Story-by-story: Second Homes

I lived in Penzance in Cornwall for six years, including several stormy, boarded-up off-seasons. This story is about how that felt – and about the distinctly haunted landscape.

I used to observe the coming and going of people throughout the year, and the rhythms of the tourist industry. Repainting and repointing in the run up to Easter. And the general air of exhaustion in early autumn.

I was especially struck by how silent Mousehole seemed in the gaps between holidays, when the second homes and rental properties were empty.

(See also: Bait, dir. Mark Jenkin, 2019.)

On Scilly, in Marazion, and in various other places, I’d pick up interesting details about how things worked – like the chip shop owners who shut for the winter and disappeared to Florida.

Another influence, though not directly referenced, was the Solomon Browne disaster of 1981. When the Penlee lifeboat went out in a storm to save crew and passengers aboard the MV Union Star. Sixteen people died including eight lifeboatmen from Mousehole.

This tragedy suffused the village and the area. The old lifeboat house was a permanent memorial on the coast path and The Ship Inn has a plaque and photographs of the lifeboat crew. Children and relatives of crew members still live in the area.

This sadness offers a strange contrast to the Instagram-friendly lifestyles of people from ‘up country’ who only come down when there’s a reasonable chance the sun will be out.

I can’t claim to have totally sussed Cornwall in six years. I doubt you could do that in four centuries. But I learned enough to tell this small story.

A note on ‘granfer’

A couple of stories in this collection use the West Country word ‘granfer’ – that is, grandfather.

I’ve heard it used naturally and without affectation in both Cornwall and Bristol, hundreds of miles apart.

I like it because it adds a bit of regional texture without doing the impenetrable Jarge Balsh thing.

In another story, however, I have ‘gramps’. One reason for that is that, as a kid in Somerset, I heard it used quite frequently – but never ‘granfer’.

The other quite weird reason for ‘gramps’ over ‘granfer’ I’ll reveal in a later post in this series.

Intervals of Darkness will be published on 7 September. You can pre-order the eBook now.