I can’t believe it’s almost five years since Nicola Smith stayed in with me here to chat about her debut novel A Degree of Uncertainty. I’m delighted to welcome Nicola back today to celebrate 13 Cornish Ghost Stories that she has contributed to with a superb guest post.
I confess 13 Cornish Ghost Stories had completely passed me by until I was ‘chatting’ with another contributor, Liz Fenwick, about it recently. With the nights getting noticeably darker, it seems the perfect time to take a closer look.
13 Cornish Ghost Stories is available for purchase here.
13 Cornish Ghost Stories
Cornwall is the perfect setting for tales, myths, and legends. The wild moors, the granite, the clay, the rebellious sea, and flat calm coves make the county a vast and inspirational canvas. The starry nights, needle-sharp gorse, and windswept tors and carns provide perfect backdrops to eerie full moons and ghostly goings-on. Mischievous piskies dance across our landscape, while the spectres of the past, both real and imagined, haunt our memories and our dreams.
There are new stories to be told around every corner, across every ley line, behind every menhir, and in the rocks and caves that litter our shores. Another 13 are already emerging from the mists….
Cornwall: riding a phantasmic wave
A Guest Post by Nicola Smith
As Elfy Scott wrote in The Guardian in January this year, “It feels as if ghosts are suddenly having a moment, a strange little resurgence into the mainstream. I think ghosts may be in vogue.”[1] She cites Ghost Story, a “wildly compelling” seven-part series hosted on podcast platform, Wondery as an example of their current popularity.
But has this slightly unsettling genre ever gone out of fashion? As Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black once said, “ghost stories are a way of exploring the boundaries between life and death, between the known and the unknown, between order and chaos”[2]. Surely such things will forever be a preoccupation of mankind?
Of course, there will always be doubters and sceptics, believers and evangelists (and even those who outwardly rubbish the notion yet inwardly wonder at strange noises in the night). And for this reason, there is a ghost story for every bent, yet many readers have preconceived ideas of what constitutes a ghost story. But there is no single definition.
Stories of such spirits can be enlightening, thought provoking and even amusing. Of course, they can also be spine-chilling. The new anthology I have been lucky enough to be a part of embodies all these adjectives. 13 Cornish Ghost Stories brings to life original ghostly tales from all over the county, from an ancient pub in the windblown far west of Cornwall to the desolate plains of Bodmin Moor and the capricious light of St Ives, not to mention a storm-lashed Penryn.
Cornwall, it seems, is a perfect setting for a ghost story. From the former inmate who haunts Bodmin Jail to the young woman who still roams the grounds of Falmouth’s Pendennis Castle, the county is synonymous with ‘true’ ghost stories. Its tumultuous history is alive with tales of pirates, smugglers and tragic historical events, while its dramatic, brooding and often isolated land and seascapes provide a fitting backdrop for many mysterious happenings.
Each original story in 13 Cornish Ghost Stories has been conceived by a writer either born in Cornwall or based in Cornwall, each one familiar with the county’s nuanced ways and changing moods, as well as its hidden paths and coves, its pockets of forgotten moorland; its concealed treasures.
Cornwall allows the writer’s imagination to run riot. It is an animating spirit that fuels the creative mind, giving rise to a profusion of colourful tales, legends, anecdotes and stories that live long in the memory. Done well, a Cornish ghost story puts the reader at the heart of its dramatic land and seascape, transporting them to another world…in every sense.
Ghost stories might well be having a moment, and I urge dubious readers to open their minds to otherworldy tales. As Scott says, “…for so many of us, stories of the paranormal can be a strange, exciting and decadent activity, like buying oysters to eat in your own house.”
What could be more Cornish than that?
[1] The Guardian
[2] Susan Hill
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What indeed? Thanks so much Nicola. Not only does this make me want to read 13 Cornish Ghost Stories immediately, it also makes me want to jump in the motorhome and head to Cornwall!
About Nicola K. Smith
Nicola K Smith is a freelance journalist based in Cornwall. She contributes to a range of titles including The Times, guardian.co.uk, Coast magazine and BBC Countryfile. She has just written her first novel, inspired by life in her home town of Falmouth, and set in a fictional Cornish town…
To find out more about Nicola, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter/X @NicolaKSmith740 and on Instagram @nicolaksmith740. You’ll also find Nicola on Facebook.
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