We spent Christmas in Cornwall – and what a time we had, my handsum!  – but now the New Year is in and we’re back in the frozen north of England, and all that remains of our holiday is the sand from the rugged beaches shaken out of the bottom of our bags :(

Luckily there’s still the brilliant world of books to escape into, even though the weather outside is miserable and the horrible spectre of work is looming.  So to keep my memories of this beautiful county fresh in my mind, I’ve put together a list of romance novels set in Cornwall.  Now whenever I look out at the grey and damp winter skies of Yorkshire I can immerse myself in a book and imagine myself back in the mild south west.  Here’s to the sea and to reading!

Romance novels set in Cornwall

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier  Need I say more?  What Cornish reading list would be complete without this novel?  In fact, du Maurier wrote many other novels set in Cornwall, including Frenchman’s Creek, Jamaica Inn and The Loving Spirit.

Penmarric, by Susan Howatch

The Shell Seekers, by Rosamund Pilcher

The Poldark Novels, by Winston Graham

The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton

Away From It All and Just For the Summer, both by Judy Astley.

The Camomile Lawn, by Mary Wesley

The Glebe Field, by George MacPherson

The historical novels of E.V. Thompson, including Moontide, Wychwood and Ben Retallick

The Loveday series, by Kate Tremayne

There are a few other novels (not romance fiction) set in Cornwall, which sound great and are on my list to read:

Notes From an Exhibition, by Patrick Gale

Hold My Hand, by Serena Mackesy

The Wycliffe series of detective novels, by W.J. Burley

And finally a non-fiction book which I hadn’t heard of until recently, by an author I love:  Rambles Beyond Railways, by Wilkie Collins  This is a travel book about a walk Collins took through Cornwall with a friend.  His descriptions of the landscape and the social conditions are brilliant.  The book is free to download on here on project Gutenberg and so I did!

So I’ve just made another long list on my TBR pile!  I need another holiday – if only life could be seaside and reading every day!