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Jo Mattingly, curator of social history, says the idea is to offer an insight into Graham’s books not only through viewing his notes and manuscripts, but through catching a glimpse of Cornwall as it was then. In addition to these traditional costumes and artefacts, the museum is currently talking with the BBC in hopes of displaying original outfits and costume designs from the 1970s series, which, for fans old and new, will be screened throughout.
Angharad Rees as Demelza and Robin Ellis as Ross Poldark. Nearly 15 million people followed their on-screen love affair.
Originally from Manchester where he spent the majority of his youth, Graham moved to Perranporth at the age of 17 when his father became increasingly ill. His first novel was written in Cornwall at the age of 21, and took only 10 weeks to write. The publishers who rejected this novel, and his second, could little see the potential that lay within the man who, at this stage, never believed he could make a living out of his words. Instead, Graham used his skills for more practical purposes, adapting and improving the Women’s Institute plays that he sometimes performed in. His first real triumph was the writing of his own three-act play Seven Suspected shortly after this. Though this, his first play, was never printed, it was initially performed for three nights with great success.
At the insistence of his aunt, an enthusiastic encourager of his talent, Graham’s discarded first novel was sent to the publishers Ward, Lock & Co., who accepted it. And so The House with the Stained-Glass Windows, published in 1934, was to become the first in what is now a sizeable bibliography. After 12 more novels in speedy succession, Ross Poldark, Cornish hero, came striding proudly into the world in 1945. With him came a wealth of characters to be loved and hated. Over 60 years ago, readers were introduced to those people who would live on to this day: the feisty, independent Demelza; Elizabeth Chynoweth, the original ice-queen; and the instantly and enduringly detestable George Warleggan, to name but a few.
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