The West Country As A Literary Invention: Putting Fiction in its Place

Is the West Country on the map or in the mind? Is it the south-west peninsula of Britain or a semi-mythical country offering a home for those in pursuit of the romance of wrecking, smuggling and a rural Golden Age? This book investigates these questions in the context of the relationship between place and writing, discussing Thomas Hardy’s Wessex; R.D. Blackmore’s Exmoor and Lorna Doone ; Charles Kingsley, whose Westward Ho! became a Devon place-name; Sabine Baring-Gould of Dartmoor, recorder and inventor of West Country folk-tales; and Parson Hawker of Morwenstowe, an inventor of the Cornish King Arthur.