Women Writing on the Devon Land: A County's Women Who Wrote - circa 1965

C  ... Caribbean Seas at Cheriton Fitzpaine Looking back northward toward Cheriton Fitzpaine from the Raddon ridge Photo Julie Sampson (The Blue Hour: A Portrait of Jean Rhys, by  Lilian Pizzichini) A to Z of Devon places and Devon women writers - B      During the very early 1960's  for almost a couple of years two of the twentieth century's now most famous women writers lived within twenty miles of one another, in mid Devon. One was Sylvia Plath, who moved to North Tawton, in 1961 and left there late 1962; the other, Jean Rhys, who moved to Cheriton Fitzpaine in 1960 and stayed there until her death in 1979. Plath and Rhys are probably the two foremost C20 writers whose Devon home base/place must appear on this A to Z of Devon women writers places. Both authors have drawn countless followers and admirers to seek out their Devon homes and in Rhys' case, grave, in Cheriton's churchyard. One of these visitors remarked that finding the grave

At Brixham 'The merry boats of Brixham Go out to search the seas; A staunch and sturdy fleet are they, Who love a swinging breeze; And before the woods of Devon, And the silver cliffs of Wales, You may see, when summer evenings fall, The light upon their sails'. ( The Wives of Brixham by Menella Bute Smedley)       A to Z of Devon places and Devon women writers - B Excerpt from my poem about Flora Thompson in Brixham B for Brixham Page from Miss Green's Journals 1841 It's unlikely that you reading this don't know of Brixham, in Torbay in the south of Devon. Chances are you may have been there. Brixham is one of the county's prime tourist places as well as one of Devon's most famous fishing towns, In my first post in this A-Z of Devon places and women writers I noted that, as I've trawled the county in search of places associated with various authors, it has often happened that my quest to find one or other writer has coincid