Reviews
"[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, "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, "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, 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, "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
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{"IsNonfiction":["Yes"],"IsOther":["No"],"IsAdult":["No"],"MuzeFormatDesc":["UK-B Format Paperback"],"IsChildren":["No"],"Genre":["SOCIAL SCIENCE","BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY","HISTORY","SPORTS & RECREATION"],"Topic":["Europe / Great Britain / General","Social History","Cultural Heritage","Sociology / General","Customs & Traditions","Anthropology / Cultural & Social","Fishing"],"IsTextBook":["No"],"IsFiction":["No"]}
Synopsis
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., The romance, danger and reality of life in a fishing community, from a highly acclaimed young writer. 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 21st century. It is revealed as a microcosm of Britain, a Middlemarch, with the drama and increasing precariousness of life there resonating far beyond its shores. Gavin Knight has caught the stories of dreamers and fighters, of the lost and the saved, the timeless and the new -- and above all, of those last frontiersmen, the Cornish fishermen. Cornwall and the seas around its coasts are brought to life, mixing pubs 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 real Cornwall behind our holiday snaps and picture postcards. Based on immersive research and rich with the voices of a cast of remarkable characters, this is an eye-opening, poignant account of life on Britain's most dangerous stretch of coastline from one of Britain's most promising young non-fiction writers., 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, 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
