Talking Location with author Jane Jesmond – CORNWALL

5th November 2021

#TalkingLocationWith .... Jane Jesmond, author of On the Edge – CORNWALL

My family come from the area round St Austell in Cornwall. My grandfather was vicar of Charlestown  – a picturesque and unspoiled example of a Georgian working port, complete with a fleet of square rigger ships – and as children we spent every summer holiday there and many a Christmas. I have nothing but the most wonderful memories of those summers spent roaming the beautiful countryside between Mevagissey and Fowey.

On The Edge is infused with those memories as well as ones from more recent trips. Whenever I need a location for a scene, there was always a place that sprang to mind: the coastal path my protagonist, Jen Shaw, flees along with its wild flowers and birds; the little cove she peers down into and sees a washed up and very dead body; the tiny village built into an inlet where she seeks refuge after fleeing from villains over the rain-swept moor. These settings are all iconically Cornish and all inspired by my memories of its dramatic, changeable and beautiful scenery.

And memories were in the end all I had to rely on (as well as endless hours spent scouring the internet) as I wrote the final version of On the Edge during lockdown having always intended to spend a couple of weeks in Cornwall concentrating on nothing but the locations in the book. But it was not to be.

However Cornwall is much more than its geography and gave me much more than backdrops to scenes. It’s surrounded by the sea, which has impregnated its history, its culture and its everyday life. The Shipwreck Treasure Museum at Charlestown bears witness to both the dangers and opportunities sea trade gave Cornwall and without the sea there would be no fishing industry nor tourism industry. Stories of great bravery and ruggedness in the face of the wild storms that lash the coast abound, both from the past and in more modern times – such as the events of the night of 19th December 1981 when the Penlee Lifeboat went to the rescue of a foundering ship in hurricane force winds and was lost with all hands.

The proximity of the sea has also created a history of wickedness few other places can rival that has fired up the imagination of so many writers (including me). Who can forget the stories of wreckers luring ships onto rocks to ransack their cargoes? Or the tradition of whole communities being involved in the smuggling of brandy and lace? With its long expanse of rocky coast, punctuated by tiny coves, Cornwal was ideal for illegal activity. And still is. The coast is an unmanageable frontier, porous and open to abuse, so it was inevitable that some of this skulduggery would filter its way into the storyline of my book.

As I researched, I became fascinated by another aspect of Cornwall’s history – tin mining. The ruins of pump and engine buildings scattered through the countryside reveal just how important the industry was to Cornwall. Brilliant heritage sites at Geevor and King Edward mine near Camborne show the danger and ingenuity involved in getting tin and other minerals out of deep-down seams, some of which spread out under the sea. It’s not surprising that the inventor of the safety lamp, Sir Humphrey Davy, was a Cornishman as was the inventor of the steam engine (desperately needed to pump water out of the mines), Thomas Newcomen, whose invention was developed into the steam locomotive by James Watt. It’s all hugely interesting and I used every last bit of it in one way or another in On The Edge but you’ll have to read the book to find out how!

The slow death of tin mining in the nineteenth century when foreign competition drove down the price of tin and made mining uneconomic led to the great Cornish diaspora as miners travelled overseas to South Africa, Australia and North America, where their skills were much in demand. These were men who had probably never left their village apart from the occasional trip to the nearest town and their stories inspired me. I started to think about how people deal with disaster, with the loss of a livelihood, their home, a loved one, a passion, or with a life-changing injury. I also thought about the people who didn’t leave in search of a better life, who didn’t adapt but stayed and, maybe, became bitter about their loss and stuck in the past. My story became full of people facing the loss of something that was intrinsic to their identity and, I hope, all the richer for that.

Cornwall gave so much to On The Edge, not only its beautiful and varied landscapes but also its unique combination of history, culture and tradition. For me it became another character in the book. I love the place.

Jane Jesmond

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