The Curse of Penryth Hall

Travel Guide

Cornwall

Lothlel Green is fictional.

The author says:

I often get asked why I set this story in Cornwall, especially as Ruby and I both are American, and in retrospect, I cannot imagine a place more perfect than Cornwall to set this story. However, at first, I had intended it to take place in North Wales. I fell in love with the area during a trip I took in 2017 and had wanted to write a story set there.  In the first drafts, Ruby was going to be a folklorist, traveling through the countryside collecting and preserving oral histories before falling into a folktale of her own—and it was during the research process that the entire story pivoted and became what it is today.

I am a historian by training, and tend to do an absurd amount of primary source research while developing my characters as I find it helpful in understanding who they are as people and the space they would have occupied in the world.  Early in the process, I was reading accounts of 19th century folklorists, to better understand Ruby. While reading, I kept coming across stories of Pellars from the Cornish tradition. According to multiple accounts, Pellars were people who were born with the power to heal the sick, break curses and find stolen things. These figures were revered in their communities and people would travel great distances to seek their help. Once I latched onto that idea, the entire story shifted to Cornwall.