Cornish Authors :: 2. Crosbie Garstin
Crosbie Garstin is best known for his trilogy of novels about the Penhales family, published before the last war by Heinemann. The Owls’ House, High Noon and The West Wind are all cracking adventures set in Cornwall and on the high seas in the days of sail. China Seas, his last book, continued the genre, and was made into a Hollywood film.
Garstin was an interesting character, a true adventurer and traveller. He served during the first world war in King Edward’s Horse and was commissioned on the battlefield in 1915.
His early years were spent working in lumber camps in Canada, as a ranger in Africa, a miner on the Pacific coast, and as an army horsemaster and intelligence officer. He was, by all accounts, a very private man (I can’t find a photograph of him on the internet) and, at the age of 40, he bought “Rosemerryn”, a house in Cornwall, near Penzance. The fictional home of the Penhales family, “Bosula” ~ the Owls’ House, is almost certainly located on the site of Rosemerryn. Set in the Keigwin Valley, six miles south-west of Penzance, the valley drains the Penwith backbone of tors into Monks Cove, the physical setting for the novels.
Just down the way, towards Penzance, is the fishing port of Newlyn, which doubled-up then as a world-famous artists’ colony, boasting its own art movement. Garstin wrote this elegant rondeau about Newlyn Hill :
On Newlyn Hill the gorse is bright;
Upon the hedgerows left and right
Song-dizzy birds the Spring-time greet;
The bluebells weave a purple sheet;
Primroses star the lanes’ green night.
Across the Bay each moorland height
Glows golden in the evening light,
And Dusk walks violet-eyed and sweet
On Newlyn Hill.
A swarm of lights, pearl-soft and white,
A fairy-lamp-land exquisite,
Opens its star-eyes at the feet
Of hills where shore and wavelets meet;
Then dreams come, mystic, infinite,
On Newlyn Hill.
It’s difficult to get hold of Garstin’s books now, but I managed to entreat copies of the trilogy from Penzance library’s reference section a few years ago for a writing project, and I wasn’t disappointed. Sadly, he has rather sunk without trace in recent years. Not even the Cornish remember him, except for a few beavering upcountry literatis like myself.
In 1930 he vanished without trace. Nobody really knows what happened to him. Some say he faked his death and went back to the East where he had spent his youth. It seems likely though that he drowned while rowing back to a friend’s yacht after a party. The boat overturned and a woman friend survived. His body was never found although he was a strong swimmer. Presciently, the final page of his last book, China Seas, written in his study at Rosemerryn overlooking a bank of rhododendrons, has this death scene :
“Heavily he sank beside her … felt her arms go round him clinging desperately as to the last refuge in a yawning sea … A bank of rhododendrons with crimson flowers … fading fast, fading away.”
Even better, at the conclusion of his trilogy, the death of his hero, Penhales, drowning in the sea off the Twelve Apostles rocks in Cornwall, is one of the best death scenes in all literature :
“The boom of the surf was the deep roll of drums. The wind blew with the sound of trumpets, piercing, exultant. The phantom clippers dipped their gilded beaks, most stately, the ghostly soldiers tossed their lances, ‘Come on, old comrade,’ they cried. ‘Fear not! Death is but a pang and life immortal. Ride on with us, ride on forever.’”
Are there any boigraphies/biographical articles about Crosbie garstin available. I can’t seem to find anything on the internet. I lived for a while at Rosmerryn, where he lived, and would be very interested to find out more.
By Steve on March 16th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Steve,
There doesn’t seem to be much about him anywhere, Steve. I have looked, but without much luck.
I suppose the archive of Heinemann his publisher would be a good place to start. They’re now Part of Random House. The last telephone number I had for them was: (London) 020 7840 8400.
Also Penzance library may have something in its reference section.
I hope that helps.
By John on March 16th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Thanks John.
By Steve on July 4th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
There is a booklet called Cornish Mysteries by Michael Williams (Bossiney Books, Bodmin, 1980) which has a short chapter on Crosbie Garstin, including an excellent photo. I don’t know if it’s still in print, however.
By Gerry on September 4th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Thanks, Gerry. The last time I looked Bossiney Books was still going, so that’s a definite possibility.
By John Evans on September 5th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
good to know there is some continuing interest in this writer. The penguin/peacock edition of The Owls House was a favourite in my teenage years,and i’ve returned to it after recent trips to West Penwith. i’m interested to try and locate the basis for the farmhouse Bosula; from descriptions it must be very near Porthcurno; i’ve deduced that Garstin has placed a fictitious ‘St Gwythian’ in place of St Buryan; unrelated to Gwythian village beyond Hayle. any insights on this?
Will
By Will Hill on October 20th, 2006 at 9:55 am
Will,
Bosula is reckoned to be Rosemerryn, an actual house, near Penzance, which Garstin bought and lived in for a while. My guess is that it’s around the St Buryan to Lamorna area, but it could easily be checked out in the Penzance records.
By John Evans on October 20th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
Rosemerryn House is situated on the right just past the Lamorna Cove turning. It belonged to Jo May who wrote the book Fogou until 2003 and you can now stay B&B there. We stayed in a cottage in the grounds two weeks ago. Boligh Fogou is in the grounds very close to the house and it is partially surrounded by old woods which run down to the road. Boleigh Farm is just around the bend, if you see the farm you have gone too far. It is a fanacating house with a big artists window. Worth a visit and stay.
By Thelma Atkins on October 26th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Thanks for clearing that up, Thelma. I’ll definitely take a look.
By John Evans on October 27th, 2006 at 9:45 am
John and Thelma
many thanks for this.
will
By Will Hill on November 1st, 2006 at 12:37 pm
I live in New Zealand and hv just started reading ‘Slow Boats To China’ by Gavin Young.
On page 2:
‘I spent hours…. delving into Robt Louis Stevenson, Jack London, Captain Marryat, R.M.Ballantyne and a Cornish writer of the 1920’s called Crosbie Garstin who wrote exciting books about wreckers and smugglers on this very coast’.
This has triggered my interest and I intend to track down and buy some of Garstins titles.
Can anyone give me a list of titles and some comment on any aspect of the books?
My father emigrated from Cornwall (St Columb Major) in the early 1920’s. Our family were clockmakers back to the 1600’s in that area and the family carried on watch/clockmaking here in NZ. All members of the family have made expeditions back to Cornwall from New Zealand, my last in 2003. I know the Penzance / Lamorna Cove area quite well and have walked many miles of the coastline. I’d like to return and walk a camping trip in this area for a couple of weeks. Just the cost getting to UK from NZ is high. I’m 63yrs young and semi-retired.
Cheers! Graeme.
By Graeme Webber on March 22nd, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Hi Graeme,
There are four Garstin titles mentioned in this post. They are all good reads and probably the best of his output in terms of romantic, adventure fiction.
I would recommend you go for these first. Amazon.com is probably the best place to start as they have a good list of secondhand books from outside booksellers.
Other than that an inter-library lending scheme along British lines, may be available in NZ.
Best of luck.
John
By John Evans on March 23rd, 2007 at 9:53 am
Thanks John for your very prompt feedback! Yes I see the titles and already on the track of a couple thru Amazon. Kind Regards, Graeme.
By Graeme Webber on March 23rd, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Hi, I am in Australia, and have just been reading a novel (never published) that my grandfather wrote in 1962. He and my father where from Madron, which is near Penzance, and in the story one of the characters is reading and enjoying The Owl’s House by Crosbie Garstin. I would love to read these books, and thanks to the above information I will try to find them on Amazon.com.
Thanks
Michelle
By Michelle Gipson on November 15th, 2007 at 3:38 am
Glad to be of help, Michelle.
By John Evans on November 15th, 2007 at 8:57 am
I was put onto the Penhales trilogy in a most haphazard way, too long to detail. I located the single-volume edition on the Net and must say that those 3 novels rival anything I”ve read in the way of historical fiction. Garstin was both an outstanding wordsmith and superior storyteller, a rare combination even among published authors. I chose to read the novels singly, letting months elapse between each, and I would advise that… otherwise, by the time the reader is finishing West Wind he might notice just a bit of redundency. I subsequently found a novel co-authored by Garstin and someone else called The Black Knight. It was vastly inferior, and its only value was in what I theorize to be some autobiographical content as early scenes take place in Canada around the advent of the 20th century.
By Tim Cumings on January 17th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Tim, China Seas, which was made into a Hollywood film with Clark Gable, is probably the best of the rest.
By John Evans on January 18th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Thanks. Last night, I took up The Black Knight and turned to the back where there is a publishers’ afterward or postscript. It gives some details on Garstin’s wandering early life at sea (he ran away from home twice), in Canada, the U.S. and Africa as well as his WWI service. One great asset of The Penhales IMO is that Garstin’s writing is fresh and timeless. These 3 books could have been written in the last decade. (The co-author of TBK was a Mrs. Affred Sidgwick. Since I’m a lifelong Texan she wasn’t a familiar name to me. She and Garstin lived nearby in Conrwall.)
By Tim Cumings on January 18th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
She’s not known to me, either. It may have been penance on his part.
By John Evans on January 18th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I live close to Lamorna. I’m doing up a barn and I intend to call The Owls House so was doing some research and came on your website. Bosula is a house in Trewoofe, Lamorna and about half a mile from Rosemerryn.
Link to website
Hoped the link works.
By Gordon Jeffery on January 23rd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Gordon, thank you for the information.
Like many, I’m fascinated by the history of Penwith and Lamorna, and always delighted to hear more.
Thanks again.
By John Evans on January 23rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm