“Moab is my Washpot” (1999) is a
autobiographical novel written by Stephen Fry (1957) who once attended
Cawston
primary school. In this novel he recalls Cawston school. His eloquence in
describing his early life at Cawston school in Ms. Medlar’s class is beautifully
written and a joy to read.
Church expert and clerical mystery
writer Kate Charles (b 1950) sets her “Evil Angels Among Them (1995) in the
fictional village of “Walston”. This word is based on two of her favourite
churches, Salle and Cawston. Her story, a clerical mystery is set around the
church of ‘St. Michael and All Angels’ which in fact is Cawston church. In her
book she describes the spectacular angel roof and the medieval painting over the
chancel arch. Not far from the church is ‘Walston Manor’ and the ‘Queens Head’
pub which features Anne Boleyn on its sign.
Kate Charles writes in her book,
“this is not the sort of church one might expect to find in a small rather
undistinguished Norfolk village like Walston; its size bespoke past glories of
which scarcely a trace remained. Built in the Perpendicular style, its
exterior, crowned by a massive square tower, was a marvel of flushwork in
Norfolk flint, and the interior, with its vast expanses of clear glass in the
side aisles and the deep clerestory, was irradiated with the sort of light that
is only found in East Anglia, as the sky had somehow found a way to invade the
church.”
Brian Cooper’s Norfolk novels
all have something special about them. He created “Salleston” (Salle and Cawston) in his novel “Covenat with Death” (1994). The mystery is about the
legendary theft of a parapet and pinnacles of Cawston church tower.
