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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.
Tim Hannigan was born and brought up in the far west of Cornwall. After leaving school he worked as a chef for several years in busy Cornish restaurant kitchens. He escaped the catering industry via a degree in journalism and a move to Indonesia, where he taught English and worked as a journalist and guidebook writer. He is the author of several narrative history books, including A Brief History of Indonesia and the award-winning Raffles and the British Invasion of Java, as well as the critically acclaimed The Travel Writing Tribe. He's also an academic, with a research specialism in contemporary travel literature. He divides his time between Cornwall and the west of Ireland.
– Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year Award
"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
