History of Civilizations of Central Asia Age of Achievement, 8750 Ad to the End of the 15th ... Book

I have been wanting to find out more about Cornwall’s history for a while now, being largely ignorant of the Celtic origins – cultures, legends, language – from which the region derives such a spirit of independence. An upcoming holiday in St Ives seemed like the perfect excuse to read up a bit.

Given that there are many who argue in favour of Cornwall being an entirely separate nation (I’ve been told off by Cornish societies in the past for referring to it as a mere county of England) I find it surprising that arguably only two credible and complete histories of it have been compiled – this one, by F E Halliday (written in the 1950s), and another more recent by Professor of Cornish studies at Exeter University, Philip Payton.

For reasons I can’t quite recall, I chose Halliday’s effort which, while thorough, is in desperate need of updating. For example, there are Latin passages that Halliday leaves untranslated – presumably everyone in the 1950s could read Latin without assistance – as well as several occasions where medieval wages are converted into ‘modern’ money…i.e. pounds, shillings and pence. Of course, Halliday’s history loses no credibility as a result of his dated style, but it is certainly a distraction.

Halliday’s forte seems to be ancient history. The first chapters of his work – focussed on development of Stone Age chambers & quoits, Bronze age stone circles and Iron Age hillforts – are by far the most enthralling, even to me, though I generally favour more recent history.

But by the time the reader is enveloped in the sequence of Middle Ages/Tudors/Stuarts, Falliday’s monotonous recounting of endless ups and downs in industry, trade, taxation, wars, peasant revolts, inflation and unemployment makes these centuries – usually fascinating – utterly dry and repetitive. The tedium only continues – Halliday admits as much himself – when, from the 18th century onwards, change and development in Cornwall was contiguous with the development of the tin mining industry. That is, until tourism began to reign supreme.

Halliday’s circuitous and repetitive prose is certainly a fault with this book, I’m not going to deny that. However, I find it hard to begrudge Halliday the fact that he himself seems to lack enthusiasm for any period following the downfall the Celtic way of life. He is clearly won over by the spirit of mystery and mythology surrounding the early settlers unique to Cornwall, which is precisely what I was most interested in finding out about.

It is a shame that there isn’t more written that does justice to Cornish history, and that what is written is, on the whole, less than gripping. However, I’m glad I read this. The boring bits are boring precisely when Cornwall’s independence gets lost in wider English politics, which I imagine reflects the region’s zeitgeist.