The Serpentine Cave

by Jill Paton Walsh

After her mother dies, Marian's search for her unknown father leads her to the coast of Cornwall, where she finds that her heritage and her mother's art are closely tied to St. Ives's biggest tragedy, the fishing boat disaster of 1939.

Genres: Novels, Fiction

223 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Jill Paton Walsh was born Gillian Bliss in London on April 29th, 1937. She was educated at St. Michael's Convent, North Finchley, and at St. Anne's College, Oxford. From 1959 to 1962 she taught English at Enfield Girls' Grammar School.

Jill Paton Walsh has won the Book World Festival Award, 1970, for Fireweed; the Whitbread Prize, 1974 (for a Children's novel) for The Emperor's Winding Sheet; The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award 1976 for Unleaving; The Universe Prize, 1984 for A Parcel of Patterns; and the Smarties Grand Prix, 1984, for Gaffer Samson's Luck.

Series:
* Imogen Quy
* Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light enjoyable story of a woman finally finding herself after the sudden death of her mother. It is nicely written with well rounded characters and believable dialogue.
Most of all though I enjoyed the setting in Cornwall, England. I spent many childhood holidays there and mentions of Hayle, Slapton Sands and Gwithian amongst others brought back happy memories. The author must have spent a lot of time there too because her descriptions of St Ives and its surrounds are spot on.
Read for a challenge but it was still a few hours well spent:)

[Robin Rowland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book years ago in England to read on a train and loved it immediately. Just finished rereading it and still love it. The seaside atmosphere will appeal to almost every reader who lives or works by the ocean, but may not appeal to others who aren't stimulated by the slightest whiff of salt sea air. It's a story of a sort of an everyday English family who discovered a long last past when their mother/grandmother Stella dies and they never knew she was a prominent artist in her youth. That discovery sets the three, mother Marion, son Toby and daughter Alice on a journey back to St. Ives in Cornwall to discover her artistic heritage and find out her possible involvement in a famous incident involving a failed rescue at sea (a fictionalized account of an actual incident in St. Ives in 1939 when the town's volunteer Lifeboat was lost during that rescue.) That disaster still haunts the town years later (the book is set in the 1990s). One reason is that for a couple of years I volunteered for the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue until age and health reasons made me drop out, so I have some understanding of the importance of marine rescue volunteers. Although Marian is the main character, the most fascinating character is actually the son Toby, who worked in finance and thought he wanted to get rich but actually finds his real self unexpectedly on that journey. In fact, would love to read a sequel about how Toby has fared in the past two decades.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jill Patton Walsh is a terrific story teller. She knows how to interject characters and weave them into her stories throughout the entire book. This is a story of a grown woman Marian, a daughter, who holds deep resentments for her mother. The mother used painting as an escape and moved them around constantly.She never knew the identity of her father. She felt lost and resentful. Things get complicated when the mother suffers a serious stroke from which she never recovers and dies shortly thereafter. Her own children join her after their grandmother's stroke and offer support. Many of the best painting her mom did were from St Ives in Cornwall so she sets off to try to figure out whence she came and who her father was. The story is told with feeling and in the end she comes to realize what both her mom had lost long ago and how her resentments had caused her to loose precious time with her mother.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

'The Serpentine Cave' by Jill Paton Walsh started well; Marion's mother dies and Marion regrets not asking her more about the father she never knew who she was told 'died in the war'. This shortish story follows Marion and her children in their search for her roots. Paton Walsh's strength is in her lovely descriptive prose and she is in her element describing St Ives and the Cornish coast, and the history of the artist's colony there in the 1930s. The story unfolds slowly and is quite gripping, but in the end I felt disappointed. Marion's mother comes across as a careless, dismissive and quite obnoxious mother and, as a reader, you want to know the reason for this. Yet after the denoument when we have learnt all there is to know about Marion's mother and father, I couldn't understand why the author had made her like this. It didn't make sense to me; from what we learnt of her situation I would have thought she would have been caring and loving. So it was all a bit of a letdown.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanted a quick read after being immersed in the world of the Plantagenets. This is a re-read of a book I purchased and read many, many years when we were on holiday in Cornwall. I like to buy books which are set in the area where we are holidaying and much of this book is set in and around St Ives which we know well.
When Marion's mother is struck by a stroke and dies, Marion realises she has left it too late to find out more about her childhood and most importantly, who her father was. The only clue she is left with is a portrait of a young man and she is encouraged by Leo (who enters her life on her mother's death) along with her son and daughter to go down to St Ives to find out more.
She finds that her past is linked to a past lifeboat tragedy, finds the answers and peace she needs and is reconciled with her view of her mother therefore able to move forward with her life.

[The Idle Woman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

There’s always a frisson of excitement when you come across a ‘new’ book by an author you like. Jill Paton Walsh’s Knowledge of Angels is one of my all-time favourite novels, as many of you will probably know, and so I was excited when J gave me this novel, which he’d unearthed in a second-hand bookshop and which I’d never heard of before. It’s very different in spirit – a tale of quiet, private truths rather than the epic resonances of Knowledge of Angels – but it’s nevertheless a moving tale of a woman trying to piece together her identity from the fragments left behind on her mother’s death...

For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/04/16/t...

[A J HOOPER · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just re-read this tale of St Ives, while sitting in my cottage behind Porthmeor Beach. Jill Paton Walsh lyrically paints a verbal portrait of this small fishing village in the Serpentine Cave, exceptionally popular with artists because of the extraordinary quality of its light. Surrounded on two of it's three sides by the sea the air sparkles, bouncing off the waves and over the town.
This is the tale of a newly berieved daughter who speeds down to St Ives in an attempt to find out who is her father. She's accompanied by her grown up son and daughter, both with problems they leave behind in London. And the tale turns into an emotional detective story with its roots in the true story of a famous St Ives lifeboat disaster. I'm glad to have re-read.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book grew and grew on me from what felt like a slow start. By the end I felt strong empathy with the main character and, interestingly enough, her mother who dies in the first chapter and whose life we learn most about. While those two main characters felt satisfyingly rounded, the son and daughter of the main character who also had short POV sections, didn't. However the writing is beautiful and - there is one of those rare things happening here - a strong ending.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

2026.27: Lovely book; everything you want in a library read. The cover and title drew me in to one of my favorite places. A bit of mystery and memory wrapped around a good story. I agree—the light is enchanting. A photo I took of the light in Hepworth’s studio hangs in my library.

[Kelly Maust · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous writing. Kind of like a British The Dutch House.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evocative setting and skillful telling of a woman attempting to find the identity of her father after her mother’s death. It’s a discovery of more than that, of course.

[laurel jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

very moving and thoughtful

[Sebastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read but something was missing for me. Depth maybe? Something... just... more? I liked the setting and the writing style but the story itself felt a bit disjointed.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serpentine here refers to a kind of colored stone, not winding, as in a staircase. Marian returns to Cornwall after her artist mother’s death to try to find her father, whose identity she does not know. Alice and Toby, her adult children, accompany her. In the process the kids find out what they want out of life and Marian finds closure on a horrifying experience that she had had as a child in the serpentine cave. Local color is done well. The story uses as one theme an historic storm in 1939 when a lifeboat went out to help rescue a ship, but capsized and almost all hands were lost.

[Robert Ditterich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, this is a literary sort of story, but not a heavy one. Outwardly the narrative is about family, love and loss, but it is rich in Cornish history and culture- in particular the influx of artists into the town of St.Ives by the end of the 1930's in tandem with the depletion of fish to be caught, and jobs to be had, and there are plenty of references to the arts, as well as the old traditions of the fishing life.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Serpentine Cave is a beautifully written story about a middle aged woman's search for her unknown father. Set in Cornwall, this novel evokes the spirit of this special region of England, and is a lovely study of a woman's search for her self in the context of her own past and that of her homeland.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very pleasing rainy weekendy kind of book.

[Barbara Guner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, I think reading the instructions for my dishwasher is more entertaining than this book! A mixture between Enid Blyton and Woman's Own....

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

O.K., but...

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story based on a true event.

[Yasmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read. ... reading it again.

[Caroline Cassell · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovely book with good descriptions of Cornwall. a lot of what ifs and some slightly implausible scenarios