Sunday, March 15, 2009

People Who Are From Cornwall

1. John Nettles, future star of Absolutely Bergerac, a dark reimagining of a 1980s Bergerac spinoff series that was never made, also starring Patsy Palmer as Patsy Stone, a jewel thief originally played - with, I feel, a different character name - by Liza Goddard.

(Mr BC maintains the series will be called Bergeracly Fabulous and keeps muttering about format rights.)

2. Jenny Agutter, to whom I once offered a seat on the Truro to Paddington train (she declined).

3. Rosie and the Goldbug, a tip-top indie-pop combo who are responsible for this fabulous slice of early-80s-style electro:



4. Our lovely daughter the Blue Kitten, who is six months old today and has just graduated to apple purée:


5. I can't think of any more. By popular demand, King Arthur, the once and future king. Although, like thingy out of Highlander, King Arthur is really from lots of different places.

6. The Owlman of Mawnan, although he's probably just a big owl.

7. Jethro

8. The Frontier Editor's brother

9. Kristin Scott-Thomas

10. Dolly Pentreath, the vaudeville fisherman/woman

11. That's enough people from Cornwall now - Ed.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a sweetie. She's just adorable.

Ahhh, semi-solid foods. It seems like such a milestone, until you realize just how much bigger the mess has gotten. How much longer lasting, too, because all that stuff stains so much more than milk/formula.

But look how cute and good she is. Definitely worth putting up with the mess and stains.;)

Vicus Scurra said...

I thought that the words for "Teddy Bear's Picnic" included the line:
If you go down in the woods today.
Hardly suitable prandial decoration for an infant, in my view.

Billy said...

What about King Arthur?

Annie said...

damn, Billy beat me to it.

Can she possibly get any cuter? It's quite absurd! Happy 6th months, Blue Kitten.

Geoff said...

No list is complete without Jethro.

Unfortunately.

John Cowan said...

Here's Wikipedia's list; some of them are long-term residents rather than natives. I must admit that I have heard of only a few of them myself, specifically Michael An Gof, Bishop Trelawny, Dolly Pentreath, Captain Bligh, John Couch Adams, Humphry Davy, 'Q', Ken George (alas), Daphne du Maurier, John le Carré, Colin Wilson, John Betjeman, and J. P. Saint Aubyn.

My grandson is almost 9 months and is now devouring such delights as mixed vegetables with oatmeal and mac and cheese, suitably ground up. Five teeth, too!

patroclus said...

Not forgetting the legendary Owlman of Mawnan Smith. Who on earth is Dolly Pentreath, though? He or she sounds like he or she ought to be a vaudeville fisherman or fisherwoman.

Five teeth, eh? We've yet to go through the horror of teething. It can't be far off now, though.

Anonymous said...

My brother is actually a Cornish native, born in Redruth Hospital in 1967.

He didn't choose to keep dual citizenship, though.

Tim F said...

Kristin Scott Thomas is something to be proud of - a rival for Jenny Agutter in the posh Cornish totty stakes.

And then there's Mick Fleetwood.

Oli said...

Are you allowed people who aren't Cornish, but live here? Then you could have Robert McKee, Tori Amos and a bunch of other people who live in a mythical part of Cornwall filled with celebrities and fantasmapotomoses.

p.s. Happy half birthday to Blue Kitten.

p.p.s. The Rosie and the Goldbug album is tops.

patroclus said...

Goodness, how could I have forgotten Kristin Scott-Thomas?

Oli: I thought that Rosie and the Goldbug would be right up your street - but wait a second, aren't you supposed to be on honeymoon?

Jayne said...

You forgot the Beast of Bodmin - you can't just have the big owl, you have to have the slightly larger than average house cat as well.

patroclus said...

Much as I love the cryptids, I think it would be stretching it a bit to categorise either the Beast of Swanpool or the Beast of Bodmin as 'people'.

I ought to do a whole new blogpost called 'Slightly Mysterious Animals That Are From Cornwall', as we mustn't forget Morgawr, the sea-monster of Falmouth Bay.

John Cowan said...

Dolly Pentreath, who died in 1777, was supposedly the last person to actually speak Cornish as a native language. A few Cornish semi-speakers and rememberers (people who recall a few words or phrases from childhood) hung perhaps as late as the end of the 19th century. Since then, there has been a small-scale revival of Cornish, sadly marked by factionalism.

Do check out my original Wikipedia link: there are probably lots of people on it you'll recognize but I (the Token Ignorant Yank of these blog comments) don't have a clue about.

Karen's Mouth said...

Blue Kitten is SO cute. And very photogenic. She has excellent engagement with the camera lens.

Jethro proposed to me once. True story. How different my life would be had I accepted.

Marsha Klein said...

She's gorgeous. Hard to believe it's six months since she first put in an appearance.

Anonymous said...

what a lovely big girl! (and kitten ain't bad either) xxx
(aaaarg! wv: weedri)

Arabella said...

Dolly Penreath is the stacked bird from Poldark, surely?

Anonymous said...

The origins of the name "Cornwall" itself makes for a fascinating tale...

Stef the engineer said...

Good lord. You can blog despite having small child. It's as much as I can do to comment inbetween Tiny Tyrant demands....
She does look cute, 'though.
The word verification thinks she was being fed "womige".

llewtrah said...

Blimey, doesn't time fly! However, she's not blue and not a kitten ....