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The Crediton Quest - an Excerpt

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The Crediton Quest 'The white crescent moon there up in the south, set within a plume of rosaceous sky high behind the moor, broods over the silhouette of the crepuscular grey and silvery tors. How many early missionaries exalting in the exact same sight tracked back and forwards on the tracks mazing across these western Wessex lands?' See Excerpt 4 from Writing Women on the Devon Land on the blog page  The Crediton Quest

Mid-Devon; Spirit of Place & Plath & Pedler

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Mid-Devon; Spirit of Place & Plath & Pedler North of North Tawton  'This topographical heartland of Devon’s palimpsest of invisible and lost criss-crossing labyrinthine landscapes and texts happens also to be the focal point of several of Devon’s foremost and famous literary sites. North Tawton is a place of pilgrimage for writers seeking other famed writers, for it is where the literary couple Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath spent the last years of their marriage.' See Extract 3 from  Writing Women on the Devon Land on the Blog-page - Mid-Devon; Spirit of Place & Plath & Pedler Near Roman road south of North Tawton See also From the Devon Ridge Where a Book Began

The Canon - or Not? An Excerpt

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'The recognised notion of the literary history of southwest England’s C19/early C20 texts is of a distinctly male lineage, and indeed even now the prevailing view is that the ‘Victorian manuscript of the Westcountry' [i] was written in the context of a patriarchal culture'. Extract 1 The Canon - or Not?  From  Writing Women on the Devon Land See The Canon - or Not?  Cover of Williamson's Tarka the Otter See also From the Devon Ridge Where a Book Began

Skipping Qs or Rs, but Spending Time down in Sampford Peverell - Looking for Mid-Devon's Literary Links with a King's Mother

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Writing Women on the Devon Land  A – Z of Devon Women Writers & Places Sampford Peverell Church & Richmond House once home of Margaret Beaufort Photo Julie Sampson Skipping Qs or Rs,  but Spending Time down in Sampford Peverell -  Looking for Mid-Devon's Literary Links with a King's Mother         For the first time, I'm a little stuck in this A-Z. If anyone out there knows about a link between a woman writer and a Devon parish beginning with Q or R (she should have been living in any period ending 1965 or so - the time period of Writing Women on the Devon Land ), well please do get in touch. She may have lived in the parish, or have written about the place or indeed stayed there at some point. I may have to give up with Q (Queen's Nympton? ) but R might be possible - Rackenford, Romansleigh, Rose-Ash?  Lady Margaret Beaufort Unidentified painter [Public domain]        So, given the above comments, I've decided

Plymouth's Literary Past in the Writing of its Women

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Plymouth Hoe and Smeaton's Tower cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Ian Capper - geograph.org.uk/p/4651696 Women Writing on the Devon Land A – Z of Devon Women Writers & Places Plymouth's Literary Past in the Writing of its Women Early Plymouth Radicals           Yes, I know I could have chosen Paignton, Pinhoe or Princetown as the parish to represent P in this A – Z of Devon’s Women Writers (up to ca. 1965). There’s a cluster of women linked with these places whose lives and writings could be included. But really, it had to be Plymouth. Or, rather, given its important place in Devon’s history and the fact that it is the second largest city in the south-west, Plymouth could not be left out. Over the years (and up until circa 1965) plenty of women writers have lived or written about Plymouth and its surrounding area. I’ve already mentioned a few in passing in previous blog posts - see Frances Gregg, the War and The Mystic Leeway The Parker Circle of Saltra