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. ( )

is a combination memoir of the author's moving and then renovating a house and his rambles around Cornwall. He's trying to understand the history of the land, the things that make Cornwall, Cornwall. There's a particular focus on the neolithic that I found very interesting, but you also end up learning about more modern things like the china clay trade. If you've liked Marsden's other books or have an interest in Cornwall, this would be worth picking up. ( )

This is a wonderful and surprising book - surprising because finding it on the Library shelves was serendipitous but also because it was well-written and fascinating. I found it hard to put down and have been back to the Library for more of his writing.

Marsden's exploration of place as opposed to space is close to the Maori idea and emphasis on place in New Zealand - having a turangawaewae (a place to stand) and also belonging to a place so that one says this is my maunga (mountain) - this is my awa (river). The idea of locus amoenus - the delightful place, is explored too pp.93-4

My only other encounter with standing stones and megaliths has been visiting the dolmen and menhir of Brittany and Stonehenge circle. His early chapters about the circles and lines of Cornwall were really interesting.

He included just enough personal stuff such as the renovation of the old house they bought at Ardevora, so that the reader learns something of him too. This is cleverly and finely balanced.

He introduced me to three Cornishmen I had not heard of before: Charles Henderson, Peter Lanyon and Jack Clemo. Wonderful stuff! And New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield is mentioned too!!

The maps are great and the index is really useful. A great book! ( )