What do you think?
Rate this book
The Swordfish and the Star: Life on Cornwall's Most Treacherous Stretch of Coast
Selected as a Book of the Year in the Financial Times & Esquire
The Penwith Peninsula in Cornwall is where the land ends. In The Swordfish and the Star Gavin Knight takes us into this huddle of grey roofs at the edge of the sea at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
He catches the stories of a whole community, but especially those still working this last frontier: the Cornish fishermen. These are the dreamers and fighters who every day prepare for battle with the vast grey Atlantic. Cornwall and its seas are brought to life, mixing drinking and drugs and sea spray, moonlit beaches and shattering storms, myth and urban myth. The result is an arresting tapestry of a place we thought we knew; the precarious reality of life in Cornwall today emerges from behind our idyllic holiday snaps and picture postcards. Even the quaint fishermen’s pubs on the quay at Newlyn, including the Swordfish and its neighbour the Star, turn out to be places where squalls can blow up, and down again, in an instant.
Based on immersive research and rich with the voices of a cast of remarkable characters, this is an eye-opening, dramatic, poignant account of life on Britain’s most dangerous stretch of coast.
Praise for Hood Rat
'A gripping novelistic immersion' Louis Theroux
'A must-read' Owen Jones
'Britain's Gomorrah' Independent
The Penwith Peninsula in Cornwall is where the land ends. In The Swordfish and the Star Gavin Knight takes us into this huddle of grey roofs at the edge of the sea at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
He catches the stories of a whole community, but especially those still working this last frontier: the Cornish fishermen. These are the dreamers and fighters who every day prepare for battle with the vast grey Atlantic. Cornwall and its seas are brought to life, mixing drinking and drugs and sea spray, moonlit beaches and shattering storms, myth and urban myth. The result is an arresting tapestry of a place we thought we knew; the precarious reality of life in Cornwall today emerges from behind our idyllic holiday snaps and picture postcards. Even the quaint fishermen’s pubs on the quay at Newlyn, including the Swordfish and its neighbour the Star, turn out to be places where squalls can blow up, and down again, in an instant.
Based on immersive research and rich with the voices of a cast of remarkable characters, this is an eye-opening, dramatic, poignant account of life on Britain’s most dangerous stretch of coast.
Praise for Hood Rat
'A gripping novelistic immersion' Louis Theroux
'A must-read' Owen Jones
'Britain's Gomorrah' Independent
256 pages, Hardcover
First published June 2, 2016
17 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
May 19, 2017
Cornwall is one a popular holiday destination for those wishing to stay in the UK. The coves and beaches are beautiful, the land and seascapes are breath-taking and being in the far west of the country, can claim to have some of the best sunsets going and is full of cosy cottages and quaint fishing villages. Where the land ends the Atlantic Ocean starts, bringing in the warmth of the Gulf Stream, it makes Cornwall’s quite balmy at times. It can though be at the receiving end of the might that all the ocean can throw at it, as winter storms sweep in pummelling the coast and cliffs.
There is still a fiercely independent local population who are doing their absolute best to ensure that they can still live in their county even though it has one of the highest second home ownership levels in the country, forcing house prices through the roof. Knight introduces us to the rich and varied characters that populate this place. We hear about the fisherman who battle against the seas month in month out, frequently putting their lives at risk to earn an income. They don’t always return. Those that do then have to battle the bureaucratic tangle that is the fisheries quotas and the families that dominate the markets. They guys who do this tough high-risk job day in and day out fight their own battles with drink and drugs as a coping mechanism. Artists have always been drawn to Cornwall s elemental coast, the quality of the light and the isolation that gave them the tools to focus on their work. Thankfully with broadband now there is a growing community of digital animators keeping the traditions alive.
Knight has written an honest and frank book peering behind the pasty’s and cream teas and surfboards to get under the skin of the county. It is one of the UK’s deprived areas, that most of the time couldn’t give a monkies about the rest of the UK, let alone Europe. He is not afraid to mix with the inhabitants chasing the snippets heard in the Swordfish and the Star pubs until he has a coherent story to tell us. Some of these stories of the rough justice and dangerous moments will scare you and captivate you.
There is still a fiercely independent local population who are doing their absolute best to ensure that they can still live in their county even though it has one of the highest second home ownership levels in the country, forcing house prices through the roof. Knight introduces us to the rich and varied characters that populate this place. We hear about the fisherman who battle against the seas month in month out, frequently putting their lives at risk to earn an income. They don’t always return. Those that do then have to battle the bureaucratic tangle that is the fisheries quotas and the families that dominate the markets. They guys who do this tough high-risk job day in and day out fight their own battles with drink and drugs as a coping mechanism. Artists have always been drawn to Cornwall s elemental coast, the quality of the light and the isolation that gave them the tools to focus on their work. Thankfully with broadband now there is a growing community of digital animators keeping the traditions alive.
Knight has written an honest and frank book peering behind the pasty’s and cream teas and surfboards to get under the skin of the county. It is one of the UK’s deprived areas, that most of the time couldn’t give a monkies about the rest of the UK, let alone Europe. He is not afraid to mix with the inhabitants chasing the snippets heard in the Swordfish and the Star pubs until he has a coherent story to tell us. Some of these stories of the rough justice and dangerous moments will scare you and captivate you.
July 11, 2016
2.5
This book starts well. It's like being in a Cornish pub and having the Old Salt in the corner start telling tales. For the first hour or so you might sit spellbound - but after an hour it starts to get repetitive, more and more implausible perhaps. Fisherman's Tales! You've had enough and look for ways to escape.
It was certainly interesting hearing about the Fishing Mafia - the families who have lived and fished for centuries in these tiny villages and who own many properties too. They don't take kindly to 'incomers'. And I've never been under any illusion about just how hard it must be these days to get a decent living from fishing.
However, I'd have liked some stories from the people who have moved into the area in the last couple of decades. They are pretty much dismissed as the 'posh' London types who can of course never really be accepted into the area. There was no balance to the book at all, and every cliche you can imagine gets rolled out.
I've got a good memory but half way through I just couldn't remember who was who and to be honest I started not to care anyway!
This book starts well. It's like being in a Cornish pub and having the Old Salt in the corner start telling tales. For the first hour or so you might sit spellbound - but after an hour it starts to get repetitive, more and more implausible perhaps. Fisherman's Tales! You've had enough and look for ways to escape.
It was certainly interesting hearing about the Fishing Mafia - the families who have lived and fished for centuries in these tiny villages and who own many properties too. They don't take kindly to 'incomers'. And I've never been under any illusion about just how hard it must be these days to get a decent living from fishing.
However, I'd have liked some stories from the people who have moved into the area in the last couple of decades. They are pretty much dismissed as the 'posh' London types who can of course never really be accepted into the area. There was no balance to the book at all, and every cliche you can imagine gets rolled out.
I've got a good memory but half way through I just couldn't remember who was who and to be honest I started not to care anyway!
April 14, 2024
Narrative a bit all over the place but a joy to read more about somewhere that is very close to my heart
December 1, 2018
I fucking love the sea.
June 17, 2016
I will start by saying I did enjoy this book. The first 2/3 were very good painting a vivid picture of life in coastal Cornwall. But the end drags on and does seem to have a focus. It followed a number f locals but I find their stories get jumbled and it ends rather suddenly without tying the last chapters together.
Beautiful images though and very well researched.
Beautiful images though and very well researched.
Read
November 18, 2016It's hard to know what to say about this book...and that's not meant in a bad way. It explores Cornwall and the coast from the point of view of those fishing it, painting and farming it but mostly fishing it. I loved the insight and it's a book that I will read again.
August 25, 2025
Face sore from yawning sm
August 11, 2019
An enveigling stream of consciousness narrative based on many interviews with folk in Cornish fishing and art communities. Rich in mystery, humour, empathy, detail and danger... and some incidental comments on the impact of the EU on local fishing communities and customs. The book is occasionally a bit disorganised (not a simple linear story), but that probably reflects its basis in unstructured interviews. The book has copped criticism for not being “balanced “. Surely that was never the author’s intention , and to require balance from art is to suffer from the plague of the modern mediocre and “safe” age that finds ultimate merit in balance. The best art is challenging to preconceptions, even uncomfortable, and this applies to style as well as content.
December 21, 2022
Amazing to read this book about Penwith in West Cornwall while holidaying there (and even recognising some of the characters!). A really interesting and evocative account of the (mostly recent) history of this idiosyncratic and unique part of the world and the people in it.
January 8, 2017
Gavin Knight's book is a collage of stories about fishing in Cornwall, along a treacherous stretch of coast. The stories are fascinating mix of bravado, alcohol, danger and disaster. They paint a vivid picture of working class, fishing class, Cornwall and its inhabitants. It is funny, occasionally grim, always interesting. However, Knight seems to swallow a little too many of the tall tales without compunction. He excuses himself in the intro for this, but it felt like a weakness on his part, a weakness to challenge, a cowardice in face of men he came to admire. The book lacks focus, as it dives from story to story without a defined throughline, however it remains thoroughly entertaining all the way to the end.
February 9, 2017
As someone who has spent nearly every summer, autumn and winter holiday of my life down in the area as a holiday maker I found the book a fascinating portrait of a side of Cornwall that I have never really had the ability to observe. It meanders a little here and there, but I never found it a problem; perhaps my personal history and interest with the area coloured my view but I found the book very enjoyable and devoured it fast.
November 18, 2024
A book about the lives of the natives in a very specific part of Cornwall. The Lizard Peninsula. The name of the books are two pubs adjacent to each other in Newlyn. Two that I will surely visit, having been to so many in that area as a frequent Emmet Tourist.
Mainly fishermen - it details a dying breed and the hardships they face from the sea and bureaucracy as they try and make a living. The impact on family lives and the wars with everyone, from authorities to other out of area fishermen.
Narratively, its all over the place. Such a high amount of repetition. Sometimes the biggest waves are 100 ft, then in a couple of chapters there are world record 60ft ones. Hard as nails community that self polices.... wrong uns despatched with community self enforcement..... repeat, repeat, repeat. Needed a damn good bit of editing to unlock a much better book.
I guess it was written in the mid 2000s - as the housing crisis of second home owners is having an impact on the community. Sadly, this is a battle that has already been lost in the post Air BnB world.
Having spent a lot of time in the area, it was great to read about familiar locations and pubs. I certainly look forward to going back again.
Yes, I realise I am part of the problem.
Mainly fishermen - it details a dying breed and the hardships they face from the sea and bureaucracy as they try and make a living. The impact on family lives and the wars with everyone, from authorities to other out of area fishermen.
Narratively, its all over the place. Such a high amount of repetition. Sometimes the biggest waves are 100 ft, then in a couple of chapters there are world record 60ft ones. Hard as nails community that self polices.... wrong uns despatched with community self enforcement..... repeat, repeat, repeat. Needed a damn good bit of editing to unlock a much better book.
I guess it was written in the mid 2000s - as the housing crisis of second home owners is having an impact on the community. Sadly, this is a battle that has already been lost in the post Air BnB world.
Having spent a lot of time in the area, it was great to read about familiar locations and pubs. I certainly look forward to going back again.
Yes, I realise I am part of the problem.
December 27, 2017
A fascinating account of life for those on Cornwall's far-west peninsular, this book covers fishing, art, a bit about mining and smuggling, incomers, poverty, family, feuds, fighting, alcohol, and drugs.
I enjoyed this book well enough, but it reads like a brain-dump – as though the author recorded the oral histories of those involved, then wrote down their streams of consciousness verbatim (though having dealt with oral histories myself, it's obvious this book will have been extensively edited): the tales are fascinating, but disjointed – with disconnected sentences thrown in at frequent intervals – and it jumps back and forward in time, leaving it hard to keep track of the very many people involved. It also got a little repetitive in a few places.
Having spent childhood summers with my grandparents in Helston, this book was a must-read for me, and – although it was exhausting to read, and I doubt I'll read it again – it's clearly a valuable history of the area, and I'm glad I read it.
I enjoyed this book well enough, but it reads like a brain-dump – as though the author recorded the oral histories of those involved, then wrote down their streams of consciousness verbatim (though having dealt with oral histories myself, it's obvious this book will have been extensively edited): the tales are fascinating, but disjointed – with disconnected sentences thrown in at frequent intervals – and it jumps back and forward in time, leaving it hard to keep track of the very many people involved. It also got a little repetitive in a few places.
Having spent childhood summers with my grandparents in Helston, this book was a must-read for me, and – although it was exhausting to read, and I doubt I'll read it again – it's clearly a valuable history of the area, and I'm glad I read it.
May 17, 2022
Another book about Cornwall, fishermen and heavy drinking. Why are so many writers fascinated by the latter? So someone can drink a bottle of vodka in an evening and then get into a fight. So what? Walk into any pub the length of Britain and someone will bore you with a story of some local legend who needed nine, of was it ten, policeman to arrest him after a night of “heroic” drinking. Sad to say, this book is full of such tales of the expected. I have to say I was hoping for a bit more from the author of “Hood Rat”, a book that I read and really enjoyed years ago.
Mostly because of this “What a drinker!” vibe, I put the book down and failed to pick it back up. If you want to read about a Cornish fishing town, try “Dark, Salt, Clear”,where you might learn something more.
Mostly because of this “What a drinker!” vibe, I put the book down and failed to pick it back up. If you want to read about a Cornish fishing town, try “Dark, Salt, Clear”,where you might learn something more.
December 31, 2016
Who would think that a book which is essentially stories about the fishermen of Newlyn would be so good. This is a potted history of Cornwall as seen through the fishing industry, tourism, art colonies, second home owner invasions and Cornish pride.
The stories of individual people chart how times have changed in Cornwall - fishermen become painters, priced out of their tiny cottages moving further away from the harbour. It's not all unhappy development and it's fascinating reading.
The stories of individual people chart how times have changed in Cornwall - fishermen become painters, priced out of their tiny cottages moving further away from the harbour. It's not all unhappy development and it's fascinating reading.
January 13, 2018
I like tales of the sea and there were interesting stories in this book. I felt though that the romanticism of which tourists were accused in their views of the county and its inhabitants was evident in the author’s descriptions of the fisherman and the (unexpected) section on Cornish art and artists. In the end the threads weren’t pulled together and this left a unsatisfactory lack of resolution.
May 29, 2021
I’ve been holidaying in Cornwall for years and what this book gave me was a better perspective into the social history, trials a new tribulations of the indigenous people. Have Google maps at the ready because you’ll want to trace the characters and the villages they move around. Factual and an interesting opener to fishing life in Cornwall.
June 18, 2021
A kind of travelogue/history of the Lizard coast of Cornwall, looking at the characters that populate the area. Plenty of great stories involving the perils of deep-sea fishing or drinking in the harbour pubs frequented by the fishermen. The writing style is disjointed though, making it easy to lose the thread at times.
It’s interesting, but can be hard work in places.
It’s interesting, but can be hard work in places.
January 11, 2022
I adored this book. It’s a perfectly follow up for anyone that enjoyed Lamorna Ash’s writing about Newlyn and the fishing fleet. This book takesyou even further under the skin of the Cornishman in West Cornwall. From fishing mafia, to artists, the struggle for housing & fishing quotas. This book is not to be missed for anyone with a love of Cornwall & the South west.
June 19, 2025
The author wants to challenge a stereotype about Cornish fishermen being tough, hard-drinking, drug crazed,violent, mad and dangerous law-breakers. And then he fills the book with anecdotes about cornish fishermen who are mad, bad and dangerous! It is a sensationalist account which is nonetheless often entertaining and informative about the Cornish fishing industry.
January 4, 2020
Interesting characters but too many and I often got lost with who was who. It also seemed a bit disjointed in parts and felt like a random collection on anecdotes. I was touched by the account of the Penlee lifeboat disaster and particularly enjoyed the chapter on the St Ives artists.
May 20, 2020
I really didn’t want this to end. The yarns that are spun in this book give an insight into a world I know little about. All I’m sure of is that the Cornish fishing communities are full of incredibly brave and colourful characters!
I think I want to move.....
I think I want to move.....
January 4, 2022
A fascinating and candid insight into life on the edge of the sea in the most remote corner of England. Rich in character, the voices and lives of the real people of the Cornish coast are painted in full colour. I highly recommend it.
March 4, 2024
Interesting reading - I love the stories of Cornish fisherman. This had so many tales all crammed together and though it jumped about a bit it was a good book and I enjoyed immersing myself in it. 3.5 ⭐️
January 1, 2020
A very quick and enjoyable read
August 8, 2022
Occasionally interesting, especially if you like drunk men’s overblown tales. Pictures would’ve helped here, to bring the fishermen and Newlyn to life more!
June 6, 2023
I'm living in Cornwall and this rang many bells about the far west. Rough and beautiful - and this a tale excellently told.
August 22, 2023
This book really needs an editor..a rambling disconnected series of 'Stories' from a bunch of local drunks & 'characters'..unbelievably lazy.
December 8, 2023
I had high expectations for this book as I love Cornwall and reading about it. However this book BORED me
August 28, 2025
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews