Talland Bay: the setting of "The Letter

Talland Bay: The Letter

Talland Bay, just a short distance from Polperro, is a place that holds a quiet magic for me for as it's here that my novel The Letter is set.

The novel began with my discovery of a small, dented 1914 tobacco tin—inside, a collection of faded sepia photographs and a handful of letters. These were the last remnants of a love story that had lasted a lifetime. The tin had belonged to my great-aunt, Ella Hills, who had kept these items for years, unable to let go of the memory of a lost love. These treasures, unearthed while sorting through family belongings, sparked something deep within me.But the part of the research that truly fascinated me was uncovering the real stories of people like my great-aunt Ella.

I could feel her presence as I worked on this novel—urging me to tell her story and the stories of so many young women like her who never truly let go of their lost loves. My great-aunt’s refusal to believe that her fiancé, Arthur, had died in the war and her search for him throughout her life became the heart of The Letter. The War Memorial on the cliffs between Looe and Polperro which bears the names of those lost during both world wars (names belonging to families still residing in the area) was also a springboard to imagining the people who had lived here then and I began to wonder about their stories.

The Letter is a deeply personal novel for me, and it was as if the past and the present blended together as I wrote. My great-aunt’s story, though now slipping into history, lives on in the pages of this book. Chloe’s discovery of her own grief, much like Ella’s, uncovers a long-forgotten love story, and in doing so, sheds light on the unspoken losses many of us carry with us, sometimes for a lifetime.

The Letter is a story about the tenacity of love and the strength of the human spirit in the face of loss, conflict, and the passage of time. It follows the journey of Chloe Pencarrow, a young widow in the 21st century, and Kit Rivers, a young poet who fought in World War I and was caught up in a secret love affair.

The sense of the ancient over-layering the new is ingrained Talland Bay. The cliffs, the smooth pebbles of the beach, the ever-changing light—this place has an undeniable, quiet power that feels timeless. When I gaze out to the sea, I feel as though I’m connecting with something that’s always been. It has a way of feeding into the emotional depth and historical richness that I wanted for The Letter with its themes of loss and life and eternal love. The church by the bay, the war memorial with the names of local soldiers, the secret beach, the legends of smugglers and drowned brides all evoke a sense of history that shaped the story in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. I spent a lot of time walking the cliff path between Looe and Polperro and planning the story.

I also visited several key locations to help bring the story to life, including Lanhydrock House in Cornwall – the Tommy Robartes room set out with his trunk packed for WW1, and Cothele House. Both served as inspiration for Rosecraddick Manor in the book and allowed me to travel back in time to the world of WW1 Cornwall.