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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
David Barnett

Flash of genius: how a Cornish lighthouse inspired Virginia Woolf’s fictional icon

Godrevy lighthouse in St Ives bay.
Godrevy lighthouse in St Ives bay. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

For the great plateful of blue water was before her; the hoary Lighthouse, distant, austere, in the midst; and on the right, as far as the eye could see, fading and falling, in soft low pleats, the green sand dunes with the wild flowing grasses on them, which always seemed to be running away into some moon country, uninhabited of men.

Virginia Woolf.
Virginia Woolf. Photograph: George C Beresford/Getty Images
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