A Millstone Round my Neck........

................. by Norman Thelwell.

This is a book that I picked up at a second-hand book sale last October. It looked very familiar - but I never know with old country books if it's because we had a copy or because we sold  a copy at the local Country Shows (we bought and sold second hand farming and country side books for 3 or 4 years in the early 2,000's). I was pleased to find when I got home that it wasn't in my book-of-books-read.

A Millstone Round My Neck is the story of the restoration of an old watermill and mill house in Cornwall during the late 1960's and early 70's.

Thelwell was an author, landscape artist, cartoonist and illustrator best know for his books of pony cartoons.

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Norman Thelwell was born in 1923 and after some time in the army he took a degree in art and became a teacher. He then went freelance as a regular contributor to Punch magazine. His first book  of cartoons was published in 1957.

He was very interested in architecture and old buildings and in the late 1960's he and his wife bought Addicroft Mill near Liskeard in Cornwall, an old disused water mill, mill house and some derelict cottages, for £4,250. In the book the mill is called Penruin.

They spent several years restoring first the mill house and then the mill. The book tells the story of the restoration, the unhelpful builders and the awful weather. All complemented by his line drawings.

Then there are many stories about his visits there for fishing with a group of fishing friends, for painting with a group of painting friends and with his family.

By the time the book was published in 1981 they had already sold the mill and house and bought and restored a house in Hampshire, which he wrote about in 'A Plank Bridge by a Pool' published in 1978. He lived in Hampshire for the rest of his life and died in 2004.

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Sue

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