WINSTON GRAHAM: author of
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Poldark’s Cornwall
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Poldark on TV
Winston Graham Prize
News
Winston Graham was one of the most successful and prolific novelists of the twentieth century. He wrote in many genres but his best known body of
work was the twelve historical ‘Poldark’ novels set in Cornwall at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. This website lists his novels,
and engages with, his contributions to stage, cinema, opera and television. You can also find more about his family life under Life & Times.
 
Winston Graham Historical Prize relaunched! Royal Cornwall Museum has announced the national relaunch of the Winston Graham Historical
Prize, a literary prize for ‘a work of historical fiction with a powerful sense of place’, to be awarded in March 2024.
Details here: https://www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk/wgprizelaunch
 
TV series - 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019
A fresh adaptation of the Poldark saga, starring Aidan Turner (The Hobbit Trilogy, Being Human) began on BBC1 TV in March 2015. The eight part
series was adapted by Debbie Horsfield (Cutting It, The Riff Raff Element) and directed by Ed Bazalgette and William McGregor. Series 2, 10 episodes
of 60 minutes each, began in September 2016. Series 3 was aired on BBC in June, 2017 and Series 4 came to air in the Autumn of 2018. Poldark Series
5 returned on Sunday 14 July, 2019 at 9pm on BBC1. All the TV programmes are produced by Mammoth Screen. Andrew Graham, Winston’s son,
comments: ‘I am thrilled to see the Poldarks returning to the screen. I have worked closely with Mammoth Screen and their concern to stay faithful to
the books has been wonderful. My father would be totally delighted’.
 
Editions of the Poldark novels
Coinciding with each TV series, PanMacmillan produces new editions of the Poldark novels: in 2015 Ross Poldark and Demelza and in 2016 Jeremy
Poldar
k and Warleggan. Series 3 in 2017 saw the re-publication of The Black Moon and The Four Swans. Series 4, 2018 was based on The Angry Tide.
Series 5, based on the 10 year time period between The Angry Tide and The Stranger from the Sea, was shown during the summer of 2019.
 
Poldark’s Cornwall re-issued with new photos
Winston’s semi-autobiographical book of Cornwall with its beautiful photos of the Cornish sea and landscapes was re-issued by Pan Macmillan with
many new photographs in 2015. The book includes an introduction by Andrew Graham who writes: ‘My father, Winston Graham, effectively wrote
two autobiographies. The official one was Memoirs of a Private Man. The other is Poldark’s Cornwall. At least that is how my sister, Rosamund, and I
see it; and, in addition to the photographs, it is this factor that makes this such an interesting book.’
 
OPERA – Marnie, 2018
The original Marnie was a psychological suspense novel written by Winston in 1961. It inspired Hitchcock to make a movie of the same name (starring
Tippi Hedron and Sean Connery) and, more recently, by special arrangement with Universal Pictures, it has been made into an opera. The London
premiere was performed by the ENO (at the London Coliseum) in 2017 and the New York premiere was held at the Metropolitan Opera House in 2018.
The Strangles © Photo: Simon McBride
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Winston Graham Literary Agents A.M.Heath & Company Ltd