How to Charm a Wart

"How to Charm a Wart" is an idiosyncratic history of Cornwall, blending legend, fact and anecdote. A focus on a single family lends intimacy to the story - the Angoves have shared Cornwall's fortunes, good and bad, and were eye witnesses to the major events of Cornish history, dating right back to the days of the famous Michael Joseph An Gof, a possible ancestor. Events such as the Cornish uprisings between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries and the hardships of the tin miners during the economic upheavals of the nineteenth century are given freshness and immediacy by being told with excerpts in narrative form. Cornwall's legends and folklore are similarly treated, with re-tellings of myths in the style of a traditional Cornish droll-teller, and instruction on the subjects of dowsing, the curing of ringworm and - of course - how to charm off a wart.