THE Bude and Beyond community website owner and author, Dawn Robinson, has recently published her third and latest book on her beloved town, Bude, following the success of her previous books, ‘Bude in Old Postcards’ and ‘Bude Through Time’.

Entitled Secret Bude, the book was published by Amberley Publishing, and focuses on the facts, fiction, people and places, whose stories aren’t as well known in the friendly seaside town.

Secret Bude delves into the tales of a survivor of the Titanic; the creator of the artwork of a famous tarot deck; a visit from Tennyson; and a couple with a similar story to Romeo and Juliet, all of which are connected to Bude in some way.

Additionally, there are plentiful tales of shipwrecks, piracy and even smuggling along Bude’s rocky shores, contributing to Cornwall’s tales of pirates.

Dawn said: “Bude is a fabulous community with a really positive vibe, so it’s a great place to be. What I quickly realised is that people who live in the town are very proud of Bude, and being a part of it.

“This includes relative newcomers like Trev Plant, but also Bude born and bred folk like Vicko. Somehow, Bude manages to instill a sense of pride among its community. It is a friendly place, with a beautiful coastline and some very enterprising folk.”

Dawn has been writing about Bude for many years, primarily through her website Bude and Beyond, as well as a shared historical site named Bude Past and Present.

Having written pictorial local history books before, it was when Amberley Publishing approached Dawn that inspired her to write her first book about Bude, Bude Through Time.

Following the success of Bude Through Time and Bude in Old Postcards, her third book, Secret Bude, was commissioned in 2014, but due to personal bereavement, the book that was expected to be finished in November 2015 was finally finished in early 2016.

Secret Bude is on sale in Spencer Thorn, Bude, the book’s main stockist. The book walks the reader along some lesser-known paths of Bude’s history, including an astonishing fictional Cornish tale of murder, plus many places and spaces which few people are aware of.

Heritage is something Dawn thinks is important to any town, with the past helping to inform the present, and assisting in its development and evolution into its modern state.

She added: “While many people see Bude as a geographically isolated seaside town, it has attracted a rich variety of intriguing people with amazing ideas, which creates a tremendous sense of heritage, despite its relative youth as a town.”