Readings from the Cornwall Writers anthology Cornwall Beneath and Beyond with stunning aerial footage of Cornwall.
The book is available to pre-order from 23rd April 2024 at https://cornwallwriters.co.uk/product/cornwall-beneath-and-beyond/
0:09 There was something magnificent
0:10 about the Arthurian legends.
0:11 Something magical about the
0:13 Neolithic quoits and ancient stone circles.
0:17 Something comforting about a proximate pub,
0:19 with people and civilisation of sorts.
0:22 Even the mud on the moor was reassuring,
0:25 the sludge happy to hang around.
0:28 Where she walked now
0:29 there were few signs of any human presence,
0:31 and the earth seemed to disappear quickly,
0:34 as if the virgin rocks,
0:36 so recently released from the earth,
0:38 needed feeding to grow.
0:41 ‘We saw lights in the upper field last night.’
0:44 It was Edith.
0:46 It was amazing how mention of the field
0:48 still put John on edge after all these years.
0:51 ‘We thought we should ring you straight away.
0:53 I’ve got Mary here too.’
0:56 Well, if they had seen it last night,
0:57 they’d not really rung straight away.
1:01 ‘It was too late to ring
1:02 and of course we had the power cut.’
1:03 Edith continued as if answering his thoughts.
1:07 ‘But to be honest, we’ve hardly slept.
1:09 We decided we should take a quick look when dawn arrived
1:12 – beautiful across the estuary this morning, by the way.
1:15 Anyway,
1:16 it looks like there’s been a bit of a landslide
1:18 and that the “you know what”
1:20 might have reappeared.’
1:22 ‘I’m Rowan,’ she said.
1:25 ‘I’m Ash.’
1:26 The smile vanished
1:28 but only because she was studying him.
1:31 Her eyes still sparkled as they roamed his face.
1:35 ‘Ash,’ she said.
1:37 ‘Yes, of course you are.’
1:40 ‘It’s short for Ashley.’
1:42 ‘Ash is fine,’ she said softly.
1:45 ‘Just fine.’
1:47 ‘And fancy you having the name of a tree too!’
1:51 ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Just fancy that.’
1:55 ‘So, you paint?’ asked Ash.
1:58 ‘Yeah. When I can.’
2:00 ‘Great. What do you paint?’
2:03 The ovens are on as hot as they can go
2:05 and he’s thinking of the coolness of the sea.
2:09 ‘Names.’
2:10 Fliss calls through from the kitchen.
2:13 ‘What we gonna call these pizzas, dude?’
2:16 Steve spins the dough on his fingers,
2:19 stretching lightly until it’s a circle
2:21 as wide and round as this island.
2:24 It feels like his own private beach.
2:27 Tonight,
2:28 it’ll be all his.
2:30 When everyone else on the island is sleeping.
2:33 Perhaps he’ll even sleep there,
2:35 curled in the lee of a rock,
2:37 waiting for seals to haul out and sing at dawn.
2:41 Perhaps…
2:44 ‘No,’ Mother says, screwing her nose up
2:46 and aiming her scowl at me.
2:48 ‘It’s blinding me.’
2:49 I nudge her wheelchair out of the glare.
2:51 ‘And turn that racket off.’
2:53 She’s lunging at my radio.
2:54 I reach to lower the volume
2:56 and knock a framed photograph off the shelf.
2:59 It’s not intentional,
3:00 but it’s no accident either
3:03 ‘Clumsy,’ she moans.
3:04 The frame holds a grainy snap taken of my mother as a child.
3:08 She’s smiling and sitting cross-legged under an apple tree
3:12 growing in the garden of a small, neat cottage.
3:15 Hazy images appear inside my head.
3:18 I close my eyes…
3:20 I have pigtails;
3:21 I’m the same age as Mother in the photograph.
3:24 I am pushing open a gate.
3:26 I’m sprinting up a path towards that same tree.
3:29 And now the memory flows.
3:32 She’d told me about her childhood home.
3:34 We’d driven up the coast.
3:36 She was singing along to the radio.
3:38 ‘It’s a proper treat,’ she’d said about the trip.
3:41 ‘You’ll love it.’
3:42 ‘The tree’s got the reddest apples.’