Prideaux Skelton
Tucked away in the southeastern corner of coastal Cornwall, Prideaux-Skelton writes a series of historic novels based on an
intoxicating blend of local history, fact, folklore and hand me down tales from his family, folk entrenched in the area for
centuries.
The series has been written for his daughter, Hermione, to bring the past alive for her, and our future generations, through these extraordinary tales of yesteryear. They are now made available to a wider audience, these new and latest books, effectively replacing any earlier ones.
All the books are based on the lives and times of three principal ancient Cornish families who through marriage and descent all come together in the end, providing a generation, centuries on, with a unique inheritance. This inheritance is an unassuming little box, a ditty box.
For many years dutifully stored, but often neglected by circumstances, the little box nonetheless survives storm, tempest and the ravages of war, before coming to the latest family member.
In the box are several small mementos that in themselves seem of little value other than the nostalgic. The oldest items have an air of unsolved mystery about them and have come with legends that they hold the keys to the restoration of wealth and power long lost by one strand of the family.
The past starts to give up its secrets to the latest recipient of the box and the last piece of a jigsaw begun four centuries earlier slots firmly into place.
Co-incidentally, the prophesies made in the long distant past of the 17th century that told of the coming of a second civil war four hundred years on from the first, come to haunt the present generation. Remarkable predictions from that distant past unfold in the present. They too are forced to choose sides as were their ancestors. This time though they do so with a bequest from the ditty box that takes them to the seat of an ultimate, historic, and timeless, power.
Readers will make the journey from past to present with these family tales. They will be immersed in the excitement and tragedy of a family of smugglers in yesterday’s Cornwall. In contrast they will spend time in the shoes of the County’s gentry and socially elite of their day. Several characters from the past, many little known, live again in the tales. From jewels to duels, the books all come with remarkable folk and events that lead into the present century where history repeats itself, but with very different and unpredictable consequences.
Based on the life and times, rise and fall, of four generations of Hannibal Marks, Cornish smugglers who come to Cawsand, a notorious hotspot of smuggling in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The stories weave an eclectic cocktail of tragedy, romance, murder and more, intertwining with the other books in the wider series. The result is an epic collection, in which the reader is taken back centuries, to wonderfully eccentric, but uncertain times, in the company of little equalled, colourful, characters, but without whom the most valuable clues of the ditty box would never have made it to the 21st century,
Memories of love lost bedevil Hannibal Marks, leading him to leave the old capital of Cornwall to seek out a new life in the coastal Cornwall of the 1700’s. He eventually ends up in Cawsand, a different capital, for it has become the capital of the Cornish smuggling industry, the 'free trade'.
Love is regained for Hannibal, with the intrepid smuggler, Miss Christian Wyvell. She is, however, pursued by a customs man, a preventative man. This man, a riding officer, in the service of the Crown, is jealous for the affections of the rugged and courageous Miss Wyvell. Her marriage to Hannibal antagonises him further, and he awaits the chance to bring his opponent suitor down.
Hannibal and Christian forge a smuggling dynasty in Cawsand, destined to last four generations with lives packed with adventure, danger, romance and tragedy, in equal measure. Hannibal brushes with the gentry and characterful folk of his time. To some he is a heroic saviour to whom they are indebted, and from whom he is gifted a humble item. This item turns out to be the key to hidden wealth from the civil war years of the previous century. The true value of the nostalgic gift is unbeknown to him as it becomes a legacy set to travel the generations before its treasures are unlocked.
The vendetta by the customs preventative men against the Marks smuggling family in Cawsand continues into the next generation. It is fuelled by suspicion and the desire for revenge.
The family are being held responsible for the disappearance of the preventative man, whose obsessive affections for the Marks smuggler, Christian Wyvell, known as the ‘Night Sister’, led to his demise. The preventative man’s son who is also in the employ of the customs service has stepped into his father's shoes and is the one seeking revenge for his death.
The aggressive response by the authorities leads to violent clashes, jailbreaks from the infamous Bodmin jail and more besides. Tools of the trade become not only armed fast vessels, the best of sailors and bravery, but the honey traps and blackmail of the early 19th century against the unsuspecting and lustful clergy.
Against this backdrop, the Marks could have been forgiven perhaps, if the little box of mementos so treasured by the first Hannibal Marks were lost or discarded as the years passed by. Not so, for it contained a playing card that had been gifted to him in unusual circumstances. Suspicion of this had attracted the interest of a prominent smuggling squire and his son from the adjacent county of Devon.
The smuggling squires believe the Marks still have this card and they try all measures to get it. They are convinced this little heirloom, with its letters, shapes and squiggles, present a code written by the dying John Skelton for his son following a duel in the 1600s. They are certain that breaking this code will lead to the Skelton civil war treasures, hidden and long lost.
These strongly knitted events make for a book, following on from "Hannibal Marks, Smugglers' Revenge", that contains and continues all the elements of human emotions. The reader is taken from hate fuelled revenge to passion filled love and lust with lashings of greed and skulduggery.
Curse of the Skeltons is currently being rewritten into two new and expanded volumes but for those who cannot wait there is a single book available in the meantime as detailed below.
Based on the life and times of John Skelton in the 17th century, the stories are set in the aftermath of the English civil war when the Cornish Skelton family return from exile with the restored King, Charles II. One single tragic act of the son of Sir John, also John, changes everything for the family and especially John. His success in a duel to the death starts a feud with a powerful, previously allied, royalist family. This is made the worst because of John’s romantic attachment with one of the daughters of the family, sister to the fallen duellist. This family, the Edgcumbes, now seek revenge for their fallen son who died at the sword of Skelton. In its wake, however, true love comes to John. A peasant girl befriends him when he is a fugitive and his true identity unknown. Eventually forsaking her love for the arms of the wealthy Lady Sewster it is not though the end of the peasant girl, nor is it the end of the feud with the powerful Edgcumbe family. The King remains undecided on the question of pardon.
Romance, tragedy, privilege and unquenchable remorse, all blend together in these tales, exacerbated as the surviving Skeltons are forced once more into exile and battle with the successor King. This time though there is no restoration of the rightful monarch and the fall of the Skeltons begins.
There is a twist in the tale which is destined many centuries hence to see their fortunes change once again. The country is thrown into a Civil War four hundred years after the first. The twist rests on the Skelton treasures that were hidden at the onset of the Civil War as the family left the country for a life of exile.
The locations of the treasures vest secretly in the one surviving son of Sir John Skelton, the infamous duellist of the same name, now Colonel John Skelton. On his death bed he leaves clues for his own son on a humble playing card. The card never reaches him, but remains safe due to an unexpected, unpredictable, series of events, involving the founder of a dynasty of smugglers in Cornwall, Hannibal Marks 1st.
The Curse of the Skeltons is born.
Review this website regularly for the next titles and release dates. The total number of books in the entire series is planned to consist of 6 volumes. The titles are already cast. They too are waiting their time!
Curse of the Skeltons part 1 has been adapted and produced as musical theatre. It was first performed by the Rame Theatre Company, formed specifically to perform the musical in 2023. The two evening performances were provided free for the resident and associated population of the Rame Peninsula, donations to the Church providers of the Hall whose generosity allowed the historic site to be used as a theatre, bringing a lost local story into the village spotlight.
The heritage centre being developed at the Church will have an information panel on the play as a permanent display.
The script and music is available for use by amateur and other theatre groups. Interested parties please email in the first instance.
A musical short story based on the Hopkins family who were passengers to America on the Mayflower sailing ship in 1620. The ship sailed in cramped, difficult and dangerous conditions. The Hopkins were the parents of Oceanus the only child born during the voyage on the high seas of the Atlantic.
The lullaby Oceanus is haunting reflecting the danger they were in and beautifully sung by Liz Sidebotham's (musical composer) daughter, the late Laura Donnelly.
The project was to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower from nearby Plymouth, England. The work was never performed as part of the commemorations due to the pandemic raging at the time. It was transformed into a short play and performed in 2023 at the same event at the Curse of the Skeltons musical theatre (supra).
Ongoing collections of poetry, each poem written as a response to local events, people and changing times. Also, as observations on issues and feelings of a people and commemorations of a way of life under threat in a small Cornish coastal village. Many have been adapted and put to music as songs. Music by composer Elizabeth Sidebotham.
Andy’s middle name, given from his mother’s side, is his writing name. This is in tribute to her lifetime resolve to pass on information and anecdotes of the family history. The ditty box, its contents and symbolism, central to the entire series, was a gift from her.
Watch this space for the writer’s collection of photography, prints, snippets and links of locations and other materials in the novels
Prideaux Skelton Publishing, Cornwall UK: ©2024
www.prideauxskelton.co.uk : prideaux@prideauxskelton.co.uk.
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Snippets from the books, audio and musicals will be on youtube and facebook soon – visit again for details.