Sue Appleby

Sue Appleby has a deep interest in the history of all things Cornish. Her first book, The Hammers of Towan: a Nineteenth-Century Cornish Family, looks at the impact of the Great Emigration on Cornish ancestors on her mother's side of the family. A new and much expanded edition - based on new research, and featuring new photos and traditional Cornish recipes - was published in 2023.

Her second book, The Cornish in the Caribbean: from the 17th to 19th Centuries was published early in 2019, and was shortlisted for the 2020 Cornish Publishers Awards - the Holyer an Gof. A paperback version was published in 2023. It tells the story of the contribution made by some of the Cornish people who went to the Caribbean: the miners in the copper mines of Cuba and Virgin Gorda, and the mines of then British Guiana and Aruba; the captains and crews of the Falmouth Packet Mail service to the West Indies; Methodist missionaries; colonial governors; wealthy planters; navy and army personnel stationed in the Caribbean; pirates and buccaneers. The Cornish in the Caribbean also became the catalyst for songs written and performed by the Cornish-Cuban band Kewbanda as part of their Cornish in the Caribbean Project.

In her latest book, Wives-Mothers-Daughters-Widows: Cornish Women in the Caribbean from the 17th to 19th Centuries, published in June 2024, she examines the lives of Cornish women who went out to the Caribbean, filling a gap in the literature of the Cornish diaspora which previously focused on the male-dominated mining industry of the USA, Australia and South Africa.

Sue has spent most of her adult life in the Caribbean, working for various international, regional, and national organisations. Married to Bernie Evan-Wong, she has two daughters, Meiling and Sarah, and lives in Antigua.