Cornwall's Creeks, Coves & Coastal Trails - October 4-10, 2009

Daphne du Maurier's FRENCHMAN'S CREEK is a compelling story and a good listen. It's a seventeenth-century costume drama, in which the lead player, Lady St. Columb ("milady"), has left London and her husband out of boredom and gone alone to her country estate in Cornwall. There she encounters a French pirate, a man of wit, urbanity, civility, and charm and, on a whim, joins his pirate crew.

The new, mousey Mrs De Winter marries Maxim after a whirlwind romance. They return to Manderley where she is haunted by the memory of Maxim's first wife Rebecca. She is tortured by the housekeeper Mrs Danvers into believing that the beautiful Rebecca was the greatest thing since sliced loaf and that Maxim was her devoted slave who would never get over her death and to whom his new wife means nothing. This book has everything you could ask for - murder, mystery, romance and atmosphere.

Tired from a grim war in America, Ross Poldark returns to his land and his family. But the joy 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

No one knew Cornwall as well as Daphne DuMaurier, and in this nonfiction work she paints a loving portrait of the region and especially its dramatic coastline. Deftly recounting its history and folklore, describing its people and their customs, and visiting its most outstanding physical features, she laments the loss of what was and celebrates the beauty that persists. Vanishing Cornwall is not so much a travelogue as a tribute.

The Baxter family, newcomers to a farming community on the Roseland Peninsula of Cornwall, is settling in well. The neighbors have welcomed them, and they like their seaside home. Things change when the family's younger son discovers the body of a teenage girl on the beach. Sally Baxter, the mother, must protect him while fighting for his older brother, Luke, who is labeled by police as the chief suspect in the crime. Sally must also try to find out why her husband seems so indifferent to all that is happening. The devastated parents of the murdered girl and the reactions of the neighbors add to Sally's dilemma. DCI Channon, the lead investigator, a quiet and methodical man, must keep his cynical partner in check while dealing with his growing attraction to Sally.

Before his return to the U.S. after a 20-year residence in England, journalist Bryson embarked on a farewell tour of his adopted homeland. His trenchant, witty and detailed observations of life in a variety of towns and villages will delight Anglophiles. Traveling only on public transportation and hiking whenever possible, Bryson wandered along the coast through Bournemouth and neighboring villages that reinforced his image of Britons as a people who rarely complain and are delighted by such small pleasures as a good tea. In Liverpool, the author's favorite English city, he visited the Merseyside Maritime Museum to experience its past as a great port. Interweaving descriptions of landscapes and everyday encounters with shopkeepers, pub customers and fellow travelers, Bryson shares what he loves best about the idiosyncrasies of everyday English life in this immensely entertaining travel memoir.

An illustrated survey of the history and character of the Duchy of Cornwall, which traces the origins of the Duchy in the fourteenth century and its development into the organization operating today under the guidance of HRH The Prince of Wales.

What does it mean to be English these days? That's what journalist and TV quiz master Paxman wonders in this study of British identity. A humorous, ironic, nostalgic, skeptical, dilettantish, mildly eccentric, self-deprecating and proud account (like its subject), the book surveys the various aspects of stereotypical English identity one by one in realms ranging from sex to food. Although he occasionally gives too much credence to flimsy stereotypes and is unnecessarily harsh on the subject of the cult of the English countryside, on the whole, Paxman offers an intriguing investigation. His sociohistorical survey rambles through characteristic attitudes toward foreigners, the weather, religion, the home, sport, language and the countryside. Based on book research, personal observation and Paxman's interviews with Brits including John Cleese and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, this odd collection of theoretical musings, historical tidbits and quirky observations should serve as both a corrective and a comfort for Anglophiles in Britain and elsewhere.

This saga of yearning and mystery travels across oceans and continents to Iceland, Greenland, and North America during the time in history when Anglo-Saxons battled Vikings and the Norsemen discovered America. The marked contrasts between powerful royalty, landless peasants, Viking warriors and noble knights are expertly brought to life in this gripping tale of the French prince named Rumon. Shipwrecked off the Cornish coast on his quest to find King Arthur's legendary Avalon, Rumon meets a lonely girl named Merewyn and their lives soon become intertwined.

In the 12th and final novel of Graham's acclaimed series, which debuted in 1945, the Poldark and Warleggan families continue to feud and try to deal with personal losses and social unrest after the Napoleonic wars. As the story opens, Valentine Warleggan's paternity still poisons the atmosphere, and his financial and marital troubles form a major narrative strand set firmly against the saga's familiar background of Cornwall. Meanwhile, Bella Poldark's desire for a musical career takes her to stages in London and France, where she is involved with rival suitors. A host of other characters and subplots, including a series of murders, keeps the action bubbling.

John Betjeman first fell in love with Cornwall during his childhood holidays and returned to it yearly until his death. As this collection shows, it has inspired some of his best poems and most evocative prose.

Prolific English author Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989) was best known for her imaginative suspense novels (especially Rebecca, 1938), although she also published biographies and plays. Here Forster (Elizabeth Barrett Browning) sharply analyzes du Maurier's work and, aided by access to previously unavailable papers and correspondence, illuminates her subject's character. Du Maurier hid an intensely passionate nature behind the facade of a reserved wife and mother. Aware of her sexual attraction to women since childhood, she repressed her bisexual urges during the early years of her marriage to British war hero Major F. A. M. "Tommy" Browning, with whom she had three children. During WW II she became involved with another man and afterward had an affair with actress Gertrude Lawrence. In a portrait revealing of du Maurier's inner and everyday life, Forster energetically limns a personality that will surprise and engross readers.

You are very lucky in England. The English Landscape is a stunning volume of essays and photographs celebrating the breadth, diversity, and delicacy of the English countryside. A distinguished selection of writers such as the Duchess of Devonshire, Richard Mabey, Anna Parord, Christopher Lloyd, Robin Hanbury-Tenbison, Marina Warner, Dame Jennifer Jenkins, and David Bellamy pay homage to their favorite parts of the English landscape. Complete with color photographs and maps, The English Landscape will engage Anglophiles, travel enthusiasts, and literature buffs alike.

In 1066 William the Conqueror captured the English throne, and since that time 39 kings and queens have reigned over the British dominions. Their lives, alliances, whims, delusions, and intrigues have had an incalculable influence on the culture, politics, and very boundaries of the entire world. The names and dates come fast and furiously, but here are a few facts: Over half of France was in England's possession during the reign of Henry II. Richard III was the last English monarch to die on the battlefield. And, as a 19-year-old princess, Queen Elizabeth II joined the Auxiliary Transport Service as a mechanic in the final days of WWII.

The best introduction to the evolution of the the English landscape. For professionals, students, travelers and all who seek to understand the processes - natural and human - behind the scenery, this is the best place to start. Erudite and readable with great photos and illustrations. Must take it with you on your next visit.

It's 1553, and, with England's teenaged King Edward VI near death, Northumberland is the country's de facto ruler. Next in line for the throne are Edward's sisters, first Mary and then Elizabeth. But Northumberland doesn't intend to relinquish his power; he determines to keep control of the throne for himself, and no expediency is beneath him. Once you step into the luxurious pages of The Secret Lion, you will find yourself on an excursion full of intricate plots, rich settings and historical themes. The time is sixteenth century Tudor England, during the riveting and exquisite renaissance period. Brendan Prescott is ordered as squire to pompous Lord Robert Dudley, a position he soon finds filled with peril. Trust and honor are fiercely tested when those who hold an esteemed position in the high court serve most prominently as a threat. It would seem the castle walls have eyes and ears. As a series of lies and secrets unravel, the young squire must change the course of events placed before him to ensure Princess Elizabeth's future while facing haunting elements about his past.

There's no shortage of good Shakespearean biographies. But Stephen Greenblatt, brilliant scholar and author, reminds us that the "surviving traces" are "abundant but thin" as to known facts. Greenblatt uses the "verbal traces" in Shakespeare's work to take us "back into the life he lived and into the world to which he was so open." Whenever possible, he also ushers us from the extraordinary life into the luminous work. The result is a marvelous blend of scholarship, insight, observation, and, yes, conjecture--but conjecture always based on the most convincing and inspired reasoning and evidence. Particularly compelling are Greenblatt's discussions of the playwright's relationship with the university wit Robert Greene (discussed as a chief source for the character of Falstaff) and of Hamlet in relation to the death of Shakespeare's son Hamnet, his aging father, and the "world of damaged rituals" that England's Catholics were forced to endure. It is the story, too, of 16th- and 17th-century England writ large, the story of religious upheaval and political intrigue, of country festivals and brutal public executions, of the court and the theater, of Stratford and London, of martyrdom and recusancy, of witchcraft and magic, of love and death: in short, of the private but engaged William Shakespeare in his remarkable world.