Winchelsea

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Winchelsea” is as much a book about the characters in it, as about the land they were living on. I very much liked that the author has put so much effort into painting not just where this book was placed, but also its history. And have done so without ever abandoning Goody or any other characters that were telling her story. It was rather done THROUGH her and what she’s done. There were elements that I loved about Winchelsea. It would probably have been a five star read if it wasn’t for the change in voice. The story is told in 3(ish) parts. The first and longest from Goody Brown’s perspective. This I found to be the most engaging. The second voice didn’t engage me as much but it was necessary for the next part of the story and to develop the character of Goody Brown further and to reveal the desperate measures that she had to go to. I read Winchelsea with a bit of trepidation. I like historical fiction but often find some times or places a bit more difficult to read. I don’t know why this is but its my thing, okay? I am glad that I read Winchelsea though because it is damn good. TW to bear in mind; sexual assault, sort-of-incest (idk how else to phrase this but you'll understand if you read), murder, gore.

If you aren’t familiar with Winchelsea and it’s smugglers you probably won’t mind this so much. If you like a bawdy tale with sex, booze, sailing and bloodshed then give it a go. Just be prepared for abrupt story changes, unfinished threads, and a feeling that there was so much more to be explored. Winchelsea is really evocative of time, place and situation and Alex Preston has done an amazing job of transporting the reader with this story. I REALLY enjoyed this for the first three quarters; I felt like I was on my own smuggling adventure.

This book was so slow-burner that for the first ⅓ of it I thought I might not finish it at all. But in the end I’m very happy I didn’t leave it. After recounting those first and, frankly, quite uninteresting years of Goody’s life a grand adventure of a book has started to emerge in front of me. And I have to say that it was very much to my liking and gave me a real pleasure to read it.

Then we switch to another narrator for the ending portion.. At least this was a character we are familiar with from fairly early on in the book but suddenly it feels like now the book is about him and no longer really about Goody at all. I absolutely love reading books based around smugglers, it gives me those Jamaica Inn/Frenchman’s Creek vibes from the fabulous du Maurier books. This is just as atmospheric as her books but a lot more grittier and raw. In Winchelsea, we are transported to the mid 1700s. Goody Brown, rescued from drowning as a baby and swiftly adopted by her rescuers, grows up in the small smuggling town of Winchelsea. At sixteen, she witnesses the murder of her father and is given little choice but to fill her father's shoes for the very same gang that brought him to his untimely demise. With help from her brother, Goody joins a rival gang and plots her revenge. Goody was a reasonably consistent character and we had a couple of well thought out supporting cast members.The Winchelsea of the 1740s that Preston details sits atop a network of subterranean passages used by smugglers to store booty from the continent. The murky and treacherous world of piracy, corruption and gang warfare is the focus of this exhilaratingly twisty novel that is something of a warren of connected and echoing recollections itself.