Can a family be happy when everything is based on a lie?
- Book: Daughters of Cornwall
- Location: Cornwall
- Author: Fern Britton
Daughters of Cornwall by Fern Britton is a thoroughly enjoyable tale of three generations of women in a family. Each woman faces her own challenges and guards her own secrets, even from those closest to them. As the book progresses, the importance of family becomes clear, and the secrets are gradually revealed.
The book opens in the fictional village of Callyzion, Cornwall in the present day. Caroline receives the unexpected delivery of a sea chest at her home. It was sent from Penang, Malaysia, where she knows her mother lived as a child. She begins to examine the contrasts of the chest and wonders who sent it.
Next the action shifts to 1918. Caroline’s grandmother, Clara, is a young woman living in London. She is reinventing herself and concealing her past, out of necessity. When she meets a dashing Cornishman, Bertie, there’s a mutual attraction but even as they become close, she keeps her secrets.
The third female character is Clara’s daughter/ Caroline’s mother, Hannah. She is sent to Callyzion from Penang to live with her grandparents, just before World War Two. Parted from her parents, she initially struggles to adapt.
Each character narrates her own part of the story. It’s interesting to see how the roles of women change in the (roughly) one hundred years that the book covers. The women’s lives are changed by world events, the two world wars and suffragism. The characters themselves are believable and involving. The story goes along at a good pace, so that it’s hard to put the book down, as the author cleverly keeps the reader guessing.
Fern Britton is a Cornish resident and has written about the county many times. As such, her descriptions of the locations are evocative and credible without being cloying. Often the atmosphere reflects the moods and situations that the characters find themselves in. Malaysia is mentioned more briefly but then it plays a less-important role in the plot.
Daughters of Cornwall is the first of Fern Britton’s books that I’ve read, and it was very enjoyable. I would definitely seek out her other books.
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