Philip Payton – Cornwall: A History (2004)
History – 300 pages – my copy (paperback; 2004) purchased from Plymouth Waterstone’s back in 2005
- 3 nods out of 5 -
You have the main men, the big daddies, the number ones of any field or profession; in Cornish history that position goes to Philip Payton. Historian and writer on the history of this county/land/duchy (delete as politically appropriate), Payton’s position as an authority on this topic is shown nowhere more clearly than in this panoramic history.
Cornwall: A History spans the time of pre-history in the chapter Ancient Stones right through to the modern age in Whither Cornwall. In-between the reader is taken on a journey across the ancient Celts, the friction between Cornwall and England, the rebellions of 1497, the disappearance of the Cornish language, the boom of the industrial age and the decline of the twentieth century. Each generation reinventing and reasserting just what it is to be Cornish.
Payton’s authority is shown in the breadth and depth of his research, bringing in histiographical debate from various sources. However, all of this research comes at a price, namely in Payton’s often stilted and forced language that is often clouded in academic debate.
As such, this history of Cornwall is not one for the casual reader or somebody wishing an introduction to this ancient land – that is a honour reserved for F.E. Halliday’s far more readable Cornish book. Payton’s study is one primarily for other Cornish historians. As such, his vast array of facts and quotations is better enjoyed for those wishing to tread further into the surprising debates of Cornwall’s history.
