Elizabeth Dale - writer, researcher & Cornish Bird Blogger
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Elizabeth Dale, of the Cornish Bird history blog
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
If you had asked me this ten years ago I would have probably said crossing the Sahara desert or climbing a volcano in flip-flops but these days my life is far more focused on Cornish horizons. It has been a dream of mine for a long time to make a living from writing and I am (very) slowly working my way towards that, which is amazing and very satisfying. But to be honest, completing my degree and getting a First at age 40 was an incredibly proud moment for me.
What motivates you to do what you do?
I grew up feeling deeply connected to where I was from, to the farm where my family have lived for generations but also to Cornwall as a whole. However I realised how little I really knew about my own history, my own Cornish culture. We were never taught about any of it at school and I thought that I couldn’t be the only one missing that knowledge, that connection to our shared past, so I set out to try and change that. My writing and my blog is about bringing together the lesser known stories of Cornish history and Cornish folk and sharing that with anyone who is interested, because if we don’t record those stories they will be lost forever and a little piece of ourselves will be lost too.
What do you owe your mother?
Simply put I probably owe my mother everything, she is the silent support that holds everything together. She taught me the importance of kindness from an early age but also the importance of hard work and standing on your own two feet.
Which women inspire you and why?
I am very fortunate to have some truly amazing female friends who make my life better in every way. We are all very different, we all bring something different to the table but they have taught me to have faith in myself, to be who I want to be with no apologies, and that you really can choose your family.
I also love history, for anyone who reads my writing you will know that that is my main focus, but what I am really obsessed with is the lives of ordinary people from the past. I spend much of my time trawling through newspaper archives hunting down some strange story or other, and I find that as a general rule women from the past are mostly completely invisible, just secondary to the main action. Very often women only come into focus because they have done something shocking or criminal! But I love discovering the stories of these women, the rare ones that step out from the shadows, and the window their lives give us into the past. For example, I have been researching prostitution in 19th century Cornwall for a number of years now, gathering as much information as I can about certain individuals’ lives because they are just as worthy of being remembered as any queen or duchess.
Oh and Mary Beard is a bit of a hero of mine!
What are you reading?
I am always reading about ten books at the same time! I was recently sent a copy of Strange Waters by Jackie Taylor, which is a collection of short stories set in Cornwall. And beside my bed I have the new book by Alice Roberts which is about prehistoric burials, and also Des Hannigan’s latest – The Shoal Ground, I just love his writing and he has been very supportive of me.
What gender barriers have you had to hurdle?
I am very lucky that I can’t really think of many occasions where my gender has been an issue. I am pretty stubborn and very little will stop me from doing what I want to do once I set my mind to something. I grew up in a house where everyone mucked in together, although having said that I wasn’t really allowed to drive a tractor!
Earlier in my life I worked and travelled a great deal in countries where women’s status in society is quite different from our own here in Europe, where I was treated very differently from how my partner was as a man, where expectations of what I should or should not being doing or saying or how I should behave were fairly frustrating for me, and that made me incredibly grateful for the progress we have made. But that’s not to say that we don’t have further to go of course.
How can the world be made a better place for women?
By looking out for each other, supporting each other and not allowing misogyny to go unchallenged. By building stronger communities, and putting more women in authority positions, that would be a start.
Describe your perfect day.
Probably walking alone on Bodmin Moor, I just love it up there, the space, the peace and those wide horizons. I find myself walking along with a stupid grin on my face. I’d need a flask of tea in the winter and a cheese sandwich of course.
We’ve noticed there really aren’t many statues of Women around Cornwall – who would you like to see remembered?
Emily Hobhouse comes to mind straight away, for her humanitarian work during the Boar War and amongst Cornish miners. She is fondly remembered in South Africa but the newspapers here didn’t even report her death.
And alternatively I have always loved the story of Mary Kelynack who famously walked from Penzance to London to see the Great Exhibition in 1851. She was rather elderly at the time, her real age is hotly debated, and she caused a bit of a stir, even having tea with the Lord Mayor. I know she may not seem like she deserves the same recognition as Emily Hobhouse but I just think she embodies a certain Cornish spirit of single-mindedness, curiosity and adventure.
Give us a tip?
I’m not very good at those fun comedy tips so I’ll just say: Regret nothing. Everything that happens, good or bad, teaches us something, I know it is easily said but I really believe we should never regret the choices we make, however its turns out, because we made that decision for the right reasons at the time.
About Elizabeth
Elizabeth was born on a farm near Falmouth and, not really knowing what she wanted to do with her life, she left home in 2000 and spent roughly ten years travelling to more than 50 countries with her partner, doing all kinds of crazy jobs to get by. When she returned to Cornwall she worked for a while with an antique dealer, learning to restore old furniture, and then, after a few years as a community care worker, she finally indulging her passion for writing and local history. She completed her degree in Journalism and Creative Writing in 2018 and is now a freelance writer, researcher and blogger.