Why we love Fowey

Helen Luther is curator of the

Fowey Museum

I was very little when

I met Daphne du

Maurier. She was my brother’s godmother.

I remember going to Menabilly and playing on Iggy, her husband Tommy’s boat. After reading The Loving Spirit, he sailed up and down the coast to meet this new author! Daphne wrote messages to my dad, who was her doctor and friend. They’re in books that are now on display at the museum. Anne Willmore (below, left) runs the local bookshop Bookends

I came for a day specifically because I was obsessed with Daphne du Maurier. It wasn’t enough – I kept coming back and eventually just moved here. Lynn Gould (right) is a Blue Badge guide

There’s something about Fowey that gets you. Walking the countryside that Daphne du Maurier talks about, you’ll finding it unchanged because it not accessed by motorcar. Pridmouth is exactly as she knew it in the 1930s. Paul Thomas is the harbourmaster When the previous harbourmaster retired, I held the fort. That was six years ago and I’m still here! The deal was that I still get to do the piloting, which I love. Basically I park the ships – that’s what I tell my mum – and then I take them out to sea, get on the pilot boat and come back in. I like the mix of commercial and leisure. It’s nice to see a china clay ship picking its way through a fleet of racing yachts.