I’ve been going through my holiday photos and found a couple that speak to this week’s WordPress weekly photo challenge theme of COMMUNITY.
These pictures are of the tiny and very picturesque fishing village of Clovelly on the northern coast of Devon. Fishing is a very community-oriented activity — the villagers go out in the boats as a fleet, come back in and then spent the next several hours sorting and gutting the fish to prepare them for distribution. We spoke to some fisherfolk in Clovelly, and they were getting a variety of fish and little sharks ready for the Spanish market.
Such a gorgeous village. Very inspiring from a fantasy-research point of view too. The way the white stone buildings clutter and tumble down the hill. The uneven cobble stones — not paved flat like one usually expects cobbles, but small, rounded and bumpy, making them quite tricky to walk on.
Fantasy novels and stories are almost always synonymous with communities — whether inhabitants of a fishing village, members of a religious group, a hidden guild of assassins…
There’s nothing like Clovelly in Australia. Which is what makes travelling to places like England, which have such a depth of history, such a thrilling experience for me.
