Jenner, Henry (1922). "Castle-an-Dinas and King Arthur". Annual Report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. New Series. Plymouth and Falmouth. 4: 100–101. a b c d e Johnston, John Norman (7 June 1943). "Exercise Brandyball (film)". Imperial War Museum . Retrieved 27 October 2012. Antiquities include the megalithic burial chambers Zennor Quoit and Sperris Quoit (only 400 yards apart). There is a prehistoric entrance grave at Pennance known as the Giant's House and not far away are four round barrows. Gurnard's Head, or Trereen Dinas, is an Iron Age promontory fort (or cliff castle) with five lines of fortification, and a mile to the west is Bosigran, close to Treen ( Cornish: Tredhin), a second promontory fort along with a surviving field system, [4] suggested by Henry Jenner to mean ' the Dwelling of Igerna ', King Arthur's mother in Arthurian legend. [5]

Whilst the majority of the novel is told using the third person omniscient perspective, the use of diary entries written in Clare's voice are effective. Using this technique, Dunmore shows a more tender side of her, and it is also, of course, far more revealing than she is able to be in her public life. Snippets of first person perspective, and thoughts of individual characters, have been woven throughout. Sometimes asides are given, or reflections between snatches of dialogue. Separate characters are focused upon in individual chapters, and we are thus able to see the rich tapestry of those who live within Zennor, some of whom are real historical figures, and others of which have been imagined by Dunmore. Asked about the appearance of D. H. Lawrence in the novel, Dunmore explained "Their story needed to be told. We know the bare bones of what happened – but what was it like for him and Frieda in this landscape? The details intrigued me: Lawrence creating a garden, growing things like salsify, getting in tons of manure. He knew how to do practical things – the ironing, the washing – and his combination of day-to-day good sense and the life of the mind fascinated me. I felt there were some interesting things about that particular period and about what turned him against England." [2] Reception [ edit ] But then her life is shattered by the news that John Williams is dead. Not in the trenches, but in the officer training camp where all imagined he would be safe. As a man more worldly than others in the village, Francis takes it upon himself to seek out the truth of John William’s death.Zennor In Darkness provides an intriguing exploration of the various ways in which darkness can manifest itself in our lives.

All these different disciplines – fiction, poetry, short stories (she's published four collections to date), children's novels – do they come from the same place? "I see them as connected but different: I know this is a novel and this is a poem, or a short story. How and why I'm not sure, but it's always blindingly clear. Poetry is the most different, because poems use all the musical properties of language – but on the other hand, working as a poet has definitely helped me with the pacing in my novels. I'm very much one for the grip, the pull-through, that narrative energy and propulsion, and I think poetry teaches you about that." The start was slow for me- for the first almost half of the book, I actually would rate it a 3 ! But for just over the second half of the book, I would rate it a 5! For CLARE COYNE - beautiful, sensual and creative - it is a time of conflicting emotions. Barely in her 20s, she is a local, but she is also different. Her dead mother conferred on her her Cornishness, but her father, FRANCIS COYNE, has also given her certain airs and graces. She wants to be an artist. In its turn, the legend has inspired Vernon Watkins' poem "The Ballad of the Mermaid of Zennor", [20] Sue Monk Kidd's novel The Mermaid Chair, Cornish poet Charles Causley's book The Merrymaid of Zennor, the song "Mermaid" by Cornish folk singer Brenda Wootton, [21] the song "The Mermaid of Zennor" by English singer-songwriter Paul William Gibson, and Helen Dunmore's Ingo Chronicles.I found it a rather uneven novel, brilliant and thoroughly engaging in parts but a little overly ambitious and even pretentious in others (it was Helen Dunmore's first novel).