Cornish Folk Tales of Place: Traditional Stories from North and East Cornwall

by Anna Chorlton

Cornwall's rugged coast is etched with stories. Here you'll find tales of powerful mermaids, spiteful witches, crafty smugglers and woeful ghosts. Up on the moors are mischievous creatures, huge giants and elusive beasts. Let the piskeys lead you astray across the windy tors and sandy shorelines to experience wonder, miracles, secrets and magic. Bodmin Moor folklore writer Anna Chorlton retells tales of North and East Cornwall, illustrated by local artists and members of the community.

Genres: Folklore

194 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 3, 2019

Reviews

[Diz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a charming collection of folk tales from Cornwall. There many stories of fairies, which are called piskies in Cornwall, and a few tales of saints, witches, and knights. One thing that I enjoyed about the book is that the stories are separated into chapters that focus on a particular location, and each chapter starts with a description of the area as it is today. That really made me want to visit some of the places as the descriptions are well written.

[Rob Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cornish Folk Tales of Place is a collection stories from South East and North Cornwall. Although it is a compendium of tales, each section starts with a local saying and a description of the area by the author. Many of the stories are the author’s retelling, this is entirely appropriate given the oral nature and history of the stories. Even though several of the tales didn’t seem to really go anywhere, I did enjoy this book. If my review was based solely on the tales themselves it would have received a lower rating, but Anna’s writing style is so engaging it kept me reading. As a resident of south east cornwall, I am very familiar with most of the locations in the book and this greatly added to my enjoyment.

In summary, the folk tales are interesting if sometimes lacking in substance, but this is made up for with Anna’s writing style. I would recommend this book to anyone familiar with the area, or with an interest in folk lore generally.

As a regular wanderer across the moors, I’ll certainly be turning my pockets inside out next time I find myself mazed or piskey-led - so there is that!

[Ann Foweraker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cornish Folk tales of place focuses on North and East Cornwall – areas often missed from the general folk-tales of Cornwall. As a resident of East Cornwall I found it especially interesting to read of the tales associated with the places I know – or places not too far away that I have yet to visit - and was surprised how many of the tales I had not heard before.
The clever layout of the book leads you from East Cornwall’s coast – then up along the rivers and out across the wilds of Bodmin moor, before visiting the towns around the edges of the moor and landing up on the North Cornwall coast. Each area brings new stories, though some of the characters (most notably the piskies) pop up in various places wreaking havoc or being helpful.
The inclusion of a wide range of styles of art work produced for the book by a community art project adds to its charms.
Anna Chorlton has done an excellent job of compiling, retelling and saving for the future these special folk tales that could so easily be lost in our times of snapchat and twitter.

[Gerry Grenfell-Walford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I live down the far west of Cornwall and that's the part that seems to get the lion's share of attention, both in tourist numbers and in publicity. So it's refreshing to hear from the other half of the Duchy. Time was once when East Cornwall had by far the denser population, being the nearer to the big cities of Plymouth, Exeter etc, and West Cornwall was nowhere!
Anyway, this is a charming and quirky collection. I love the individual illustrations and the different narrative voices as the tales range from port to high moors and back. Old stories such as these can sometimes present themselves as overly twee and folksy, and a bit saccharine. Fortunately enough remains of the original material here to hint at their original role: not just to divert and entertain, but to express, warn, share, or poke fun. Half-memories and half-truths are all grist to the mill here, and some of these folk-memories are very old indeed! They offer a way of looking at, and connecting with the landscape. Folk tales of place indeed.

[Sharon Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover immediately got me excited and eager to read. Anna didn’t disappoint as the magic continued every page I turned. I live near Cornwall and will forever look for mermaids and piskies.
Hopefully we shall carry these stories into the next generation. Thanks for making this possible.