Cornwall and the Cornish

by Bernard Deacon

Genres: History

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2010

About the author

Bernard W. Deacon is a multidisciplinary academic, based at the Institute of Cornish Studies; he has previously worked for the Open University and Exeter University’s Department of Lifelong Learning. His main research interests are:

18th and 19th century Cornish communities
The Cornish language and its revitalisation
Cornwall's population and how it has changed
How peripheral regions are governed
Who are the Cornish and how their identity is presented

Deacon is a fluent Cornish language speaker, and represents the Institute of Cornish Studies on the Cornish Language Partnership. In 2007, he was re-elected as Chairman of Cussel an Tavaz Kernuak (The Cornish language Council).

Reviews

[Lee Broderick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rather odd but intriguing little book, plainly meant to distil thirty years of academic research into a more accessible format. Bernard Deacon writes here in his own, sometimes scathingly sarcastic, voice with all of the entertainment but also bias that that suggests. In some ways, this is a shame. The intention here was obviously to write a 'Cornish Studies' book for the interested member of the public - whether Cornish, tourist or immigrant - and he has been largely successful in that but his naked personal opinions somewhat undermine that aim and leave the author open to unjustified criticism.

I say unjustified because the book is largely a fair representation of the 'New' Cornish Studies that was pioneered by Deacon and Philip Payton and that original research has been academically very well underpinned. Indeed, the author is highly aware of the tightrope walked in objectively writing about an emotive subject and has been abused by pro- and anti-Cornish nationalist lobbies in the past.

Overall, I do recommend this as a popular text on the subject, written almost as a tourist guide by writing a couple of paragraphs at a time on well known historic figures and (primarily) places, all lavishly illustrated with colour photographs in a small, pocket-sized format. When you come across the wry, caustic asides, just remember that they are wry. I confess I know Bernard and 'get' his sense of humour entirely. I smiled at some of these comments because I could hear his voice saying them and that's the thing: to make the text less academic and more popular, Bernard has largely written as he would talk. Whether you agree with his politics or not, I hope other readers could still be entertained while learning something about Cornwall.