Tarmac and Scrap And Other Cornish Tales

About the Book

These are eight short stories - only one is over 3000 words. They are set in present day, or recent, Cornwall, and this setting is important to them. The landscape, history and way of life that is part of the county of Cornwall provides not only the background color but underlies and shapes some of the attitudes and resulting actions or the people in the stones. Various characters are drawn with distinct personalities and the author attempts, hopefully with insight and a light touch of irony, to explore the relationships and interactions between the people who appear in the tales.

They are called 'tales' because they are, in some cases, stories told to an interested listener. I have made almost no attempt to reproduce dialect when characters might be therefore annoying if I come across it. Those who know a bit about Cornwell will have no trouble hearing the accent in their own heads, when, say, an old countryman is meant to be talking.

The place names in many cases are invented but the different geographical areas, different moorland, the china clay country, the far West, will I hope ring true to those familiarity with the county.

Some of my tales are about relationships between the sexes, but I wouldn't call them romances. There is a ghost or two, but they are not ghost stories. Some have happy endings and at least one has a tragic one, mostly, as in most of our lives, the characters comprise to some extent and wrest happiness form a less then perfect set of circumstances.

If you want to know more, you'll just have to read them! I hope they please you.

About the Author

Born in Devon, with a Cornish Grandmother, the author attended University in Bristol and worked in London in publishing and as a teacher for eight years. She attended London School of Economics as a postgraduate and has a BA Hons and an MPhil (Maters of Philosophy) degree.

She has lived in Cornwell since 1975, returning weekly to Devon for years for work. She and her husband had a son in 1981 and since then she has never left. She has lived and worked in various parts of Cornwell over a period of twenty-odd years, and the inspirations for the tales has been gathered slowly.

Now divorced but on very good terms with her ex-husband, running her own small business with her son grown and flown, she has found time to complete the tales some of which have been hatching quite a long while.

She now shares her life with two dogs, a cat, a small horse and a partner who occasionally paints in the far West of the county.