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News | Books and Titles | A Cornish Fisherman's Irish Diary | Follow up to a bestselling memoir by Trevor Simpson

A Cornish Fisherman's Irish Diary by Trevor Simpson

– the follow up to a bestselling memoir –

Almost 50 years ago to this day, a Cornish fishing trawler pulled into the harbour of Dunmore East, the famous fishing village on the south-east coast of Ireland. It carried a crew of two, who had just completed a marathon journey across the Irish Sea. Their adventure would be recounted many years later, in all of its heart-stopping detail, in the concluding chapter of a memoir entitled Diary of a Cornish Fisherman: Newquay, 1962-1967. At the time however, author, Trevor Simpson and his crewmate, Martin, would have felt only relief:

I had been staring into a white wall of fog for many hours. I steered my boat, the 35ft M.F.V. Reaper, by her compass. The fog was doing my head in and I fought the pressing urge to sleep. Knowing that I should have made landfall quite a while back proved to me that I was lost, lost in unfamiliar waters. I desperately needed to find a safe harbour before dark …

What awaited the author upon disembarking; what he made of this strange new world called Ireland (and what Ireland made of him) is the subject of a second volume of memoir that is as warm and engaging as the first. The years that followed would prove challenging, perplexing, refreshing and ultimately rewarding. The fact that he found himself in a place that he was pleased to call home for the next fifty years (and beyond) probably speaks for itself. There is more to the story than that, however.

Diary of a Cornish Fisherman: Newquay, 1962-1967 by Trevor Simpson was an instant success upon publication in 2014. Among the glowing reviews, there was a virtual consensus among readers that a sequel would be in order:

Excellent, only wish he had followed it up with how he got on in Ireland. – Peter McGuinness

I would love to know if there is a follow up book about Trevor's time in Ireland, I bet that would be just as interesting! – Simon Neve

That call has been answered and readers now have the chance to judge whether it was worth the wait. Volume II takes up the narrative exactly where the first left off.

A Cornish Fisherman's Irish Diary by Trevor Simpson is published by The Manuscript Publisher and is on sale now. Both volumes in the Cornish Fisherman's Diaries series are available to buy online and all good bookshops. They each retail at €14.99 plus P&P where applicable.