Author Archives: rhoskin

08/27/15

Thursday Thought: How 45 Minutes Took 5 Years

I was asked to contribute a guest blog for the prestigious Historical Novel Society. It is about how my novel came to be written.

Click here: http://awriterofhistory.com/2015/08/18/the-miner-the-viscount-by-richard-hoskin/

Although I did not realize it at the time, the birth of The Miner & The Viscount began when a professor friend asked me to contribute a Cornwall segment to his lecture series on aspects of the history and culture of Great Britain. I was recently retired and glad to embark on a new career as a lecturer, holding engrossed audiences in thrall.

“How many lectures would you like?” I asked. “Eight? Six?”

“Actually, one,” he replied, “and no more than 45 minutes including Q & A.”

Not quite what I had in mind but at least it would not take much effort, since I knew all about Cornwall having been born and bred there. I did some research to flesh out details, realising that stories from my childhood only skimmed the surface. The result was Cornwall: History, Mystery, Mansions and Mines. It proved a lot of effort for 45 minutes but at least I got them singing a rousing “Trelawney” at the end.

It seemed a pity to leave it at that. My New England wife suggested that since I loved Cornwall and enjoyed history, I should use the material to write an historical novel. She would help with editing. I was convinced. It would be a big project, imagined it would take at least a year. Moreover, I was passionate about telling the story of my Cornwall to a wider world.

The timeframe I settled on was the late 18th century. Widespread change was emerging: the agricultural and industrial revolutions and the invention of the steam engine, social unrest and the rise of Methodism, popular education and the influence of women, political corruption at home and expansion of empire overseas, the beginnings of the Enlightenment.

I assembled sources. Steven Watson, my tutor at Oxford, published The Reign of George III. My brother-in-law, Dr. J.R. Ravensdale had written the volume onCornwall for the National Trust. Lewis Namier devoted an entire chapter to the machination of the 44 Cornish MPs in his breakthrough work The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III. There were biographies of William Pitt the Elder (whose grandfather bought Boconnoc), the journals of John Wesley, books on mining, scores of articles to be woven into a coherent pattern. And then there was John Allen’s History of the Borough of Liskeard published in 1856 by John Philp, founder of The Cornish Times.

But above all were my personal experiences of growing up in Liskeard, living in those beautiful places, knowing those sturdily independent people, absorbing their legends and their story. This is what got my imagination surging.

Following expert advice, I planned to begin with an outline. I decided to build my story around Cornish gentry in great houses and miners and farm labourers in tiny cottages. I picked famous historical figures to mingle with my fictitious characters. I thought up a title, The Miner & the Viscount. I picked a start date, 1760. I typed the title and “Outline” on a fresh document. Then I got stuck.

The only outline I ever created was one summarising what I had already written, to keep things straight. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, my good man.” “But my lord, you already had me flogged in Chapter Six.”

I just started writing drafts. Fortunately, as I got into it the characters magically took over. Their loves, their hates, partnerships, rivalries, joys, sufferings, doings: their story became my story. I would finish a chapter and stare at my computer. What ever would happen next? And Willy Bunt would come into my mind. “Us just ’as to get on with it, zir, Oi’ll tell ’e what Oi’d do if Oi were ye.”

Location Research

Location Research

After three years and six rewrites I had a finished manuscript. A research trip to Cornwall would enable me to fill in a few details, add a little local colour. We visited Liskeard, Port Eliot, Boconnoc, Lanhydrock, Bodmin Moor, the tin and copper mines down west, absorbed the countryside, heard more stories about the people who lived there in the 18th century. We met Maureen Fuller, Grand Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh and she agreed to translate some dialogue into the ancient Cornish language, adding so much authenticity.

Back in Kentucky an experienced member of my writers’ group offered to burnish the final version, a little tweak here and there. After three more rewrites, 25,000 more words, and two more years we sent the manuscript to the publisher.

The story of Cornwall was finally mine to tell. Well, perhaps with a little help from Willy Bunt.

08/19/15

Thursday Thought: More Synchronicity

Old Faithful Inn

Old Faithful Inn

Mike and Anna Parris live in Cornwall near Perranporth. They have the first copy of my book sold in America. How did that happen?

They were touring in Yellowstone Park last fall when they ran into our Kentucky friends and neighbors, Chuck and Judy Heilman at the Old Faithful Inn. Chuck had bought the first ever copy of my book, and had taken it along to read on their trip. They got into conversation with the Parrises (who are very friendly), and learned they were from Cornwall. So they gave them the book, promising to collect it this summer.

A day later my daughter, Sarah’s mother, called me and said she was touring in Yellowstone Park with a friend from England. She overhead some tourists talking and asked if they were from England. “No, Cornwall,” they replied.

“My ex-husband is from Cornwall,” she said. “Aha,” they said, “We have just been given a historical novel from Cornwall, the author is from there, called Richard Hoskin.”

Pamela replied, “Aha aha, he is my ex-husband.”

We connected with the Parrises during our book tour of Cornwall and here we are at lunch in The Miner’s Arms in Mithians. The cider was delicious! They are a most interesting couple with a big family. They have a son-in-law who lives in nearby Perrancombe. It was he who found the ancestral home of Steve Hoskin who lives in Boulder near Sarah!

IMG_1488

08/13/15

Thursday Thought: More Synchronicity

Last week I told about Steve Hoskin of Boulder, Colorado, and his interest in genealogy and linking our Hoskin families. However, when we first met him he showed us a picture of his ancestral home in Perrancombe in Cornwall.

Sarah and I determined to find the house during our trip and take a photo for Steve. It was really hidden away, but we found it with the help of our new friends Anna and Mike Parris of nearby Trewellas. Where do they fit into the story? Well, I’ll tell you about that synchronicity next week.

Sarah sent the photos to Steve and here is his reply:
Steve Hoskin's ancestral home.

Steve Hoskin’s ancestral home.

“Thank you so much for  the photos of my Grandpa Hoskin’s birthplace that was called Trusla until about 1937 when his cousins purchased it from the Duchy.
“It had been built on land leased from the Duchy of Cornwall for the span of 3 or 4 lives, and when Grandpa’s uncle died in 1933 his was the last life on the lease and it had to revert.
“It is grand that you have had such a welcome to Perranporth and environs. We did enjoy Richard’s book and the talk that he gave in Boulder.”
Like so many Cornish, the Hoskins emigrated to America to seek work in the mines. They had a blacksmith business and the first Perrancombe Hoskin to arrive in Colorado became captain of three gold mines in the Rocky Mountains owned by Belgian investors.

 

08/6/15

Thursday Thought: Synchronicity?

 

FullSizeRender-1

Hoskin Family Tree

 

Our July promotional tour of Cornwall was amazing . . .  in many ways.
Every day there was a new connection, coincidence, synchronicity.

One involved Steve Hoskin, who lives in Boulder with his wife Freda. My daughter Sarah lives in Boulder too, and gave a Nordic pole walking class which Freda attended. They all met up and Steve told of his interest in Cornish genealogy. Were the two Hoskin families related? And then he read The Miner & the Viscount.

First thing Steve discovered was about the name of the Port Eliot steward, Charles Polkinghorne. I had chosen it for one of my characters, I thought, because it was typically Cornish . . . although it did ring a faint bell. And I did see the name on a grave stone in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, when I spoke to the Cornish Society there.

However, when Steve came to my book talk in Boulder in June he reminded me that when he researched my Hoskin ancestry he found that my great aunt Susan Hoskin had married a Polkinghorne!

There’s more to the story. I’ll tell it next time. It’s about Steve’s ancestors, how they came to the Rocky Mountains and their connection with the village of Perrancombe in Cornwall. Synchronicity!

 

07/31/15

Thursday Thoughts: Home

Our amazing visit to my native Cornwall got me thinking about “home”. There is something about being an emigrant.

Lanyon Quoit

Lanyon Quoit

Functionally, Kentucky is home these days and a happy place to live, surrounded by friends, things to do, ways to fulfill our lives, places to go.

But there is something that draws about the place where one grow up, especially when it is as beautiful, as historic, as magical as Cornwall. The neolithic monuments to me symbolize Cornwall’s uniqueness, its mystique.

Lanyon Quoit is a striking monument in a stark setting.It was probably a burial chamber for a Celtic noble. Ding Dong mine is in the distant background.

07/9/15

Thursday Thoughts: The Turk’s Head

IPg7nNi8lsbuICfDmp7v3wd7LEcinSxH0QeLG7iekNQ

Here in Cornwall, Sarah and I came to Penzance where I will be speaking at the LitFest. One of our first ports of call (an appropriate idiom!) was the Turk’s Head, which is reputed to have been built in 1233. As Chapter 72 in “The Miner & the Viscount” describes, it’s the place where the miner Addis Penwarden was locked up in the gaol after the disturbance in the magistrates’ court.

“You say that Penwarden is here at the Turk’s Head?” asked Polkinghorne. “That seems strange, why here?”

“This is an old building, and the constables use the cell as the town gaol,” said Perry. “It’s the first inn in England to be called the Turk’s Head you know; it’s used for many purposes. It was built over five hundred years ago. They say that a party of Turks from Jerusalem invaded Penzance back then when they were excommunicated during the Sixth Crusade. Imagine that! Might be a bit of a tall yarn, more likely Barbary corsairs. Anyroad, there are still priests’ holes upstairs. And the floor above that is a fisherman’s loft used to store nets.”

I tried to find the old lock-up in the garden behind the inn, but it has been pulled down and the stone back wall is all that remains.

The bar is snug and offers a fine selection of hard ciders. Gary the publican recommended Old Rosie, a local favorite and delicious, but half a pint was enough. The alchol content was 7.4%!

06/18/15

Thursday Thoughts: Boulder Gold!

Next week I’m off to Colorado for a very full visit. I will participate in the Historical Novel Society conference in Denver. My mentor is best-selling historical novel author, Diana Gabaldon. I will give talks on my book in Boulder and Brighton. And best of all I will be with my children and grandchildren.

There is great history of the Cornish in Colorado. Perhaps one of the most interesting times was the mining era.

Beginning in 1859, Cornish hard rock miners flocked to Colorado to mine gold, silver and lead. Dr. A.L. Rowse, the Oxford historian born the son of a clay worker in St. Austell, Cornwall, wrote in The Cornish in America:

“Cornish miners, with their long experience in underground work, contributed much to the improvement of mining technique. . . by their skillful sinking of shafts and tracing of veins and . . . their mechanical aids like the Cornish pump for removing water from the underground recesses.”

Cornish Miner Boulder, CO

Cornish Miner
Boulder, CO

The Cornish miner is commemorated by the famous statue on Pearl Street in Boulder.

 

06/11/15

Thursday Thoughts: Cornish Saffron Bun

I’ve been invited to talk about my historical novel at Wild Sage in Boulder. Why go all the way to Colorado? Well, I so enjoy the audience reaction when we discuss my book. The trip coincides with my visit to Denver for the Historical Novel Society conference. And the hosts are my daughter Sarah Hoskin Clymer and my son Nicholas J.C. Hoskin; they both live in Boulder with their families.

But here’s the kicker — Saffron Buns will be served. Such a treat! They are a bready mixture stuffed with dried fruits and candied peel, flavored and colored with saffron. They are different, delicious, some say an acquired taste — but  like the pasty characteristic of Cornwall.

Saffron is the dried stamens of a special crocus, plentiful in Spain. To buy it in England you had to sign the poison register. In Cornwall you just went to the chemist’s shop (drugstore). They say that when Phoenician traders came to Cornwall centuries ago they traded for tin with saffron.

Come and try some! My talk will be at Thursday, June 25 at 7:00pm MDT in the Common House, Wild Sage, 1650 Zamia Ave, Boulder, CO 80304.

Could anyone share a favorite recipe?

Cornish Saffron Bun

Cornish Saffron Bun

06/4/15

Thursday Thoughts: Liskeard, my hometown!

So looking forward to visiting my native Cornwall with my daughter Sarah in July on a book tour with my historical novel The Miner & the Viscount. I was born and brought up in Liskeard so it will be a special treat to give a talk in the Liskeard Book Shop.

Liskeard Book Shop

Liskeard Book Shop

The shop is in Barras Street in the heart of the town. This handsome building houses the Liberal Club. My father was the president when I was a boy. I remember watching him play billiards.

I went to kindergarten at Miss Rapson’s school behind this building. Miss Rapson and Miss Wilkes were very strict but taught us to spell and add and subtract.

Liskeard was created a Royal Borough in 1240 so it had the privilege of having two Members of Parliament. And only 32 voters at the time of my story. Read how that worked in Chapter 3.

05/21/15

Thursday Thoughts: John Wesley

One of the most imposing and most important historical characters in The Miner & the Viscount is John Wesley, founder of Methodism.

John Wesley

John Wesley

He visited Cornwall 32 times. The horseback ride from London took 5-6 days. He often stayed at Diggory Isbell’s cottage at Trewint, near Altarnun — which is close to my birthplace at Liskeard.

One of his favorite preaching places is Gwennap Pit with its amazing natural acoustics. In his journal he writes of once preaching there to “two and thirty thousand people, the largest assembly I ever preached to.”

Chapter 68 tells of John Wesley’s first time at the Pit in 1762 when he spoke eloquently against slavery, and reminded his audience of his practical advice about money: “Earn all you can; save all you can; give all you can.”

http://wp.me/p4LySx-bG