Saints & Sinners

This is a true story. About survival. A Breton soldier who fought at Hastings returns to his family's ancient Celtic roots in the West County. Nicholas St Aubyn follows his family's tenuous path over the next one thousand years, describing those they loved, the many wars they fought, and their role in Cornish rebellions. His story also features a host of remarkable women, from the Countess of Oxford in the 14th century to Honor Basset at the 16th century Tudor court and Vita Sackville-West, a member of the 20th century Bloomsbury Group. He shows how the St Aubyns acquired St Michaels' Mount during the Civil War, the Jacobite conspiracy plotted by Sir John St Aubyn, and the love between his grandson Sir John and local farmer's daughter, Juliana, who inspired Winston Graham's Poldark novels. The story moves from medieval battles, and shipwrecked treasure in Mount's Bay, to love at the Court of Henry VIII, and the political fortunes of fourteen family MPs since 1283. The diary of one illegitimate son reveals the life of a Regency rake, as another builds a property empire in Devonport, while a third shocks his parishioners. In the First World War, St Aubyns were found on the Western Front, and during the Second, they served on the PQ17 Arctic Convoy and at the Battle of Arnhem. The gift of the family castle to the National Trust seventy years ago is one of many events that give this history its unique and increasingly personal perspective as the family identity evolves.