Top 10 Cornish Authors

One of the most famous authors from Cornwall, and one you probably knew about already – we couldn’t skip past the incredible works of literature that Daphne du Maurier penned during her time in our county. She moved to Cornwall in the late 1920s and made the pretty fishing town of Fowey her home. 

Famous for her historical, gothic novels, she’s best known for writing Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, and The Birds – all set in Cornwall. The Birds also influenced a Hitchcock movie that combined Maurier’s writing with a similar true story of a bird attack on the coast of California, earning the story a spot in the cult classic movie vault. 

📷: New York Times 

You might have read a book by this Cornish author and not even realised it. Rosamunde Pilcher, born in Lelant in 1924, published her first ten novels under a pseudonym – Jane Fraser. Her romantic fiction has won awards, and the settings for her novels were often in Cornwall. 

After her tenth book, she decided to start publishing her work under her birth name, and released a further 16 volumes of fiction. The most successful book of her career was The Shell Seekers, written in 1987. The book sold over 10 million copies in 40 different languages. The plot follows an elderly British woman who reflects back on her life over World War II. 

📷: BBC

Winston Graham is the writer behind the 12 historical Poldark novels, written between 1945-2002 and set in Cornwall. Born in Manchester, Graham moved down to Perranporth when he was 17 years old, and lived there for a further 34 years. 

He died in 2003, but his Cornish stories lived on, and the Poldark books were later adapted into an award-winning BBC television series between 2015-2019, with a large amount of the scenes filmed on Cornish soil. Some of the most famous filming locations included Botallack Mine, Bodmin Moor, Porthcurno, Charlestown, and Kynance Cove.

📷: Regis Autographs 

Born in Launceston, Charles Causley was one of the authors in Cornwall best known for sharing very candid and honest accounts of navy life in World War II, through the medium of poetry. 

His first collection of poems, Farewell, Aggie Weston, were an ode to his personal experiences post-war, and the long-term effects he lived with. Causley loved his home in Launceston, and his final place of rest is in the churchyard at St Thomas Parish Church, where you can visit his grave, just down the road from his house.

📷: BBC 

Named by The Guardian as “the Queen of the contemporary Cornish novel”, Liz Fenwick has written 9 novels thus far. Her award-winning fiction focuses on romance, for the perfect escapism read, all set in various locations across Cornwall. 

Her latest book, The Secret Shore, was released in May 2023, and follows the love story between Merry, a wartime map-maker, and Jake, an American officer, working on the rugged coastlines of Cornwall. Some of her other titles include, A Cornish Stranger, The River Between Us, and One Cornish Summer.

📷: Facebook