CORNISH BOOKS
It happened at Zennor...
- THE TREGERTHEN HORROR
-
Aleister
Crowley, D. H. Lawrence
- & Peter Warlock in Cornwall
- PAUL
NEWMAN
- (signed or inscribed by the author if required)
- Buy Now for £12 (Special Offer)
SUMMARY
An offbeat investigation into
the unexpected death of Katherine Arnold-Forster that took place in May
1938, in the remote hamlet of Tregerthen, near Zennor. The material is
unusual and dramatic, covering magic, spying, the Walton murder and
centreing on the exploits Aleister Crowley, D.H. Lawrence, Cecil Gray and
Peter Warlock, but also including Dylan Thomas, Mary Butts and many
well-known writers, mystics and painters. The result of a long and
difficult investigation by the author, it is culturally fascinating and
will appeal to a very wide readership, showing what lay behind the
feverish speculation and introducing a host of outrageous, talented
personalities who dropped in on the Cornish scene. It will tell you many
things you didn't know and quite a few others that defy the imagination
Outline
Prior to the World War 2, West Cornwall generated a number of
stories of a sinister occult nature. Foremost among them was that the
Great Beast, Aleister Crowley, stayed at Zennor and founded a mainly
female cult who danced naked around stone circles, took powerful narcotics
and held orgies up on the moor. This was spread by word of mouth and by
numerous 'horror' fictions penned by writers like A.L. Rowse, Denys Val
Baker, Mary Williams and Frank Baker (who wrote a bizarre roman
à clef on the subject). Some maintained this decadent coven was
directly or indirectly responsible for the death of Katherine Arnold
Forster, the former sweetheart of the poet, Rupert Brooke, who died in
mysterious circumstances at an allegedly 'haunted' cottage near Zennor
Carn in 1938.
In THE TREGERTHEN HORROR, these so-far unsubstantiated rumours are
the subject of meticulous investigation by Paul Newman. Initially alerted
by an anecdote (preserved in literature and living memory) of Crowley's
influence tragically affecting the lives of a young couple who were living
at Zennor, he starts out asking sceptically, "Why has no biographer
ever taken this seriously?" But then he meets people who retain a
living memory of the incident and is surprised to discover the association
with Aleister Crowley and magical activities in Zennor date back to 1917
and the entourage of D.H. Lawrence which included the brilliant yet highly
volatile musician, Philip Heseltine, and the babbling psychotherapist and
ex-Crowley disciple, Meredith Starr, and his black wife, Lady Mary
Stamford, both of whom fasted and undertook occult experiments in mines.
Also present was the composer, Cecil Gray, who thought the region a
'spiritual black country'. Yet he managed to lure the poetess HD away from
her husband and into the large house he rented there, resulting in the
birth of a child, Perdita, who Gray quickly disowned. Both Gray and
Heseltine later became involved with Crowley's drug-set and performed
rituals to ensure the music they composed should attain the immortality
they thought it deserved.
THE TREGERTHEN HORROR traces
their personal histories, their occult and spiritualist obsessions, in and
out of Cornwall, along with those of another group who gathered around
Mousehole prior to World War 2 - literary notables like Dylan Thomas,
Oswell Blakeston, Frank Baker and artists like Greta Sequeira and the
bohemian hostess, Wyn Henderson. Tracing their pre-war and post-war lives,
it lays bare a series of fantastic incidents involving a society scandal,
a haunted cottage, a tragic death, a chronic case of insanity, wartime
skulduggery and the sensational Walton Murder that was investigated by
Fabian of the Yard.
Over all this intrigue looms the
shadow of the 20th century Faust, Aleister Crowley whose magnetic
malevolence sprawls and dominates the scene. Initially drawn to the Duchy
by his young mistress and illegitimate son, Ataturk, his presence provokes
gossip and unease amid the locals. Yet, oddly enough, after his death, his
magical impedimenta finds its way back to Cornwall by way of the former
spymaster, Cecil Williamson, who opened a Museum of Witchcraft at
Boscastle.
Author
Editor of the literary magazine
‘Abraxas’ and author of a definitive ‘History of Terror’ and many
other titles, Paul Newman’s writings have received much acclaim. His
recent novel Galahad (2004) won the Peninsula Prize.
Book
The Tregerthen Horror is printed
as a large (8.5 by 11 inches) soft back and is nearly 200 pages long, with
many black and white photographs, printed for the first time. Presently it
is a small exclusive edition available from the Lulu website and nowhere
else.