Cornish Horrors: Stories from the Land's End (2021) edited by Joan Passey

British Library Tales of the Weird series

Readers unfamiliar with Cornish Horrors: Stories from the Land's End may wish to read my notes only after reading the anthology.

Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ligeia” is the story of two women who in-turn have the misfortune to wed an opium-eater, and whose lives perhaps intermix after their death. Facetiousness aside, “Ligeia”is one of Poe’s most intense stories, though its wild setting has more of corn than Cornwall to it.

“My Father’s Secret” by Anon. is a finely crafted story about the revelation of secret family madness. While it makes no use of specifically Cornish lore, it is unique. And brief.

About Robert Stephen Hawker, author of “Cruel Coppinger,” Passey writes:

[….]He spent his honeymoon in Tintagel in 1823 and developed a fascination with the legends of King Arthur. He became such an established figure in Arthurian studies that Tennyson sought out h…