Cornwall: A History

Philip Payton is Emeritus Professor in the University of Exeter and Professor of History at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, and is the former Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies in the University of Exeter. He edited Cornish Studies, published annually from 1993-2013, the only series of publications that seeks to investigate and understand the complex nature of Cornish identity, as well as to discuss its implications for society and governance in contemporary Cornwall.He has written extensively on Cornish topics, and recent books include A.L. Rowse and Cornwall: A Paradoxical Patriot (2005), Making Moonta: The Invention of Australia’s Little Cornwall (2007), John Betjeman and Cornwall: ‘The Celebrated Cornish Nationalist’ (2010), and (edited with Alston Kennerley and Helen Doe), The Maritime History of Cornwall (2014). He has recently been awarded South Australian Historian of the Year 2017 by the History Council of South Australia.

• ForewordIntroductionAncient StonesThe Mystery of the CeltsFrom Dumnonia to CornubiaAnglia and Cornubia‘We Utterly Refuse… This New English’‘These is Much Danger in a Cornish Hugg’‘The Large Continent of Cornwall’‘So Many Brilliant Ornaments’‘If You Haven’t Been to Moonta’Re-Inventing KernowWhither Cornwall?Notes and ReferencesIndex

Philip Payton is the leader of a new generation of historians exploring Cornwall's ambivalent position within the English state, and questioning the view of Cornwall as 'just another English county'.  In this book he argues the case for the Cornish as a separate Celtic people, fully deserving a history of their own, and amply succeeds in his stated aim of bringing that history to the widest possible audience.