Winner of the Adult Non-Fiction section of the Holyer an Gof Awards 2006, and Overall Winner of the Holyer an Gof Trophy, this gripping biographical study, published here for the first time in paperback, explores the immensely complicated relationship that existed between A.L. Rowse and his native Cornwall. Rowse's books, A Cornish Childhood and Tudor Cornwall, remain in strong demand and are essential reading for the general reader and historian alike, and for all those who know and love Cornwall. By shedding new light on this complex character, Payton invites a greater understanding of the broader issues of Cornish identity as well as assessing Rowse's highly original contribution to the writing of British and Cornish history.

Philip Payton is Professor of Cornish Studies and Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter. He is the editor of the series Cornish Studies and the author of numerous books including The Making of Modern Cornwall (1992), The Cornish Overseas (1999; new edn. 2005) and A Vision of Cornwall (2002).

List of Illustrations

Preface

1 'This Was the Land of My Content': A Fitting Epitaph?

2 'No Wonder I Preferred Life at All Souls': Escaping a Cornish Childhood

3 'You're No Rowse': The MountMabelMontana

4 'She Made Me Detest the Very Nature of Women': A Mother's Legacy?

5 'A Deep Anxiety to Do His Best for Cornwall': Confronting the Politics of Paralysis

6 'Haunted by Cornwall': A Case of Mutual Rejection?

7 'Not Being English, AlasBut Hopelessly Cornish': Embracing Churchill's England

8 'The Biggest and Most Significant of Cornish Themes': America and the Great Emigration

9 'I Have Been "In Love" with Cornwall All My Life': Reclaiming the Cornish Past and Future

10 'Marooned on My Headland': Retirement, Isolation and Loneliness

11 'All the Island Peoples': Writing British and Cornish History

Conclusion: 'What Could I Not Have Done for Cornwall!'

Notes

Further Reading

Lost of the Principle Works by A.L. Rowse

Index