A new local history book, Mike’s View of Old Falmouth and Penryn, has been published by retired Packet journalist Mike Truscott in aid of Cancer Research UK.

He has knitted together an entertaining collection of often quaint and quirky examples of how life used to be in the two towns, stretching from the late 19th Century through to the 1990s. He also provides numerous insights into the lives of colourful characters – well-known locally and in some cases nationally – who have made their unique mark on local life.

Mike, who spent most of his near-50 years of working life writing about the area, has personally interviewed many of its best-known characters over the past half-century. His book also winds the clock back much further to illustrate a Falmouth and Penryn that would be scarcely recognisable today.

It’s all told in his trade-mark chatty style, observing a diverse part of Cornwall that boasts a captivating history.

Anecdotes include a look back at the time when it was considered acceptable to have a teacher-pupil ratio of one to 120, and when hostilities between the pupils of two local grammar schools led to court action.

Hostilities were also feared when, more than once, a single united borough of Falmouth and Penryn was seriously considered.

Mike also recalls the times when the area reeled under the bombshell news that the Falmouth-Truro branch railway line was to close, when Penryn River froze over, how the Falmouth lifeboat station almost never came into being and how the “honest rogues” of the Packet service made a fortune from smuggling.

From more recent times, Mike reveals the Queen’s verdict on Cornish pasties and some hilarious real-life tales involving holidaymakers in Falmouth during the summer “silly season.”

On a more serious note, he has eye-witness accounts of major sea sagas that earned weeks of worldwide headlines for Falmouth.

In sport, he recalls the visits of soccer legend George Best and cricket super-hero Ian Botham – who caused some observers at the time to regard his antics in Falmouth as “just not cricket.”

In a guest feature, Keith Rashleigh recounts the earlier years of Falmouth Town football club before their move to Bickland Park, “the Wembley of the West,” as it came to be known, in 1957.

As well as his personal recollections and writings, Mike draws on the works of 11 accomplished local historians plus Cornish newspapers and magazines down the ages.

? Mike’s View of Old Falmouth and Penryn is now on sale – limited edition, price £5.95 – only at the Cancer Research UK shop in Market Street, Falmouth (mail order: 01326 212905). All proceeds will go to the charity.