(Caution: Spoilers Ahead!)
Show me a Cornishman, and I’ll show you a smuggler.
Perhaps not far from the truth during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century in Cornwall. I did not exaggerate the number and diversity of people involved in smuggling at that time. Some were heavily involved, like those in my story, and some simply followed Kipling’s advice and turned a blind eye.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by.
The more I researched, the more astonished I became at the scope of smuggling operations in Cornwall. To some, they were villains; to others, heroes. But they affected the lives of everyone.
It wasn’t until the middle of the nineteenth century that Britain’s free-trade policy finally made large-scale smuggling a memory.
My husband and I traveled to Cornwall to research this book (and to celebrate our anniversary). We fell in love with the rocky cliffs and the tiny narrow roads with hedges twice the height of a person. I’ve never seen anything like it. I reached out of our car window and picked wild blackberries from the hedges when we had to slow down for oncoming cars.
While there, we listened to BBC Radio Cornwall and heard a very interesting discussion about the Chiverton Cross Roundabout in Truro. Apparently, the roundabout had recently been overhauled in a multimillion-pound improvement project. But it seems the people of Cornwall were not happy with the results.
For over an hour, they called in to the radio show and complained about the number of accidents at the new Chiverton roundabout. It kept going on and on, people talking about the utter mess and confusion at this place—especially during high-traffic times. They hated it. And that is how Lord Chiverton got his name.
I was especially excited to see the ruins of Tintagel again. I hadn’t been there since I was eight. The Arthurian legend holds a special place in my heart (because, apparently, I’m an incurable romantic), and I wanted to put a few references to it in this book as a backdrop. What a beautiful place, standing on the tiny headland with the wind spinning whispers of Arthur and Gwenevere all around me.
Cornwall is an amazing place, and I hope through this book I was able to capture at least a small snippet of its magic.
For more on Cornwall and the inspirations behind Havencross, see my Pinterest page: www.pinterest.com/juliedaines.