A review by snoakes7001
Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place by Philip Marsden

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.