Caroline Palmer moved to live in Cornwall in 1998 and has no plans to leave! Her jobs in Cornwall ranged from cleaning factory floors to working on feature and documentary films and writing articles and books, from mental health work to being a village hall secretary, from canvassing for Cornwall Wildife Trust to working in a clearing house for animals being tested for diseases so they can be treated.
She moves constantly between novels, short plays, films and stories, often with a local flavour, and the ongoing history of Porthtowan, where she lives. Her books, Porthtowan and Towan Cross and also Mawla, Nancekuke, And More About Porthtowan and Towan Cross reflect her local interests, and are first histories of these places.
Her short books, written in the noughties, The Cats of Tregoyne and What the Cats of Tregoyne Did Next, were a parable on change and economics in Cornwall seen through the eyes of a bunch of cats living in a chalet park in Porthtowan, sited where Caroline lived and still lives, though the chalets have gone. She co-founded Writers Ink and has had stories published in various anthologies.
After completing an HNC in Media at Cornwall College, she got involved with Cornwall Media Resources where she was part of the crew for Bittersweet/Hwerow Hweg, the first full length Kernewk language film ever made. She went on to win Best Documentary at Buxton for her film Some Scenes From The Life Of John Harris in 2011.
Caroline has a strong interest in art, though she mainly looks at others’ work, and also in getting writers and artists together to collaborate. She enjoys photography very much and spends much of her time on the beach trying to catch that special sunset.
‘The longer I live, the more I am aware how very little I know. (It will probably continue that way, I suspect!)’
