
DAVID I. HUGHES
Contemporary Stories Forged from Cornwall's Rugged Soul

About
Modern Stories. Ancient Landscapes.
My site is a landing place for my fiction - stories forged in the deep seams of Cornwall’s landscape, industry and myth. It brings together my novels, case files and standalone thrillers, yet to publish, each rooted in the coastlines, harbours and moorlands that shaped them. Like the mines that once powered this region, it pays homage to the labour, memory and resilience embedded in Cornwall’s earth, and acts as a metaphor for the traditional craft of storytelling. Cornwall here is not a postcard, but a home - lived in, worked in, remembered. Explore my new books, behind-the-scenes insights, and a growing archive of stories shaped by this rugged place.
My Story

I began my career in brand strategy, spending two decades helping organisations shape their stories - long before I dared to write my own. Alongside, that work I pursued freelance photography, drawn again and again to the textures of the Cornish coast: rusted winches, harbour walls at low tide, the quiet geometry of tin mines against the sky. When I finally moved to West Cornwall in 2014, the landscape stopped being a subject and became a home.
Writing grew from that shift. The cliffs, the weather, the industry, the myths - all of it carried a sense of memory I couldn’t ignore. My fiction now draws on those layers: contemporary stories built on Cornish heritage, where the land and sea are as present as any character. This site is the place I share that journey, and the work that continues to rise from it.

Photography
All of the photographs used across this site are my own, taken while walking, watching, and listening along the beaches and coves of West Cornwall. If you’d like to see more of this work, you’re warmly invited to visit my photography site - a quieter companion to the writing - where these landscapes are explored in greater depth through the lens.