Summer in Tintagel

Author/Guide: Amanda James

Why a Booktrail?

1968, 2000s: A grandmother’s dying wish may yet be answered.

ISBN: 978-1911129783
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

Rosa Fernly is a journalist but also the granddaughter of Joceyln who has asked her to fulfill her dying wish. Rosa however has a busy life and job in London so is at first reluctant, but seeing how much her grandmother needs to close this chapter in her life, she sets off for the village of Tintagel

Back in 1968, Jocelyn explains that this was the year she fled from her brutal husband. She visits Tintagel castle and meets the enigmatic Jory who shows her how to live again.
But Rosa doesn’t know exactly why she has to go to Tintagel and once there she is forced to confront some truths and a whole lot of secrets

Locations

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Travel Guide

Tintagel

Visiting Tintagel for any reason, then it’s soon clear why a lifetime of mysteries and secrets could well be buried into the landscape. The Castle in particular is a place where you can really imagine meeting a mysterious man as rugged as the clifftops and as enigmatic and alluring as the region itself.

Stroll around the village looking for clues into the past and you’ll soon come to the old Tintagel old post office which used to be a manor house back in medieval times, built over 600 years ago, as a farmhouse . It has itself lived many lives in various guises but has always been a home of sorts. Its final use was as the letter-receiving office for the village during the 1870s. Step inside and discover some of the past of Tintagel for yourself and you might well meet Rosa or Jocelyn…

The village is like stepping into the past and it’s very easy to imagine meeting a man at the castle who will change your life….maybe it’s the romance of the setting and the sound of the waves, but also the feel that there are secrets in these cobbled and narrow streets. And that by wandering around, looking into the past, you may just find a secret of your own.

Streetview Maps

A) Tintagel High Street

B) Tintagel Post Office

Trail Gallery

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

I really enjoyed this novel for many reasons. It’s well written for one, and it’s a very atmospheric and visual read that played as a kind of film in my mind.

There’s always something lovely about Cornwall in a novel and it was so nice to spend time in Tintagel as it sounded magical and I didn’t know if it was a real place at first. Now it is I want to go there and eat Cornish pasties and eat cornish cream.

The underlying theme of this story is one of past regrets and trying to make things right again. I shivered at many points in the story as there was often an ethereal feel to the whole story – never spooky – but rather more calming and spiritual. This is no mean feat to get in a novel – serious topics, spiritual thoughts, reflections on the past and love and relationships in their various forms.

I just thought the whole story – the returning to your past to try and put things in order and fulfill a dying wish was just a lovely premise. It was exciting to explore and I felt emotionally attached to all of them.

I won’t give anything away but to say that it weaves a special kind of reading spell this book. One to read this summer (on a Cornish beach if possible)