snoakes7001's review against another edition
5.0
In Rising Ground Philip Marsden explores our sense of place. He travels through Cornwall via Bodmin Moor, Clay Country and Penwith and ends his journey on the Isles of Scilly. His travels are rooted in his own place - the farmhouse he is renovating at Ardevoroa on the Upper Fal.
He explores the landscape by way of the sacred places of prehistory, those ancient ritual sites, the quoits and cliff castles, the standing stones, the fogous and holy wells. He tells us about the antiquarians who first started to uncover this ancient past and lay their own meaning on these sites. He meets artists, writers and poets - those who attempt capture the landscape in paint and words. We learn about the origins of Arthurian myths and legends and about William Cookworthy - the Quaker who first discovered the secret of Cornwall's rich reserves of China Clay.
It's a beautifully written and evocative book that perfectly captures the tug on your soul from the place you belong to.
He explores the landscape by way of the sacred places of prehistory, those ancient ritual sites, the quoits and cliff castles, the standing stones, the fogous and holy wells. He tells us about the antiquarians who first started to uncover this ancient past and lay their own meaning on these sites. He meets artists, writers and poets - those who attempt capture the landscape in paint and words. We learn about the origins of Arthurian myths and legends and about William Cookworthy - the Quaker who first discovered the secret of Cornwall's rich reserves of China Clay.
It's a beautifully written and evocative book that perfectly captures the tug on your soul from the place you belong to.
halfcentreader's review against another edition
3.0
A lot of historical insight on the environs surrounding Cornwall. I was hoping for more personal anecdotes about the author's journey walking in the area. I gleaned some gems of place to visit during my own time there later in the year. I did enjoy reading this book.
halfmanhalfbook's review against another edition
4.0
The well-known phrase of the estate agent; location, location, location; where the right spot can be very beneficial to your financial position. But in this book, Marsden is looking for something much, much deeper in meaning than that superficial statement, and what he wants to consider is the word place.
Certain places affect people in very different ways, some are what they call home, and that isn’t always where they are currently living, others are where people feel great spiritual meaning or significance. There are places that have a long history of ritual activity, and as he travels around places near his home in Cornwall, he starts to peel back the layers of time, even going as far back as the Mesolithic.
He visits the still visible Neolithic landscape on Bodmin Moor, and with the help of an expert learns what it may have meant to the people then. In Tintagel, home of the Arthurian legends, it is packed full of myths but very little in the way of solid evidence and yet still draws the crowds to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the place. The granite Tors that spike the skyline on the Cornish moors have held men’s gaze for millennia. There is even evidence of bronze age stone rows on the Scilly Isles, the islands far from the end of Cornwall. Lands End too comes under his gaze, it is a more contemporary place, a focus for end to enders these days, but it is a remote place of dramatic cliffs.
It is such a lovely book to read too, not only is the prose careful and measured, almost haunting at times, but he has a way of weaving the history, the landscape and the sacred into a beautifully written book. I like the way that each chapter begins with a place name, a definition and an image to set the scene of the next location; it is a clever addition to the book to set some context.
The evocative way that he describes the landscapes makes you want to go too, absorb the atmosphere as others have done before, and contemplate the personal and real meaning of that place to you. All these places are deeply ingrained in our culture and psyche now, and as much as we have formed them, they have moulded us too.
Certain places affect people in very different ways, some are what they call home, and that isn’t always where they are currently living, others are where people feel great spiritual meaning or significance. There are places that have a long history of ritual activity, and as he travels around places near his home in Cornwall, he starts to peel back the layers of time, even going as far back as the Mesolithic.
He visits the still visible Neolithic landscape on Bodmin Moor, and with the help of an expert learns what it may have meant to the people then. In Tintagel, home of the Arthurian legends, it is packed full of myths but very little in the way of solid evidence and yet still draws the crowds to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the place. The granite Tors that spike the skyline on the Cornish moors have held men’s gaze for millennia. There is even evidence of bronze age stone rows on the Scilly Isles, the islands far from the end of Cornwall. Lands End too comes under his gaze, it is a more contemporary place, a focus for end to enders these days, but it is a remote place of dramatic cliffs.
It is such a lovely book to read too, not only is the prose careful and measured, almost haunting at times, but he has a way of weaving the history, the landscape and the sacred into a beautifully written book. I like the way that each chapter begins with a place name, a definition and an image to set the scene of the next location; it is a clever addition to the book to set some context.
The evocative way that he describes the landscapes makes you want to go too, absorb the atmosphere as others have done before, and contemplate the personal and real meaning of that place to you. All these places are deeply ingrained in our culture and psyche now, and as much as we have formed them, they have moulded us too.
kingjason's review
4.0
I've spent a bit of time in Cornwall, mainly surfing around Newquay...well pretending to anyway as I have no sense of balance. I've not explored much else of it, the problem is it is too far away for a day trip, ya need to go for longer and make a holiday of it, so I tend to visit places closer to home. This book tries to sell Cornwall to the reader, it is an interesting book but it has failed in making me want to go check out these places, I think the only place I would go would be Bodmin moor, the vast emptiness appeals to me.
This book is split in to two different subjects:
1. Exploring Cornwall, it's features, it's people, it's history and it's spirit.
2. Philip Marsden has just bought an old run down house and is trying to bring it back to it's former glory.
At times I wished he hadn't included the bits about his house, he writes these bits with such passion that it makes the rest of it sound dull, more like a collection of his research. His house looks like it is in a lovely spot and it's great the amount of work he invests in the place and as he writes you can feel the spirit returning to the place.
This book is a great place to start if you want to read up on Cornwall, they have had some amazing people in the past, historians starting at such an early age, and some of the most bizarre rock formations in the country.
This book is split in to two different subjects:
1. Exploring Cornwall, it's features, it's people, it's history and it's spirit.
2. Philip Marsden has just bought an old run down house and is trying to bring it back to it's former glory.
At times I wished he hadn't included the bits about his house, he writes these bits with such passion that it makes the rest of it sound dull, more like a collection of his research. His house looks like it is in a lovely spot and it's great the amount of work he invests in the place and as he writes you can feel the spirit returning to the place.
This book is a great place to start if you want to read up on Cornwall, they have had some amazing people in the past, historians starting at such an early age, and some of the most bizarre rock formations in the country.
carolinepmann's review
3.0
Seemed like it lost focus in the middle and became more about random people who had worked in the locations rather than about the locations themselves, but it came back together in the final third.
halfmanhalfbook's review
4.0
The well-known phrase of the estate agent; location, location, location; where the right spot can be very beneficial to your financial position. But in this book, Marsden is looking for something much, much deeper in meaning than that superficial statement, and what he wants to consider is the word place.
Certain places affect people in very different ways, some are what they call home, and that isn’t always where they are currently living, others are where people feel great spiritual meaning or significance. There are places that have a long history of ritual activity, and as he travels around places near his home in Cornwall, he starts to peel back the layers of time, even going as far back as the Mesolithic.
He visits the still visible Neolithic landscape on Bodmin Moor, and with the help of an expert learns what it may have meant to the people then. In Tintagel, home of the Arthurian legends, it is packed full of myths but very little in the way of solid evidence and yet still draws the crowds to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the place. The granite Tors that spike the skyline on the Cornish moors have held men’s gaze for millennia. There is even evidence of bronze age stone rows on the Scilly Isles, the islands far from the end of Cornwall. Lands End too comes under his gaze, it is a more contemporary place, a focus for end to enders these days, but it is a remote place of dramatic cliffs.
It is such a lovely book to read too, not only is the prose careful and measured, almost haunting at times, but he has a way of weaving the history, the landscape and the sacred into a beautifully written book. I like the way that each chapter begins with a place name, a definition and an image to set the scene of the next location; it is a clever addition to the book to set some context.
The evocative way that he describes the landscapes makes you want to go too, absorb the atmosphere as others have done before, and contemplate the personal and real meaning of that place to you. All these places are deeply ingrained in our culture and psyche now, and as much as we have formed them, they have moulded us too.
Certain places affect people in very different ways, some are what they call home, and that isn’t always where they are currently living, others are where people feel great spiritual meaning or significance. There are places that have a long history of ritual activity, and as he travels around places near his home in Cornwall, he starts to peel back the layers of time, even going as far back as the Mesolithic.
He visits the still visible Neolithic landscape on Bodmin Moor, and with the help of an expert learns what it may have meant to the people then. In Tintagel, home of the Arthurian legends, it is packed full of myths but very little in the way of solid evidence and yet still draws the crowds to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the place. The granite Tors that spike the skyline on the Cornish moors have held men’s gaze for millennia. There is even evidence of bronze age stone rows on the Scilly Isles, the islands far from the end of Cornwall. Lands End too comes under his gaze, it is a more contemporary place, a focus for end to enders these days, but it is a remote place of dramatic cliffs.
It is such a lovely book to read too, not only is the prose careful and measured, almost haunting at times, but he has a way of weaving the history, the landscape and the sacred into a beautifully written book. I like the way that each chapter begins with a place name, a definition and an image to set the scene of the next location; it is a clever addition to the book to set some context.
The evocative way that he describes the landscapes makes you want to go too, absorb the atmosphere as others have done before, and contemplate the personal and real meaning of that place to you. All these places are deeply ingrained in our culture and psyche now, and as much as we have formed them, they have moulded us too.
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