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Books

The bonkers (and not-so-bonkers) theories of what the pre-historic people of Cornwall believed

A review of Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of the Place, by Philip Marsden. A fascinating book about the human endeavour to make meaning of life

18 October 2014

9:00 AM

18 October 2014

9:00 AM

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

Granta, pp.348, £20, ISBN: 9781847086280

Philip Marsden’s book is about place. He makes a distinction between place and space. In his mind ‘place’ is something resonant, evoking a connection with the land and its meaning.

Marsden is obsessed with pre-history and the beliefs and practices of the earliest inhabitants of Cornwall. He cites with approval someone’s judgment that written history is a palimpsest and he is demonstrably eager to see what was written over.

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