In 1870 Thomas Hardy came to St Juliot church near Boscastle to work on its restoration, a visit that changed his life when he met Emma Gifford, his future wife, and found inspiration for his first full-length novel. A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873), rooted in the cliffs between Boscastle and Tintagel now traced by the South West Coast Path, drew on both Emma and the dramatic Atlantic landscape, even giving English literature its first true “cliffhanger.” After Emma’s death, Hardy recalled their walks in poems filled with regret, and though his stay in Cornwall was brief, the rugged coast left an enduring mark on both his heart and his writing.