|
| In this issue... | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| The Legacy of Poldark |
|
|
|
Page 1 of 5 As Cornwall celebrates the centenary of the birth of Winston Graham, Megan Westley looks at the ongoing romance with the Poldark saga. The writer Winston Graham is probably best known for his Poldark series of novels; in Cornwall this is certainly the case. For set in this, the wildest and arguably most inspirational of countries, the Poldark saga, spanning 12 novels from Ross Poldark to Bella Poldark and 1783 to 1820, captures in breathtaking plausibility the Cornwall of days gone by. Though once called ‘the most successful unknown novelist in Britain’, Graham enjoyed his share of literary glory, not least with the television adaptation of his novels in the 1970s. Audiences reached 15 million, and the Sunday evening programmes were aired in 22 countries around the world. Clearly something in Graham’s work captured the attention of the public, and it is a love-affair set to continue with the republication of the entire Poldark collection by PanMacmillan in June.  Poldark author Winston Graham; he claimed he was the most successful unknown novelist in Britain. Not only this, but Graham’s centenary is about to be remembered in spectacular style with the opening of an exhibition entitled Poldark’s Cornwall - The Life and Works of Winston Graham, which will run for four months at Truro’s Royal Cornwall Museum. Hoping to attend the exhibition’s official opening, depending on work commitments, are the Poldark stars who were closest to Graham: Angharad Rees (Demelza Poldark), Christopher Biggins (the odious Ossie Whitworth), and Jane Wymark (Morwenna Chynoweth), in addition to his publisher, editor and family members. The exhibition, devised by museum director Hilary Bracegirdle working with the writer’s son Andrew Graham, will be contained in one room packed to the rafters with information and items. Not to mention a riot of colour and costume. As well as Poldark memorabilia, such as Graham’s notebooks and manuscripts, the exhibition will include a great deal of contextual items based around Poldark’s setting of 18th and 19th-century Cornwall. Dresses made from the luxurious and historic Spittalfields silk are equalled, or even surpassed, in luxuriousness by elaborate men’s and boy’s embroidered coats and waistcoats. |
|||||||