A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE...

There was an impressive collection of reading material in the cottage we stayed in last week - just the thing if the weather was less than clement.  But fortunately for us the weather was kind and so I never got a chance to finish reading this book - 101 Cornish Lives by Maurice Smelt.  It is what it says on the cover - a wry, honest look at the lives of 101 Cornish people who have made varied contributions to that far off county, the wider UK and the rest of the world.

On our last evening there, I had just finished reading about Andrew Pears, he of transparent soap fame, born in Mevagissey in 1765, when it was time to pack and get ready for the morning`s 300-mile journey home.  I missed reading about most of the 101 lives and, for a fleeting moment I contemplated stealing the book and taking it home with me.

But, as ever, my conscience got the better of me and so I took down details of the publisher (Alison Hodge, residing in a part of Cornwall I know well) and vowed to try and track down what I imagined to be this rather obscure volume when I got home.   Not for the first time, Amazon came up trumps and the book arrived today, confirming the wisdom of my decision to eschew petty theft and knowing that I can, after all, return to that Cornish cottage with a clear conscience.