Cornwall

Bernard Deacon

Cornwall, one of Britain's most popular tourist destinations, is also one of the least well understood. In Cornwall today there is a greater recognition of Cornish identity, and the close Celtic ties with Wales and Brittany, than ever before. But its Celtic history co-exists with a thousand years of political and cultural influence from England. Imagined as both Celtic country and English county, Cornwall is a land of contrasts. This book traces the creative tensions produced by its unique history, from an independent British kingdom through a culturally distinct medieval province and a prominent industrial region in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to its present location as a post-industrial paradox: nation, region and county all wrapped in one.

Bernard Deacon is Lecturer in Cornish Studies in the Institute of Cornish Studies, based at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall campus near Penryn. Born and brought up in east Cornwall, he worked for several years teaching social sciences and politics for the Open University and Cornish history for the Department of Lifelong Learning at Exeter University, before joining the Institute of Cornish Studies in 2001. He is currently researching and writing on the migration and community history of nineteenth century Cornwall.