The fascinating and tragic story of J.T. Blight has captured the imagination of writers and artists over many years. Library member Patricia Wilson Smith has written the second instalment of a blog for us about how Blight‘s story has inspired her…

The frontispiece to ‘A Week at the Lands End’ – Could that be JTB, seated behind the couple in the foreground, intently sketching the scene?

I’ve broadened my research, visiting Kresen Kernow, the Cornwall archive at Redruth, to view two letters from St Lawrence’s Hospital, (formerly Bodmin Asylum): letters replying to an enquiry from a member of the Helston Old Cornwall Society in 1968.  The first letter, dated 5th February 1968 confirms –

‘He was admitted from 16 Morrab Place, Penzance…He was described as single, 32 (sic) years of age, and his occupation was Artist, FSA. Author. The supposed cause of his illness was stated to be overwork and overexcitement about a book he was writing’.

The second letter, one week later, raises an interesting question: 

‘He was admitted on 25th May, 1871, he was classified as a Private Patient and the Form of Guarantee…was for one month only. However, from the correspondence it would appear that interested people or relatives were making arrangements for a further Guarantee of a longer duration…’ 

The ‘Form of Guarantee’ referred to a payment of 16 shillings for board and maintenance not exceeding one month. Whoever the interested parties were, they were successful, and Blight never escaped the confines of the asylum. 

A subsequent visit to the Archive enabled me to view the Order for the Reception of a Private Patient, signed by John Blight’s father on 22 May 1871, before he was to travel by train, accompanied by two attendants, to Bodmin Asylum.  Robert Blight stated that JTB had been ‘getting worse for nearly three years’, that he supposed the cause to be overwork, and that he had ‘lately been using threats of violence’. One wonders what was so disturbing this gentle, refined and talented artist, who was now described as suffering from delusions by the two medical professionals who signed the certificate confirming him to be of unsound mind.

© patricia wilson smith 2025

The fascinating and tragic story of J.T. Blight has captured the imagination of writers and artists over many years. Library member Patricia Wilson Smith writes for us about how Blight‘s story has inspired her…

The Morrab Library has a close connection with JTB. Many of his drawings, paintings, sketchbooks and notebooks are held in the Library archive, as well as copies of his books. I wondered if these might give me an insight into his life, as well as providing rich visual material. I have to thank Lisa Di Tommaso for her advice on books to read and guidance with the archive. My first visit impressed on me the unique value of archives: I was acutely aware of handling delicate and fragile documents and drawings that had been created by JTB nearly 200 years ago. 

This little watercolour is in one of JTB’s Bodmin notebooks: it shows the drawing room used by gentleman ‘residents’ at Bodmin Asylum and was made during his first summer there in 1871.

As I learn more about Blight, I discover that his story was complicated, and poignant. He has been written about sympathetically, and the most recent biographical account The Dust of Heroes, (2006) written by Selina Bates and Keith Spurgin painstakingly describes the arc of his life in Penzance, and the circumstances that combined to bring about his incarceration in Bodmin Asylum at the age of 36. 

John Blight’s story has the ingredients of a Victorian tragedy along the lines of Chatterton. But, unlike Chatterton, Blight died in obscurity at the age of 75. Several of his contemporaries who enjoyed public acclaim (James Halliwell, for example, and William Borlase) did so by relying heavily on Blight’s artistic talents, his passion for detail and his wide archaeological knowledge, and it appears that long before his death in 1911, his drawings, engravings and writing found their way into the hands of those who profited from them much more than he was ever able to.

This March, Book Artist and PhD Researcher at Falmouth University, Vicki Aimers, will be returning to The Morrab for a week’s Artist Residency exploring textile stories in West Cornwall.

Her Residency will be titled ‘A Guiding Hand’ and draws directly from the Library’s collection using this photograph from our Photo Archive as the starting point. It depicts a late 19th-century governess to the Chown family, Marion Ash, sitting on a garden bench with the children. 

Dolly and Jack Chown with Marion Ash learning to sew in the garden.

Vicki says “Marion’s story provides insight into the often-overlooked experiences of governesses, touching on themes of emotional labour, isolation, and liminality. Inspired by these photographs, I will create a series of artist books that blend historical research with creative interpretation, bringing hidden narratives like Marion’s to light and encouraging public engagement with this rich archival material.” 

Her PhD research focuses on the private education available to girls in Cornwall during the century, before the establishment of the Board and National Schools. 

Ahead of her residency, Vicki is inviting members of The Morrab Library to delve into their attics and family archives to share stories, memories and examples of any family samplers. 

She is particularly interested in those made in West Cornwall over the past century and is encouraging members to get in touch with her via email (vickiaimers@btinternet.com) or Instagram (@vicki_aimers). She would love to hear the stories of these special pieces of textiles in your life ahead of, and throughout her Residency (11th-15th March 2025).

We will be sharing more information about her Residency over the coming weeks but there will be workshops, a children’s activity, a talk, and more. We’ll share more information on these specific events soon.

Our first card shows a snowy Quay Street in Penzance in the 1950s, an image from our historic Photo Archive collection. The emulsion damage to the negative serves to enhance the chilly atmosphere in this photo. This card is now sold out.

Our next is a more recent, and quite rare, image of the library surrounded by snow, captured by our library assistant Harriet on the 18th January this year

Harriet also created our third card, The Morrab Gardens Christmas cats, inspired by our oft-seen furry visitors! This card is now sold out.

Library Assistant James has also contributed a design, inspired by a Christmas card in our Lamorna Birch scrapbook collection, an exciting new donation to the Photo Archive in 2024. This card is now sold out.

Every month at The Morrab Library we host talks in the Reading Room for library members and non-members alike. The programme is as eclectic as the Library’s collection – from stories of standing stones to the Bumblebees of Cornwall – and meander through Literature, Poetry, Art, Geology and a host of other fascinating subjects in between. 

Often, the writers, academics, poets and artists we invite to speak at the Library generously let us record their talk so we can share them with a wider audience online. You can browse the selection of recorded talks here.

Some of our brilliant speakers also use the Library’s archive, newspaper and book collections for their own research. We like to share a “Reading List” to go with each talk recording, in case you would like to follow up on the talk by borrowing related titles from the Library or delving into our archives. 

In October 2024, Jak Stringer gave a light-hearted, multi-media performance delving into the writer Wilkie Collins’ formative years and his rambles around Cornwall. 

After discovering that Wilkie Collins had toured Cornwall in 1850 and written a travel journal, Jak Stringer felt inspired to follow in his footsteps. She wanted answers to questions; why did the people of Looe eat rats, the women of Saltash clean boots and the folk on Scilly never open windows. 

Reading List

Rambles Beyond Railways; Notes in Cornwall Taken A-Foot by Wilkie Collins – Non-fiction – Jenner Room. 

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins – Fiction (fiction can be found in the room with the Reception desk).
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins – Fiction
The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins – Fiction
No Name by Wilkie Collins – Fiction

The following suggestions are not currently part of the library’s collection but if you have a copy that you would like to donate to us then please email enquiries@morrablibrary.org.uk. They may be available to borrow from the public library too. 

Wilkie Collins A Life of Sensation by Andrew Lycett
Brief Live: Wilkie Collins by Melisa Klimaszewski

Jak has also share a couple of useful websites to refer to. 

Wilkie Collins Info Pages

Wilkie Collins Society 

On Saturday 26th November we announced the winners of the Patricia Eschen Prize for Poetry 2024.  The overall competition was judged by award-winning poet Katrina Naomi and the new Sonnet Prize was judged separately by Jodie Hollander, who is based in Arizona.  You can read more about the judges here and read the full shortlist here but we’d like to tell you more about the competition winners this year.  

Miruna Fulgeanu is a Romanian-born poet and translator based in London. Her work has appeared in Poetry London, The Yale Review, perverse, The Rialto, Berlin Lit and Basket among others. She is the winner of the 2023 Oxford Poetry Prize, and a member of the Southbank Centre New Poets Collective 2024-25.

Julio Trujillo was born in Mexico City in 1969. He has been a publisher for the last 30 years, in charge of literary magazines, cultural supplements and the publication of many books. He has written ten books of poetry and one of chronicles of life in Mexico City. All his books are in Spanish but he’s preparing an edition of selected poems translated to English. He has also begun to write directly in English, with not too catastrophic results! He moved to Cornwall three years ago, where he lives with his wife Lucy and his newborn son, Max.

Abigail Ottley writes poetry and short fiction. Over ten years, her work has featured in more than two hundred and fifty magazines and journals, most recently Twisted Ink and the Cornish edition of Inkfish. It will also appear in the inaugural issue of Aspier magazine. This year, Abigail placed second in the Plaza Prose Poem Competition and won the Wildfire 150 Flash Award for the second year running. Twice commended in The Page is Printed and What We Inherit From Water, as well as commended in the Welshpool Poetry Competition, she is both a Pushcart and Best of the Net Nominee and a member of  Cornwall’s all-female Mor Poet Collective. Her debut collection will be published by Yaffle’s Nest in May, 2025. Abigail lives in Penzance.

Kyle Potvin’s debut full-length poetry collection is Loosen (Hobblebush Books, 2021). Her chapbook, Sound Travels on Water, won the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award. Kyle’s poems have appeared in publications including Bellevue Literary Review, Tar River Poetry, Ecotone, Verse Daily and The New York Times. She is a peer reviewer for Whale Road Review. Kyle lives in the USA.

In the Art Room (on the ground floor), you will find a new and rather unique sculpture ‘Porcelain Sound Box’. For this piece, the pair were joined by Lucy’s son and composer Fintan O’Hare.

The ‘Porcelain Sound-Box’ is constructed from discarded ceramic fragments chosen from Rebecca’s studio by Rebecca and Fintan, with the aim of finding objects with particular sound qualities and resonance. These are struck by electric motors with the order of the sounds loosely based on conversational interaction; each motor gradually increasing or decreasing in speed, and continuing, interrupting or imitating the previous sound. The work requires the listener to press the START button to initiate a sequence of sounds. Each sound sequence lasts a few seconds and is different each time it is played.

Lucy has accompanied this piece with a haiku. She says:

“Cornwall has had a long association with the China Clay industry and The Morrab Library has a large collection of primary and secondary sources relating to this subject. In addition, the use of porcelain in musical instruments dates from around the 8th century. Being Cornish, and with a keen interest in music and local history, I relished the opportunity to spend time in The Morrab Library exploring these subjects and to create a poem that focussed on the resonance of sounds within porcelain and linking it to the environment from which it was originally sourced.

The accompanying poem is written in the form of a haiku, and the few carefully chosen words aim to compliment the complex dynamic art work from which it took inspiration. As the poet I saw this fragile interactive sculpture tapping into the hidden voice of granite. I am very grateful to the support of the librarians at Morrab library and their curation of a wide range of texts relating to the subject of Cornish China-clay in my research for this piece of work and to my co-collaborators Rebecca and Fintan.”

There is a notebook beside the installation to write your thoughts, feedback and comments about the piece.

Upstairs in the Natural Sciences Room, Rebecca Harvey has installed a bowl, made of a piece of bark, mounted on a wooden plinth. She is asking members and visitors alike to write, on the piece of paper provided, why they think The Morrab Library is a special place and leave it in the bowl.

She writes:

“The Morrab Library is often described as a ‘special place’. Do you have a favourite room? Or thoughts about what makes The Morrab Library special to you? Please contribute to artist in residence Rebecca Harvey’s research into the popular phenomena by writing your thoughts on the pieces of paper provided and popping them into the bark bowl below”.

Rebecca will then make these pieces into a Morrab ‘thought book’ which will be on display towards the end of their Residency in December.