Cornwall (England : county) book series in reading order

by Nancy Atherton

by W.J. Burley

by Helen Dunmore

by E.V. Thompson / Ernest Victor Thompson

by Sarah E. Ladd

Winston Graham (30 June 1908 to 10 July 2003) was an English novelist, born Winston Grime, who took the name Graham by deed poll on 7 May 1947. The Poldark historical novels, set in Cornwall, are the best-known Graham work, and Ross Poldark and the Napoleonic Wars appear in the subject headings. Graham also wrote contemporary thrillers, period novels, short stories, plays and non-fiction, and held an OBE. The 48 catalogued books run from The House with the Stained Glass Windows (1934) to Memoirs of a Private Man (2003).

Fern Britton

20 books• 1 series

Fern Britton, born 17 July 1957, is an English television presenter and author. After starting as a continuity announcer and newsreader, Britton co-presented Breakfast Time in the 1980s, hosted Ready Steady Cook on BBC One from 1994 to 2000 and presented ITV's This Morning from 1999 to 2009. The catalogue lists 20 Britton books, beginning with Fern's Family Favourites (1998) and including Fern: The Autobiography (2008), Hidden Treasures (2012), A Cornish Carol (2014) and A Seaside Affair (2014). Cornwall, cooking and family secrets are among the subjects, and the newest title is A Cornish Legacy (2025).

E.V. Thompson, also credited as Ernest Victor Thompson, wrote historical sagas set largely in Cornwall. The Retallick Saga follows the Retallick family, with the Jagos of Cornwall and Amos Hawke books beside it. The catalogue holds 52 titles dated 1977 to 2012, from Chase the Wind (1977) to The Bonds of Earth (2012), and takes in local guides such as Discovering Bodmin Moor. Novels are long, a median of 419 pages, and the 1990s were the peak decade.

Veronica Black is a pseudonym used by Maureen Peters, a writer of historical novels. The Veronica Black catalogue holds 27 books from Portrait of Sarah (1969) to Vow Of Evil (2004). Sister Joan Mystery is the listed series, and nuns, the character Sister Joan, Cornwall, women sleuths and romance all appear among the subjects. Earlier titles include A Footfall in the Mist (1971), Moonflete (1972) and Master of Malcarew (1973).

Janie Bolitho (1950-2002) wrote crime fiction set largely in Cornwall. Born in Falmouth, Bolitho worked as a psychiatric nurse, a debt collector, a bookmaker's clerk and for a tour operator before writing full time, and divided her later years between Cornwall, Berkshire and Devon. Two series carry the 25 catalogued books, Ian Roper and Rose Trevelyan, running from Kindness Can Kill (1993) to Caught Out in Cornwall (2003). Bolitho died of breast cancer in late 2002, and Manadon Arena was christened Bolitho Park in her honour in December 2003.

Two bodies of work sit under Rosemary Rowe, who also publishes as Rosemary Aitken. The Libertus Mystery of Roman Britain novels follow Libertus through murder investigations in Roman Britain, beginning with The Germanicus Mosaic (1999) and continuing in A Pattern of Blood (2000), Murder in the Forum (2001) and The Chariots of Calyx (2002). The Cornish Sagas take in Cornwall and the First World War, starting with The Girl from Penvarris (1995). The catalogue runs to 36 books, ending with The Rewards of Treachery (2023).

Daisy Dalrymple, a journalist, leads Carola Dunn's English mystery series. Dunn's catalogue holds 67 books, opening with Toblethorpe Manor (1981) and reaching The Corpse at the Crystal Palace (2019). The Cornish Mysteries form a second detective line, and the Black Sheep, Rothschild and Miss Larkin trilogies are romance. Women sleuths and English settings recur as subjects.

Cornwall is Phillipa Ashley's territory. Her later novels, Summer at the Cornish Cafe (2016), Christmas on the Little Cornish Isles (2017), Confetti at the Cornish Café (2017), One Cornish Summer With You (2025), put romance against the county's coast and islands. The earlier books, from Decent Exposure (2006) and Dating Mr. December (2010), sit closer to chick lit. 30 titles are catalogued between 2006 and 2025, and Ashley continues to publish.

Cornwall is Liz Fenwick's constant subject, its history and its landscape both. Born in 1963 and American by birth, Fenwick lives in Cornwall, and The Guardian named her the queen of the contemporary Cornish novel in 2017. The debut, The Cornish House, was published by Orion in 2012, and the 12 catalogued books reach Flora's Day (2026) by way of A Cornish Affair (2013), The Returning Tide (2017), The Path to the Sea (2019) and The Secret Shore (2023). Grief, friendship, families and runaway women recur, and the books have been translated into 15 languages.

Helen Dunmore

62 books• 9 series

Poetry, novels, short stories and children's books all feature in the work of Helen Dunmore FRSL, a British writer born on 12 December 1952 who died on 5 June 2017. The Siege, A Spell of Winter and Zennor in Darkness are among the best-known novels, and Inside the Wave was the final poetry collection. Dunmore won the first Orange Prize for Fiction and the National Poetry Competition, and received the Costa Book Award after death. The catalogue lists 62 books from 1983 to 2019, including Burning Bright (1994) and the Ingo Chronicles series.

Victoria Holt's catalogue runs to 185 books published between 1940 and 1995, covering historical fiction, historical romance and mystery. Daughter of Anna (1940) is the earliest title, and Daughters of England (1995) the latest. The listing gathers several credits under other names, including titles marked as Jean Plaidy. Series include Tudor Saga, Plantagenet Saga, Georgian Saga, Stuart Saga, Norman Trilogy, Queen Victoria and Lucrezia Borgia. Kings, queens, England and France are frequent subjects.

Nancy Atherton wrote one series and stayed with it: the Aunt Dimity mysteries, traditional English detective stories with a ghost inside them. Aunt Dimity is dead and still consulted, and inheritance, ghosts and a woman sleuth are the recurring subjects. Atherton's 25 catalogued books run from Aunt Dimity's Death (1992) to Aunt Dimity and the Enchanted Cottage in 2022, with nothing published since.

Marcia Willett (1945-2022) was a British writer of women's fiction who also published as Willa Marsh. The catalogue holds 38 titles published between 1995 and 2022, opening with A Friend of the Family (1995) and The Courtyard (1995) and closing with Christmas at the Keep (2022). The Chadwick Family Chronicles is Willett's one continuing series; the rest are standalone novels and novellas. Family life, family secrets, brothers and sisters, widows and the county of Cornwall recur across the subjects.

Susan Cooper, born on 23 May 1935, is an English children's author best known for The Dark Is Rising, a contemporary fantasy sequence set in England and Wales that draws on Arthurian legend and Welsh folk heroes. That work earned Cooper the American Library Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2012 for writing for teens, and in the 1970s the Welsh Books Council named two of its five novels best English-language book of the year with an authentic Welsh background. Catalogued titles include Over Sea, Under Stone (1965), Mandrake (1966), The Dark is Rising (1973), Greenwitch (1974), The Grey King (1975) and The Shortest Day (2019). Boggart is another Cooper series.

Charles Wycliffe is the detective in most of W.J. Burley's crime fiction, a police procedural run set largely in Cornwall. The catalogue holds 29 books dated 1968 to 2000, at a median of 192 pages, from Wycliffe and the Three Toed Pussy to Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine. The 1970s is the heaviest decade, taking in Wycliffe and the Guilt Edged Alibi (1971), Wycliffe and the Pea Green Boat (1975) and Wycliffe and the School Bullies (1976). A Henry Pym series and a set of standalone novels complete the listing.

Robert Goddard

33 books• 4 series

Robert Goddard, an English novelist born in 1954, writes mystery and suspense. Past Caring (1986) was his first novel, and the catalogue has grown to 33 titles through to This is the Day They Dream Of (2025). Four series carry recurring figures: James "Max" Maxted, Harry Barnett, Umiko Wada and Inspector Taleb. Long Time Coming took the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Original Paperback, and the Crime Writers' Association gave Goddard its Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2019.