Book description
Along Cornwall's ancient coast, the flotsam and jetsam of the past
becomes caught in the cross-currents of the present and, from time to
time, a certain kind of magic can float to the surface...
Straying husbands lured into the sea can be fetched back, for a fee.
Magpies whisper to lonely drivers late at night. Trees can make wishes
come true - provided you know how to wish properly first. Houses creak,
fill with water and keep a fretful watch on their inhabitants,
straightening shower curtains and worrying about frayed carpets. A
teenager's growing pains are sometimes even bigger than him. And, on a
windy beach, a small boy and his grandmother keep despair at bay with an
old white door.
In these stories, Cornish folklore slips into everyday life. Hopes,
regrets and memories are entangled with catfish, wrecker's lamps,
standing stones and baying hounds, and relationships wax and wane in the
glow of a moonlit sea.
This luminous, startling and utterly spellbinding debut collection
introduces in Lucy Wood a spectacular new voice in contemporary British
fiction. Her use of Cornish folk tales as the backdrop for very modern
tales of loss and loneliness was inspired Lucy Wood has a Master s
degree in Creative Writing from Exeter University. She grew up in
Cornwall. Diving Belles
is her first work.
