Cornwall Beneath and Beyond Content Warning

Most of our 27 short stories do not need a content warning, but a few may contain references to events that are unsettling, even disturbing, for some readers.

This content warning is not censorship. These content notes are made available here so readers can inform themselves if they want to. It gives a heads up about which of our short stories contain references some readers may prefer to avoid just now. Alternatively, they may be in a place where they are ready to start reading redemptive stories but just need a little forewarning to brace themselves.

Some readers might consider these as ‘spoilers’, particularly the detailed content warnings. In which case, don’t read this page. Just read the book.

Content Warnings and the short stories they apply to:

Alcohol consumption

• In a Field
• The Good Daughter
• The Saint and the Smugglers

Animal Abuse

• Love Birds
• Wax and Wane

Blood

• Wax and Wane

Bullying

• The Foxtrot
• The Good Daughter
• The Saint and the Smugglers

Child Abuse

• The Good Daughter

Childhood Trauma

• The Good Daughter

Death

• In a Field
• Love Birds
• Pedn Vounder
• The Fall
• The Good Daughter
• Wax and Wane

Distress

• The Foxtrot

Drug Use

• Starry Night
• Wax and Wane

Fox hunting

• The Foxtrot

Murder

• In a Field
• Wax and Wane

Sexism and misogyny

• The Good Daughter

Sexual Attraction

• Love Birds
• The Good Daughter

Suicide

• The Good Daughter

Swearing

• In a Field
• Swimming Home
• The Good Daughter
• Wax and Wane

Threat

• Level With You
• Wax and Wane

Violence

• Love Birds
• The Saint and the Smugglers
• Wax and Wane

Short Stories with detailed content warnings:

In a Field

• Mild Swearing
• Alcohol consumption
• Death and bereavement
• Murder – a possible interpretation

Level With You

• Attack by a wild animal

Love Birds

• an episode of violence against a bird ending in its death
• implied sexual response between heterosexual adults

Pedn Vounder

• Includes deaths by drowning and by accidental fall, with some description of the state of the bodies. Story is narrated by someone injured and traumatised by an accident at sea.

Swimming Home

• Mild swearing

Starry Night

• Drug Use

The Fall

• Descriptions of mining accidents, including a cave in
• Mentions of death

The Foxtrot

• Bullying
• Distress when bully caught in bear trap

The Good Daughter

• Alcohol consumption – alcoholism and alcohol abuse by young Mother and John Dory Man
• Bullying – Jessie as a child and AI Jessie by Mother
• Child Abuse – Jessie as a child by Mother
• Childhood trauma – inferred with Mother as a child
• Terminal illness – Mother and Human Jessie
• Death – Jessie and mother
• Sexism and misogyny – casual comments by Branok, throughout. Aimed at human Jessie/AI Jessie/Isla
• Sexual attraction – non-graphic, inferred between Mother and John Dory Man
• Suicide – assisted suicide inferred AI Jessie with Mother
• Swearing – mild profanity by Branok

The Saint and the Smugglers

• Alcohol in smugglers den and pub
• Bullying and violence by devils towards minions

Wax and Wane

• Mild swearing
• An ancient ritual including chanting, hallucinatory herbal substance use, victim being tied up
• Some violence, not graphically described but involving blood (animal and human) in the context of ritual animal and human sacrifice (death/murder) as part of a (prehistoric) religious ritual.