Book Description

This volume, the sixth in the series, contains Q's retelling of the adventures of two St. Ives fishermen who were imprisoned by Napoleon for 10 years together with their diaries and an introduction by, the Cornish fishing magnate, Sir Edward Hain who retraced their 1200 mile march on the eve of the outbreak of the First World War. The diaries also cast a fascinating light on now, almost, forgotten events such as the arrival in Cornwall of refugees from the Portuguese civil war, electoral scandals and bribery in Cornwall, storms and shipwrecks. Now surpassed in fame as a writer by his daughter's best friend, Daphne du Maurier, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch was the pre-eminent Cornish writer of Victorian and Edwardian times and founder of the school of English Literature at Cambridge University. He is of particular interest since his fiction was very often based on factual events which have now passed from memory.