Cornwall
An exhilarating, uneven survey of an outstandingly eccentric British surrealist
Ithell Colquhoun was always a bit of a mystery surrealist. Her greatest hit is the unsettling, dream-like ‘Scylla’ (1938), a…
Cornwall’s gypsies face eviction
‘Don’t use our real names,’ says the teenage gypsy. ‘Other gypsies will laugh at us.’ Even in a tracksuit, the…
A quest for retribution: Fire, by John Boyne, reviewed
Freya, a respected consultant in a burns unit, is on a secret mission to destroy as many young boys’ lives as possible, having been raped by teenagers on holiday in Cornwall at the age of 12
Curiously understated: Porthminster Kitchen reviewed
Porthminster Kitchen sits above Warren’s Bakery on St Ives Harbour, like a paradigm of the British class system in food.…
How serious is Cornish nationalism?
The Office for National Statistics has been publishing interesting insights from the last census – perhaps to counter the bad…
Down to the sea again
In the garden of my house in Cornwall there is a smooth granite stone about the size and shape of…
Messy family business
Cressida Connolly’s new novel begins with a couple of endings. It’s spring 1855, and on the battlefields of the Crimea…
Low life
A light was on in the caravan site office so I went over to try and buy a gas canister.…
Cornish pasties
This week, world leaders are doing what countless Brits do every summer: unpacking their bags in a charming corner of…
Hot housing
A second home in Cornwall is nothing to be proud of
Jon Lansman finally gets a left victory
While the Conservatives in Cornwall may celebrate winning control of the council in last week’s election, they had one notable…
Outside the box
The Stein’s at Home steak menu box (£65) says ‘Love from Cornwall’: it is not for people who live in…
Shiny blacks, fierce greys, strange whites
Alfred Wallis (1855-1942) should be an inspiration to all late starters. It was not until he had passed the age…
Holiday park hell
Make Up is the first full-length film from writer–director Claire Oakley, set in an out-of-season holiday park on the Cornish…
Hope in a takeaway bag
You don’t dine in the age of pandemic: you scuttle about in the wreckage. If you can afford food, and…
Cornish nasties
Second-home owners are not welcome in times of pandemic
A tale of two takeaways
I love eating while watching bad films like Battleship, so I love takeaway food from local restaurants. I am not…
I wouldn’t suggest you eat here, but I doubt there’s a better place to drop acid: Camelot Castle reviewed
The Camelot Castle Hotel is a pebble-dashed late-Victorian excrescence on a cliff. It overlooks the ruins of Tintagel Castle. A…
A bridge to the past: Tintagel’s complex history
Halfway across the brand new bridge that links the two halves of Tintagel Castle, there’s a gap where you can…
The beauty – and eccentric parsons – of Cornwall’s wild north-east coast
The first time I encountered Morwenstowe on Cornwall’s wild north-west coast I was alone. It was early spring and the…
Patrick Heron’s paintings are exhilarating – his colours dance, pulse & boff you on the nose
Patrick Heron’s paintings of the 1950s melt like ice creams. You want to run your tongue along the canvas and…
Ali Smith’s Winter is calm, cool and consoling
In 1939, Barbara Hepworth gathered her children and her chisels and fled Hampstead for Cornwall. She expected war to challenge…
Our holiday in a French Butlins
I’m currently at a French campsite in the Languedoc, having been persuaded by my wife that it would be a…
Your problems solved
Q. Is there a polite way of not letting someone hold your baby? I love giving mine to people to…
Something fishy
Selfridges is skilled at making things that are not hideous (women) look hideous (women dressed as Bungle from Rainbow or…
