The Swordfish and the Star
Life on Cornwall's most treacherous stretch of coast
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:4th May '17
Should be back in stock very soon
Gavin Knight has caught the stories of the Cornish fishermen - and their difficult, dramatic existence at the end of our land
Cornwall and its seas are brought to life, mixing drinking and drugs and sea spray, moonlit beaches and shattering storms, myth and urban myth.
The Penwith Peninsula in Cornwall is where the land ends. In The Swordfish and the Star Gavin Knight takes us into this huddle of grey roofs at the edge of the sea at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
He catches the stories of a whole community, but especially those still working this last frontier: the Cornish fishermen. These are the dreamers and fighters who every day prepare for battle with the vast grey Atlantic. Cornwall and its seas are brought to life, mixing drinking and drugs and sea spray, moonlit beaches and shattering storms, myth and urban myth. The result is an arresting tapestry of a place we thought we knew; the precarious reality of life in Cornwall today emerges from behind our idyllic holiday snaps and picture postcards. Even the quaint fishermen’s pubs on the quay at Newlyn, including the Swordfish and its neighbour the Star, turn out to be places where squalls can blow up, and down again, in an instant.
Based on immersive research and rich with the voices of a cast of remarkable characters, this is an eye-opening, dramatic, poignant account of life on Britain’s most dangerous stretch of coast.
Praise for Hood Rat
'A gripping novelistic immersion' Louis Theroux
'A must-read' Owen Jones
'Britain's Gomorrah'Independent
An alternative perspective, telling the stories of the fishermen who work on this treacherous stretch of coast, tales gathered over two years of interviews, many conducted in the Swordfish and Star of the title -- Tom Robbins * Financial Times Books of the Year *
A terrific new book about a hard and dangerous way of life * Esquire, Book of the Year *
Knight has gone in search of old smells and danger and found them in spades. There are extraordinarily evocative stories here, of the mad bravado of scarred, de-fingered fishermen and the stoicism of their women... As a cross-section of west Cornish lives, a celebration of brave eccentricity and a prose illustration of the way those lives overlap and interrelate, The Swordfish and the Star takes some beating -- Patrick Gale * Guardian *
Knight recounts fascinating detail, but also shows a novelist's skill in painting a vivid picture of real Cornwall and real Cornish people: Shane Meadows meets The Perfect Storm * Esquire *
[Knight] is as adept with words as his hero Nutty Noah the Cadgwith ring-netter is with a shoal of pilchards ... exhilarating -- Tom Fort * Literary Review *
The Swordfish and the Star gets top rating for its often searing honesty and its portrayal of fallibility in a harsh, unforgiving world... a terrific read... remarkable -- Des Hannigan * Western Morning News, Devon *
The reading public has become interested in the social anthropology of our relationship with nature and a slew of authors has explored the interdependence of people and the natural world. The best give us a language to read the world around us... This helps explain what's different and admirable about The Swordfish and the Star... Knight does immersive journalism. This account of the lives of the fishing community on both sides of the Penwith Peninsula is driven by personal anecdote... the obsessive, personal tangle with the sea in search of fishy riches, the fortunes made, the lives lost, the courage and recklessness -- Will Cohu * Oldie *
A hugely refreshing dunk in the ocean ... fascinating -- Roger Cox * Scotland on Sunday *
A genuine and powerful insight into the lives of people who brave the sea for a living * Choice Magazine *
An immersive account... It is an eye-opening, dramatic and poignant account of life on Cornwall’s most dangerous coast and the people who fish it. * Western Morning News *
ISBN: 9781784700997
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 16mm
Weight: 185g
256 pages