Top 10+ books set in Cornwall,

 The authors' imaginations and the resulting literature are as varied as the landscape itself, from sunny novels to a poor man's authentic and unmistakable depiction of the northern European regions.

My own technique of writing Almost Cornwall is one of both escapism and realism.. The Shell House Detectives grew out of Penwith's longing for the wide open skies and seas during that endless winter of 2020/21. An image of a weatherboard house in the dunes kept coming back to me. An unlikely friendship formed in a moment of crisis. As much as I play with the conventions of the typical crime genre, I've also drawn my own line in the sand, putting together a world that I hope is magical but also feels realistic.

Together, why am I relatively and recklessly romantic about Cornwall?

Virginia Woolf wrote in 1921. For centuries, the natural beauty of Cornwall has captured the ioux I've chosen here, far more than picture postcards. When I dream of Cornwall – like Wolfe, unguarded, romantically – it's my eyes wide open.

1. Lip by Charlie Carroll

Melody Jenny lives alone in a cliff-top caravan on Bones Break, a remote location that is as beautiful as it is brutal. Here she spies tourists, dismayed by their extraordinary disregard for people and landscape. This cleverly crafted story pays off on repeat as the full extent of Melody's traumatic experience becomes clear. Lips is a gentle and moving reminder that each of us has the power to make a difference. It shows a side of Cornwall that many holidaymakers rarely see, or perhaps resolutely shy away from.

Rough music by Patrick Gale

A beachside bungalow in the fictional village of Pollackmill provides the setting for this beautiful dual-time novel. Over the course of two separate family vacations, nearly 30 years apart, Ruff Music explores the far-reaching reach of memory and the immediacy of desire, with equal parts grandeur and no small amount of heartbreak. Both past and present, charismatic strangers disrupt the holiday rhythm. Despite floating and piled up in the ocean, when the clouds roll in and the storm breaks, the debris is overwhelming.

3. Homesick by Katrina Davis

Davies is lost in Bristol, barely making her rent, when she packs up and travels to Land's End, the scene of her often uncertain childhood. There she lives in a dilapidated shed that once belonged to her father: "I wanted to watch the stars move slowly across the sky, and be reminded of how young I was, how short my life was. My How beautiful the house was." Homesick is an emotional commentary on the housing crisis and the reality of living in a place where people are being pushed out by high prices and low incomes. It is also a paean to the spiritual life and a story full of hope.

4. Lighthouse by PD James

Coombe – a stunning island off the Cornish coast – offers the perfect setting for VIPs for secluded solitude and closed-room mystery. Although the crime here is not comfortable, I find this excellent piece of detective fiction very comfortable. James's prose is cool and crisp, describing the topography of the island as well as the interior of the ramshackle cottage or the psychology of the suspects. The coastal stay proves transformative for Commander Dalglish and his city-dwelling team, despite the horrors that unfold: "Slowly and quietly Combe is wielding its mysterious powers."

5. A Year of Great Practices by Sarah Winman

A magical novel about Drake and an 89-year-old war-torn man named Marvelous, who lives alone in a caravan by the river. When they cross paths, Drake is in the depths of grief but generosity, with a quick wit and a steady flow of moonlight, captures him brilliantly. The Cornish landscape is magnificent and while the magnificent remains hidden, its heart is open to everyone. "Never grow old," she whispers, but my house grows older with age.

6. Draw the sea by Will Mainmuir

Manmuir travels to the Cornish coastline and the Isles of Scilly to meet beach workers, freedivers, surfers and people whose livelihoods depend on the waves. These personal narratives, intertwined with both Manmuir's own relationship with the ocean and his voice for its conservation, deeply explore what the ocean means to all of us. A wonderful, heartfelt work that I will return to again and again: for comfort, inspiration and motivation.

7. Yoruba man strolling by way of Bernardine Evaristo

Everstow's powerful short story appears in Closer, a collection of black British short stories. It's the 1880s and after 20 years at sea, Lennie is traveling inland. He watches the Cornish pass through the port town, but "she had learned to be metal inside and out". He works in a tin mine and marries a local girl. As Lani works underground, his mind wanders: he thinks of his father and longs for his hometown of Lagos and the freedom of the sea. An important story about the loss of identity and the erasure of history. While it's perfect in form, I'd happily live with these compelling characters for a novel or more.

Eight Swordfish and Superstar by Gavin Knight

The work is named for two notorious pubs in Newlyn, where "the odd surface is not the whole picture". Knight spent two years interacting with residents of West Penwith and The Lizard and the result is a vibrant body of work. There are tall tales, adventures on the high seas and port taverns, as well as moments of brevity. As the narrative of freewheeling moves from fishermen to artists, entrepreneurs to lifeboat crews, it's impossible not to go along with it.

Nine. The Adventures of the Devil's Foot by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

In this upbeat short story, Sherlock Holmes is suffering from exhaustion and, on the advice of his doctor, vacations in the fictional Poldhu Bay. The landscape is bleakly rendered, from "the monstrous semi-circle of Mount's Bay" to "solitary and dark-coloured moors". Holmes is soon called in to investigate a disturbing death and before long has a theory and is dragging Watson into a wild experiment to prove it. Holmes of course solves the crime and returns to London revived.

10. Feast by Margaret Kennedy

First published in 1950, the festival is a treat from start to finish. It's 1947 and the Pendyzack Hotel is buried after a rock collapse. The story unfolds during a week leading to disaster, like a murder mystery. Owners, staff and guests are well served, the maid - the smart, kind and capable Cornish girl Nanceble - our North Star.When Nancibel says of the motel that "nobody inside a mile of it is probably happy", as a reader, I have to disagree.