Cornwall [antikvár]

AUTHORKirsty Fergusson is an award-winning travel writer who spent several years living near St Buryan in the far west of Cornwall. She began work as a freelance garden writer in the 1990s after working as head gardener on a historic Dorset estate and for six years was weekly garden columnist to the Daily Express. She continues to write for the gardening press and, having spent some time living and working in southwest France, has branched out into garden tours, in both England and France. She has a website at www.kirstyfergusson.co.uk.!' ; I-AUTHOR'S STORYBefore I came to live in the far west of Cornwall, I remember poring over my OS maps and being enthralled by the dramatic contours of the coastline, the empty moors dotted with archaeological symbols, the deep meandering estuaries and the strange poetry ofthe place names.I was fortunate to have time to explore my adopted county out of season, on foot and by bicycle (and occasionally in a canoe): it was an eye-widening, if slightly random immersion, that revealed an exhilarating diversity in local identity. An additional impetus to my travels came from my meandering career in gardening and garden journalism. Cornwall lacks for nothing in horticultural variety and richness and there are few trails I have followed that have not had to include a small wiggle to take in a lush collection of those hardy exotics which thrive in sheltered coombes up and down the peninsula. Without realising it, I hadembarked on a Slow exploration of Cornwall. So when Bradt, who had published a piece I'd written years earlier about looking for peonies in Mongolia, announced they were looking for new authors, I jumped at the possibility of more Slow exploring, relishing the opportunity to spend time in the places with which I was less familiar.For this second edition, I based myself in Polbathic, close to the Tamar and the 'forgotten corner of Cornwall', otherwise known as the Rame peninsula. Here, as in so many parts of rural and coastal Cornwall, I found individuals and communities living well, savouring the special quality of their surroundings and very alert to the growing demand for sustainable tourism having seen their fair share of unsustainable industries. Time after time in conversation, 'Slow', I discovered, proved valuable shorthand for so much that Cornwall and its admirers aspire to in the 21st century.