The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey
Description
A fascinating, lyrical account of an east-west walk across Britain's westernmost and most mysterious region.
A distant and exotic Celtic land, domain of tin-miners, pirates, smugglers and evocatively named saints, somehow separate from the rest of our island...
Few regions of Britain are as holidayed in, as well-loved or as mythologized as Cornwall. From the woodlands of the Tamar Valley to the remote peninsula of Penwith – via the wilderness of Bodmin Moor and coastal villages where tourism and fishing find an uneasy coexistence – Tim Hannigan undertakes a zigzagging journey on foot across Britain's westernmost region to discover how the real Cornwall, its landscapes, histories, communities and sense of identity, intersect with the many projections and tropes that writers, artists and others have placed upon it.
Combining landscape and nature writing with deep cultural inquiry, The Granite Kingdom is a probing but highly accessible tour of one of Britain's most popular regions, juxtaposing history, myth, folklore and literary representation with the geographical and social reality of contemporary Cornwall.
Praise for The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey
“A magnificent work of travel and historical deconstruction – deeply personal, meticulously researched and hugely enjoyable.” —Philip Marsden
“Tim Hannigan writes with an authentic Cornish voice and a true internationalist's breadth of understanding.” —Patrick Gale
“Anyone – tourist or resident – who has been seduced by the beauty and strangeness of Cornwall will find Tim Hannigan a congenial guide and companion.” —Tom Fort, author of A303: Highway to the Sun
“Beautifully researched and written with care.” —Wyl Menmuir, author of The Draw of the Sea
“Hannigan roams the country on foot, stitching together not only its geography but its histories and communities, while disentangling fact from myth, folk from folklore'” —BBC Countryfile
“Absorbing and insightful... skilfully interweaves geography, geology, travel memoir and history with an overview of the ways in which Cornwall has been portrayed in art and literature. There's a lot to explore.” —The TLS
“The best kind of traveller, Hannigan is brimful of boundless curiosity... a beguiling book that throbs with passion, Hannigan has captured a portrait of a hidden and often mysterious Cornwall, conveying it with style, ternderness and passion” —The Irish Times
“PRAISE FOR TIM HANNIGAN:
'An excellent and thought-provoking book... What could have been a scholarly theoretical discourse is thoroughly enlivened by Tim Hannigan's decision to turn it into a travel odyssey' TLS.
'Travel writing used to be dominated by Old Etonians with colonialist tendencies; but [Tim Hannigan's] well-researched critique shows that the "travellees" are writing back' Guardian.
'A highly readable and entertaining narrative' Lonely Planet.
'A deft piece of genre-hopping' Telegraph.
'A timely look at the genre – why we travel, and why and how we write about it'” —Irish Independent
“This deep dive into Cornwall's history, landscape and identity should be stacked on service-station counters all along the A303 this summer.” —Financial Times