A BOOK documenting an incident in Launceston during WW2, where racial tensions in the ranks of American soldiers sparked a shootout on home soil, has won a coveted Gorsedh Kernow publishing award.

Author Kate Werran was delighted when her book ‘An American Uprising in Second World War England: Mutiny in the Duchy’ received the award for ‘Non Fiction — Social, Cultural and Political History’, and she said she ‘couldn’t be prouder’.

The annual Gorsedh Kernow Holyer an Gof Awards were instigated in 1996 for books published in 1995 and are so named in memory of Redruth publisher and Cornish Bard Leonard Truran, whose Bardic name was Holyer an Gof — ‘Follower of The Smith’. The scheme was established and is organised by Bards of Gorsedh Kernow to promote books about Cornwall, set in Cornwall or in Cornish (Kernewek).

Kate said: “I was so thrilled to hear the news on Wednesday. I am still walking on cloud nine to be honest! This story is as relevant today as it was in the time of the segregated US Army nearly 80 years ago and proves why history remains relevant and useful to us all.

“It is so fantastic that this amazing, censored story can finally be told — and that the people of Launceston now know what happened to the men they took into their hearts nearly 80 years ago. That it has been recognised by the Gorsedh Kernow Holyer an Gof Publishers’ Awards is the icing on the cake for me. I couldn’t be prouder.

“This award is a tribute to all the brilliant unsung heroes of the Second World War — and their successors ranging from Kresen Kernow and the Charles Causley Trust to all the individuals and organisations locally in Launceston and beyond who have helped me uncover the truth of what happened in the town square in 1943. This award is for you too.”