Vanishing Cornwall

The Spirit and History of Cornwall

by Daphne du Maurier

Photographs by Christian Browning

Victor Gollancz, 1967, [First Edition], black and white photographs throughout, photographic two-page title page, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows edge and shelf wear with rubbing, bumping, chipping, creasing, tears and small parts missing, some discolouration (see photographs)

“Cornwall has for thirty years provided Daphne du Maurier with background for her most famous novels: Rebecca, Jamaica Run, Frenchman’s Creek, The King’s General, My Cousin Rachel.
What is Cornwall? Why is it different from other countries?  What is it about its history and people, their customs and their superstitions and legends, dating back to pagan times, that has given the peninsula throughout the ages a touch of magic, a feeling that it is almost a foreign country?
These were the questions that Daphne du Maurier set herself to answer.  The search proved absorbing; for it entailed visiting places where she had camped, walked and ridden in earlier days, and revived old memories while bringing back the nostalgia of half-forgotten things.  It meant rediscovering stories connected with these spots, a combination of history, folklore and legend that has been woven about them from long ago, even before the days of the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, when the first settlers came from the distant lands of the Mediterranean.”