Famous Footsteps
From the childhood holiday homes of the rich and powerful to the places where creative and scientific minds gained their inspiration, North Cornwall will surprise you.
Walk in famous footsteps on this two hour walk based in Polzeath or travel a little further to find out more on a half day or full day private tour.
The 50 Shades of Grey house in Polzeath is perhaps not as grey as some of the writers, poets, broadcasters, artists, bankers, fund managers, chefs, conductors, barristers, judges, sports personalities, politicians, prime ministers, comedians, industrialists, royals, actors, psychologists, pilots, politicians, pub chains and brewery owners and even Bishops who've made their first, second, or even third homes in Polzeath!
We'll follow in the footsteps of James Bond and I'll show you how the spy came to be associated with "Strangers on a Train" and "Swept from the Sea" via a house on Atlantic Terrace. Only a stone throw's from the house where Hugh Grant spends some of his holidays. The Brat Pack walked here too in the 90's although maybe that's now long before Busted got in the charts or New Polzeath's Portraits made their award winning Electric Dreams and sang at Glastonbury.
in this entertaining and enlightening walk we'll even check the Polzeath strandline for famous flotsam. Hopefully by the end you'll realise what it really means to be famous in Cornwall and know the houses with the best views and stories.
I walked this land with a dreamer’s freedom
- Daphne du Maurier
The golden unpeopled bays
- John Betjeman
"They [GCHQ Bude] are worse than the US." - Edward Snowden
I enjoyed filming in Cornwall, whose startling, marine landscape was so fitting for the Conrad story. Initially Rachel and I shared a house until I could move into Trevor Nunn's summer house near our locations in Polzeath on the north coast. There was a remarkable sense of family amongst cast and crew, stemming mainly from our director's pregnancy (she delivered the week after shooting ended) and her caring attitude to everyone involved.
Three years after its release, I am still puzzled by the film's short life in the cinema, where Dick Pope's photography is gorgeous. But on the home screen, Conrad's haunting tale of emotional repression works very well. — Ian McKellen, June 2000
Port Quin was used in the film Swept from the Sea based on Joseph Conrad's "Amy Foster" it's available for free if you are an Amazon Prime member
Hugh Grant messing about on the beach, Roger Taylor not smiling although his band went on to be Queen, Lord of the Flies author William Golding
The north coast of Cornwall is one of the best collection points in the world for long-haul drift, which I'll show you along the strandline. Southwest gales are particularly good at bringing in artefacts and natural objects from across the Atlantic – from Labrador down to the Amazon Basin. Even the Brat Pack washed up at Pentire in the 90's. They, like many of our visitors, were film making and included Charlie Sheen (Aramis) ; Kiefer Sutherland (Athos) ; Chris O'Donnell (D'Artagnan) and Oliver Platt (Porthos) in Disney's Three Musketeers.
Thandiwe Newton's family moved to Penzance when she was 3
Phillip Schofield grew up in Newquay
Harry Potter fans know that Tinworth is a Muggle Cornish village where Bill Weasley moved after his wedding and why this grave says: HERE LIES DOBBY, A FREE ELF
North Cornwall Coast Path Walks is based at Polzeath and even if you're not into sandcastles and surfing, it's a perfect base for a walking holiday or to inspire some creativity. If you are into reading or films...so much the better!
Wherever you're heading you'll find your bit of the North Cornwall coast has inspired someone to write about it or make a film or TV series!
The Shell Seekers was translated into more than 40 languages and Germans still travel to Cornwall to be inspired by the coast that inspired Rosamunde Pilcher.
The ZDF television network bought the rights to her shorter novels and her short stories – more than 120 in all – which were filmed mainly in Cornwall. The term "Liebe und Landschaft" (love and landscape) is based on Cornwall and ZDF film makers stay in New Polzeath when filming a Beach Artist who lives there.
Following in the footsteps of the famous is a bit of a Magical Mystery Tour and that's perhaps why The Beatles came here to make their own movie.
Gillian: “In the dream, I was blown all the way from Kent to Cornwall! But I didn’t fall off the cliff into the sea because you arrived just in time, making a rope out of all the letters you sent me last term.”
Welcome to Cornwall for Literary Festivals
MAY The Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature is a week-long festival inspired by Daphne du Maurier
JULY The Penzance Literary Festival is held
September The North Cornwall Book Festival is held here on the North Coast
November The Looe Literary Festival is held on the South Coast
Notes below from Jo's Blog Return of the Native! There is much more there of interest there!
Mazed Tales (2014) an online collection of animated Cornish folktales.
A trailer from the Jane Darke film Cornwall Native Poet, Charles Causley.
An interview with Kits Browning, Daphne du Maurier’s son, who talks about his mother’s links to Cornwall and Bodinnick in particular.
Betjeman’s Cornwall: A Film in 35mm.
A clip about a Tate Gallery St Ives exhibition exploring Virginia Woolf’s connections with many artists who were inspired by the landscape of Cornwall.
Another short film: D.H. Lawrence in Zennor.
An article about the independent film maker Mark Jenkin about his film Bait, that examines the clash of tradition versus progress in Cornwall.
The Plague of the Zombies (1966) Thomas Hardy didn’t call it the ‘wild, weird western shore’ for nothing.
The Visit Cornwall website.
Philip Marsden, author of the book: Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place
Cornwall is very primeval: great black, jutting cliffs and rocks,…and a pale sea breaking in, like dawn.
- D.H. Lawrence
…with every kind of little growing thing
- Katherine Mansfield
the low shaggy hills full of tumbling walls and rough stone houses
- Paul Theroux
Where to the sky the rude sea rarely smiles
- Percy Shelley
All Cornwall thunders at my door
- Charles Causley
One of the best guidebooks to Cornwall is almost certainly the new Bedrock Cornwall Book series and Robert Meller lives in New Polzeath!
