Light Over Liskeard set in Cornwall by Louis de Bernières

Submitted: 27th August 2024

Light Over Liskeard – Louis de Bernières

First up in our literary travel week courtesy of Wilbur Smith and Niso foundation who are currently shortlisting the titles up for the grand prize is..

Off to Cornwall we go!

Map of locations in Light Over Liskeard

BOARDING PASS INFORMATION

Destination : Liskeard, Cornwall

Author guide: Louis de Bernières

Genre: fiction

Food and drink to accompany: depends on what you can get on the farm

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A novel to transport you to a self sufficient farm…

Map of locations in Light Over Liskeard

Travel plans:

We’re off to meet Q. He wants a simpler life so after working hard for the government for years, he wants to live more simply and remotely. So, he heads off to Cornwall and buys a ruined farmhouse. There is more to this than meets the eye however – his government work as a quantum cryptographer has led him to believe that something is about to happen and that he needs to save himself and ride whatever is coming, out. Well, he builds a self-sufficient haven. And then he starts to meet the characters who already live on the moors nearby – that’s when things get interesting.

Travel review:

A dystopian adventure. You know things are bad when someone who works for the government and fends off online attacks retreats to the country to save himself as he can’t see a way forward for the cities, people hooked on technology and the online world we are all so addicted to.

If this doesn’t make you sit and think of the world today – AI and chatGPT etc then I don’t know what will. There’s always been the fear that robots etc will take over so when shops in the real world have started to rebel against the self service checkouts, I cheer. This novel takes that idea and runs with it. With threads of Orwell’s 1984 and plenty of food for thought, this is a sharp and acidic look at what could be.

The book reads like being in someone’s mind – “What if being awake is really a dream, and dreaming is just a dream inside another dream?” For a novel about the end of the world as we know it, it’s surprisingly upbeat and quirky. There is a lot to love here.

And the ending of the novel – I gave a chef’s kiss in the air – Just perfect!