Savage Lovely Cornish Homes Launch
Thank you to everyone who came to the Savage Lovely Cornish Homes launch on the evening of Wednesday 2nd October at Falmouth Art Gallery. It was an honour to work with esteemed writer Xan Brooks and talented illustrator Clementine Neild. The launch was a great opportunity to celebrate the publication of the book and begin this year’s National Trust Books publishing project.
Savage Lovely Cornish Homes (a story of Loe Pool) was produced and published in collaboration with National Trust Books and Falmouth University students. It is a short story of borders and migration, ideals and realities, set in off-season Cornwall, following the protagonist, Jack:
“Jack’s favourite part of his job as a Cornish estate agent is the scenery. But beneath Penrose’s postcard-image beauty lurks a hidden world – one whose inhabitants will do anything to survive. Jack will be forced to decide between who he’s always been and who he wants to be.”
‘The author, Xan Brooks, is the 2019 writer-in-residence at Falmouth University. He is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and editor who was part of the founding editorial team for the Big Issue before working as an associate editor at The Guardian, specialising in cinema. Xan’s biography of Ewan McGregor was published in 1998 and his first novel, The Clocks In This House All Tell Different Times, published in 2017, was nominated for the Costa First Novel Award, the Desmond Elliot Prize, the Author’s Club award and the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.
At the launch, Chloe Francis, a student from this year’s publishing project in collaboration with National Trust Books, introduced Xan Brooks and Clementine Neild who both gave a talk about their roles in creating the book.
Clementine spoke about how she visited Loe Pool with her friends and took photographs to use as inspiration for the book cover. She said she really enjoyed working on the illustrations as well as with everyone involved. Xan spoke of how much he enjoyed working in collaboration with Falmouth University and its students, and then gave a short reading from Savage Lovely Cornish Homes.
There was a great turnout for the event and we were joined by senior faculty members Dr Jennifer Young, Head of School, and Professor Paul Springer, Director of the School of Communications, as well as literary enthusiasts, publishing professionals, students and people from the local community. Attendees enjoyed a glass of wine, a chat and the opportunity to network.
We would like to extend our gratitude to Henrietta Boex and everyone at the Falmouth Art Gallery as well as students Harry Webster, Seren Livie, Hope Titley and Hannah Cartwright who were the team of students working in collaboration with National Trust Books to publish Savage Lovely Cornish Homes. Finally, thank you to Xan Brooks and Clementine Neild for their involvement in the project and for making the journey to the launch.
by Juliet Robertson