Wait for the Wagon

£17.95

Published 17th October 2025

From the far west of Cornwall comes the story of Joel Andrewartha, the legendary Cornish wrestler born in 1781. His father, Richard, is a tin-miner/farmer, although his mother came from a more affluent background.

We follow the Andrewartha family as they struggle to make a living from their farm at Kenneggy, their hopes and fortunes tied to the land, mines and sea of Mount’s Bay, and as Joel finds love and solace with his childhood sweetheart, Caroline.

Richard Nettell beautifully captures the real people and places of this far-flung corner of late 18th- and early 19th-century Cornwall, writing about his own distant relatives and showing his impressive knowledge of West Country customs, speech and folklore, including that of mining, farming and wrecking.

This is truly a rediscovered gem of a story by an excellent writer, first published just before the outbreak of the Second World War and out of print ever since.

ISBN: 9781852002206

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: hardback

Length: 220

Published 17th October 2025

From the far west of Cornwall comes the story of Joel Andrewartha, the legendary Cornish wrestler born in 1781. His father, Richard, is a tin-miner/farmer, although his mother came from a more affluent background.

We follow the Andrewartha family as they struggle to make a living from their farm at Kenneggy, their hopes and fortunes tied to the land, mines and sea of Mount’s Bay, and as Joel finds love and solace with his childhood sweetheart, Caroline.

Richard Nettell beautifully captures the real people and places of this far-flung corner of late 18th- and early 19th-century Cornwall, writing about his own distant relatives and showing his impressive knowledge of West Country customs, speech and folklore, including that of mining, farming and wrecking.

This is truly a rediscovered gem of a story by an excellent writer, first published just before the outbreak of the Second World War and out of print ever since.

ISBN: 9781852002206

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: hardback

Length: 220

About the author:

Richard Nettell

Author Richard Nettell was born in 1907 from Cornish stock, but grew up on the Isle of Wight. His family were proud of their Cornish heritage, and the hero of Wait for the Wagon, Joel Andrewartha, was his great-grandmother’s eldest brother. The principal characters from the story can be traced to this very day through gravestones at Breage churchyard. The book was very well received by reviewers at the time of its publication in 1939, but when war broke out the story was forgotten.

Richard’s right arm was paralysed by polio at the age of 18 months, but at a time when all who differed from the norm were often humiliated by society he refused to be defeated by this, successfully running a pedigree poultry farm on the Island, marrying a Scottish girl, and starting his future writing career. However, the war forced him to train as an aircraft inspector, spending those years in the factories of the Scottish lowlands, where several of his later novels were set.

With a long list of well-reviewed books, sometimes under various pseudonyms, he became a well-known figure from his home on the Isle of Wight.

He is survived by his daughter, the award-winning literary journalist and children’s book editor Stephanie Nettell.