Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year Award
Few areas of Britain are as holidayed in or as mythologised as Cornwall. From the romantic melodrama of Poldark to gritty TV depictions of the modern fishing industry, it is a region densely laden with images, projections and tropes. But how do they all intersect with the real Cornwall – its landscapes, histories, communities and sense of identity?
In The Granite Kingdom, Tim Hannigan sets out on an epic east–west journey on foot through his own homeland, exploring its landscapes and history, but also examining how the Cornwall of the popular imagination has been constructed by writers, artists and others.
His journey takes him from the deep woodlands of the Tamar Valley, across the granite wilderness of Bodmin Moor; past coastal villages where tourism and fishing find an uneasy coexistence; through Cornwall’s deprived post-industrial heartlands; and finally into the wildest and most remote western region of Penwith – the place that the author has always called home.