Venus Rocks On Location
Venus Rocks is set in “Pelporth” – which doesn’t actually exist, but is loosely based on Polperro – with a bit of Fowey and Port Isaac (near Padstow) thrown in:
Above: Port Isaac and Polperro street
Above: Polperro Harbour
Fowey and Polperro are on the south coast, near St Austell. These are all well up toward the north of the county, although I actually know the south better: around St Ives, Penzance, St Michael’s Mount, Mousehole… I guess I’ll just have to write another story set there some time!
The Logan Stone mentioned at the beginning is not based on any one particular rock (there are several like it dotted around the country) but it is just the sort of thing you see in Cornwall, and I was inspired by a legend I read about in one of these books:
Here is another Logan stone, on Dartmoor (right)
The Giants’ Quoits are similarly ancient, dramatic rocks that can be found strewn across the landscape.
Bill’s cottage is actually based on a place I saw at Trebarwith Strand, near Tintagel:
The scene where Kitty first sees the Venus is based on this view of Port Isaac:
The Venus itself would look something like this
Much of what happens in the story is inspired by the extraordinary coastline:
The steep climb up the hill leading out towards ‘Bosreath Cove’ was inspired by this one in Polperro (above)
And the scene where Kitty nearly goes over the edge of the cliff was inspired by the giddy feeling I had standing out on this (right):
And then there are the CAVES!
The other steep climb, towards the back of the village and Kernon’s cottage, is based on Fowey, but I don’t have any pictures of that so here’s one of me in Cornwall instead!