It's Festival time!

The two words Kernewek Lowender, mean Cornish happiness and is the name for the biennial Cornish Festival which occurs in the old copper mining towns of Moonta, Kadina and Wallaroo on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula.

It’s a time for Maypole and Furry dancing, singing, wrestling and historic walks, for parades, pasties, poetry and more, all to celebrate the Cornish culture that came to Australia through the early immigrant miners and their families who arrived in sailing ships from Cornwall from 1840's onwards.

I was thrilled to have a special Cornish launch of my historical, children’s novel That boy, Jack, (Walker Books) which is set in the heart of the copper mining region, during this week's festival. And to know that my ancestors were miners who made a new life in South Australia. 

It was made especially memorable because my friend and writing colleague, Rosanne Hawke, herself of Cornish ancestry  and acknowledged as a Bard of Cornwall, launched the book. 

She will also launch it at a city event on Monday, June 10^th, 2013.