A view of Fowey harbour in May 2020 Several readers of my first novel “No Small Stir” have made the comment to me: “I can just imagine spies operating in Cornwall. It all fits the place so well.” Spies operating in Cornwall is not something I have made up. While Johann and his particular antics are creations of my imagination, there were a number of wartime spies who were arrested in Cornwall. None were particularly successful, perhaps due in part to the vigilance of people l

Bodmin A30 23 Jan 1945 snow As I write this in early January a Met Office weather warning for snow and ice is in place. The local news outlet Cornwall Live has posted an article claiming snow has fallen this afternoon across large parts of the county including the town where I live. Having been out and about both this afternoon and this evening I can assure you my town saw no snow! They also posted this submitted image claiming it to be taken in the moorland village of Minion

Scarne Camp, Launceston, in 1947 The World War Two generation are fast disappearing from amongst us. The vast majority of those who remain were children during the war and when I speak to them about wartime Christmases then one year in particular stands out – 1943. The reason: that was the year many of them remember being treated to a party by the American troops stationed in Cornwall prior to D-Day six months later. They have memories of food they hadn’t seen for years like

The Helford River SOE base and anchorage Necessity is the mother of invention or so the saying goes. It was certainly true that there were enormous advancements and developments in the scientific and technological realms during the Second World War in everything from medicines, radar and sonar, wireless communication, aircraft, ship and military vehicle design, life-saving gadgets right up to the harnessing of fission and fusion to make the atomic bombs. Thus it is exciting t