in places, it’s worth holding out for the complex dynamics that begin to unfold, setting the tone for the rest of the series.

For romance, drama, and transportation to a time long gone, these pages are worth a turn.

“Cornwall is the perfect setting for tales, myths, and legends. The wild moors, the granite, the clay, the rebellious sea, and flat calm coves make the county a vast and inspirational canvas. The starry nights, needle-sharp gorse, and windswept tors and carns provide perfect backdrops to eerie full moons and ghostly goings-on.

Mischievous piskies dance across our landscape, while the spectres of the past, both real and imagined, haunt our memories and our dreams. There are new stories to be told around every corner, across every ley line, behind every menhir, and in the rocks and caves that litter our shores.

Another 13 are already emerging from the mists…”

13 Cornish Ghost Stories gathers eerie and enchanting tales from thirteen Cornish authors, born from an impromptu idea in a lunch queue and brought to life in a beautifully illustrated hardcover.

The collection opens with Kate Riordan’s The Blind Spot, where a widow retreats to a lonely cottage after dreaming of her late husband, and closes with Annamaria Murphy’s The Visitors, in which two sisters encounter a strangely unsettling old woman.

The stories vary in length and tone — some genuinely chilling, others quietly surprising — but all are steeped in the atmosphere of Cornwall. It’s a book to dip into at will, with no rules but enjoyment, and for me, it delivered that in abundance.

But my favourite thing about this book is that is was curated, illustrated, and published by three senior lecturers at Falmouth University; Marie Macneill, Dr Jo Parsons, and Derek Hayes.