Redcliffe Press Publications

The Literature of Cornwall: Continuity Identity Difference 1000-2000
ALAN M KENT

The book begins with a historical survey of early Cornish literature, exploring the importance of figures such as King Arthur, Tristan and Isolde and the mystery plays, Ordinalia and Beunans Meriasek. Seventeenth-century writers considered include Nicholas Roscarrock, Richard Carew and Sidney Godolphin.

In the nineteenth century, industrial change was crucial in redefining Cornwall's identity, with writers such as RS Hawker, John Harris and RM Ballantyne. The impact of travel and tourism, along with Celtic Revivalism, are explored, leading to a further refinement of Cornish difference between 1890 and 1940. Authors considered here include Henry Jenner, Robert Morton Nance and Arthur Quiller Couch.

AL Rowse, Jack Clemo, Charles Causley and DM Thomas head the writers discussed in the period 1940-1980, and the book concludes with a study of Cornwall's confident contemporary literature, ranging from Kneehigh Theatre to indigenous Cornish film.

230mm x 150mm 328pp black & white illustrations
ISBN 1 900178 28 1 softback £15.95

The Lost Jews of Cornwall
KEITH PEARCE AND HELEN FRY [EDS.]

This first major study dealing exclusively with the history of the Jews of Cornwall shows there were flourishing Jewish communities in Falmouth and Penzance – and to a lesser extent in Truro and elsewhere – in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It tells the story of the growth and decline of these communities, highlighting the main personalities like Lemon Hart who gave his name to the world-famous rum.

There are chapters on Jews in Cornish folklore and place-names; Jews and Cornish tin mining; the Jewish communities in Falmouth, Penzance and Truro and other settlements; occupations and trades; Cornish-Jewish families, and the rabbis and synagogues. There is a complete survey of the Falmouth and Penzance Jewish cemeteries, with headstone transcriptions and biographical details.

230mm x 155mm 344 pp photographs, appendices and bibliographies
ISBN 1 900178 27 3 softback £14.95

The Cornish Review Anthology 1949-1952
MARTIN VAL BAKER [ED.]

A selection from the wealth of short stories, poetry, essays and criticism published in the first series of Denys Val Baker's celebrated magazine.

The many contributors include Denys Val Baker, Sven Berlin, Charles Causley, Jack Clemo, John Heath Stubbs, Peter Lanyon, Bernard Leach, Daphne Du Maurier, Guido Morris, Ben Nicholson, AL Rowse, Anne Treneer and Brian Wynter.

230mm x 155mm 160pp black & white illustrations
ISBN 1 900178 89 3 softback £9.99 publication summer 2006

Artists in Cornwall

Please see the Sansom & Company Art 2002/04 catalogue for details of books on the artists of Newlyn and St Ives. These include studies of naïve and primitive art in Cornwall, the St Ives art colony in the 1950s, and of the life and work of Sven Berlin, Lamorna Birch, Tom Early, Elizabeth Forbes, Harold Harvey, Roger Hilton, Mary Jewels, Walter Langley, Martin Leman, Brian Pearce and Alfred Wallis. Books at the planning stage include a comprehensive survey of the Artists of Cornwall, a book on Britain's art colonies and lives of Ithell Colquhoun, Norman Garstin and Dod Procter.