Between, Beneath and Beyond the Towans📚🌊

Where It All Began

Writing in the Towans is so special to me. It always has been.

I grew up visiting Beachside as a child — running across the dunes, watching the St Erth train curve towards St Ives, feeling that mix of freedom and calm that only seems to exist by the sea. I didn’t know then that this coastline was quietly shaping me. I just knew I loved it.

If you’d told me back then that I’d grow up to write novels set here, I would have laughed. I never expected to be a writer. I didn’t have a grand plan. But this coastline just kept giving. It gave me quiet when I needed quiet. It gave me space when life felt overwhelming. It gave me perspective standing on the dunes looking across to Godrevy Lighthouse, that white line against the sky.

From Beneath the Towans’ Sky:

“Godrevy Lighthouse stood clear against the horizon, a stark white sentinel.”

That wasn’t imagination. That was a view I’ve stood in front of countless times.

The Walks That Shaped the Story

At low tide you can walk into Hayle along the beach or follow the King George V Memorial Walk beside the estuary. I’ve taken that walk so many times. The light shifts across the water. Birds skim the mudflats. Everything feels slower somehow. Copperhouse Pool has always felt like a pause. The tide gathers there. The water waits.

From Beneath the Towans’ Sky:

“Across at Copperhouse Pool, the water had that patient, held-back look it gets when it’s waiting to be let through…”

And of Phillack:

“Phillack sat just beyond, its church tower stubborn above the marram…”

Those places aren’t just scenery in a book. They’re part of the rhythm of living here.

Another passage that feels especially close to home:

From Beneath the Towans’ Sky:

“This patch—Copperhouse Pool spread like a shallow palm, the Towans rising beyond it in their long, pale shoulders…”

That image isn’t imagined. It’s walked.

Homes Between the Dunes

When I wrote Between the Towans, the Dune Lodges were inspired by real stays tucked into the sand.

From Between the Towans:

“The Dune Lodges were marketed as ‘eco-luxury retreats nestled between Gwithian Towans and the vast Hayle estuary.’”

I’ve had mornings there with a cup of tea on decking boards, wind moving through the grasses, notebook open.

Iris’ parents’ cottage grew from the kind of homes that sit quietly between the dunes.

From Between the Towans:

“The cottage between the dunes had been built by her grandparents, its low ceilings and salt-stung windows holding generations of stories in their beams.”

And:

“The house sat slightly bowed into the wind, as though it had learned long ago not to fight the weather but to bend with it.”

That feels like Cornwall to me. Homes here don’t resist the elements. They live with them.

Winter Towans

As I’ve been writing Beyond the Towans’ Tide, I’ve found myself drawn to the Towans in winter.

Not postcard-pretty. Honest. Raw.

From Beyond the Towans’ Tide:

“The frost had feathered along the marram grass and stitched white seams into the dunes as the sun rose…”

And:

“The river ran dark and sure, banked by the Towans’ winter shapes.”

And:

“The heavy rains had transformed Pale Beach as he knew it, the shifting Towans carving deep, dangerous channels out into the sand.”

Winter reshapes everything here. The dunes move. The sea redraws its lines.

Godrevy in winter carries a different energy too.

From Beyond the Towans’ Tide:

“Godrevy Lighthouse stood stark white against the charcoal skies…”

The Coastline Beyond One Beach

The stories don’t stay neatly within one stretch of sand.

From Between the Towans:

“Of course. He’s off at Mutton Cove for a wildlife shoot but will be back later. You’d be welcome to pop by for a cuppa if you’re free,” Iris said, her voice gentle, something intimate and friendly threaded through it.

The coastline stretches. It connects. From Mexico Towans to Riviere Towans. From Phillack to Godrevy. From Copperhouse Pool to Mutton Cove.

It all finds its way in.

I Never Expected This

When I began Between the Towans, I didn’t realise I was beginning a trilogy.

Between the Towans became about finding connection. Beneath the Towans’ Sky became about weathering storms. Beyond the Towans’ Tide is about building something that lasts.

I didn’t plan those themes. They grew from loving this place.

More than the views, more than the dunes and the estuary and the lighthouse, it’s the community I love most. The Hayle community. The local businesses. The encouragement from Hayle Bookshop and the lodges I have stayed in. The warmth of people who say “keep going” when you’re not sure you can.

I never expected to be a writer.

But I fell in love with a coastline.

And somewhere between, beneath and beyond the Towans, stories found me.

And I am so grateful they did 🌊🤍

Bren xoxo