Poldark Author Winston Graham

TV reporter Mike Whitmarsh meets the author of the Poldark novels Winston Graham to discuss the publication of a new book entitled Poldark’s Cornwall with photos by Simon McBride. Winston Graham is best loved for the Poldark Saga of 12 novels written in longhand over 57 years and serialised for television twice in 1975 and 2015. The novelist however described himself as the most successful unknown novelist in England. Winston Graham lived in Perranporth from 1925 to 1959.

It was reported that Cornwall changed the times of church services to view Poldark on Sunday evenings in 1975. The country swooned over Robin Ellis’ portrayal of the nation’s favourite tin mine owner Ross Poldark and his lower class wife Demelza Rose played by Angharad Rees whose character is purported to be based on Graham’s wife. A 2015 serialisation starring Aiden Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson has revamped Poldark for modern audiences but was had up for portraying scything incorrectly! Graham rose to fame when his 1961 novel Marnie was tuned into an Oscar-winning film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1964. Chair of the Society of Authors and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was awarded an OBE in 1983.