Winchelsea

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I didn’t find the writing particularly engaging, the author throws in long antiquated words every so often as if to show off their intelligence, but it isn’t in keeping with the characters portrayed and just seemed pompous. It goes off on tangents about the Jacobite’s and the king over the water, that felt like they belonged to another book he wants to write, not part of this one, in fact he hints at further stories at one point, sigh. The original focus of the book is lost, and rushed at the end. In fact throughout its all over the place, unfinished threads, stories that start then go nowhere. Characters changing their character without explanation, I could go on. Did not satisfy this reader in any way, in fact I think I’d do a better job myself! Winchelsea is really evocative of time, place and situation and Alex Preston has done an amazing job of transporting the reader with this story. Museum exhibits include civic regalia, a model of the medieval town, local pottery, paintings, old photographs, and civic seals, along with the silver mace used by the town's sergeant-at-arms. Goody, who lives in “a time for brazen men”, refuses to conform to gender stereotype. She wants to be living, “out on the ocean, with [a] sword at my waist; to be… full and unconstrained”. In other words, to become a smuggler – and to slay her father’s killers. Pity the fool that stands in her way. There is a wrapping up at the end were Goody is allowed a final say in her story but by now we don't really know who she is any more or how she feels about anything that has happened to her.

Winchelsea is no mere rehash of a largely forgotten novel, but rather a vigorous reinvention of the entire genre. Set in 1742, it revolves around the life and misadventures of Goody Brown, a young adopted woman brought up around the marshes of Winchelsea in East Sussex, where smuggling is rife. When she turns 16, her father is murdered. I was filled with a genuinely uncomplicated happiness for him when things were going well,” he says, “and then a very complicated sadness when things began not going well…” Winchelsea is mounting up rave review after rave review The letter from Goody at the beginning says that her true narrative, through the different lenses of the text has turned into something of a novel. I found this destabilising to the text immediately as she talks about ‘the novel’ with the certainties of a modern writer, where the term was still a disputed and nebulous term in 1779 when she is writing. She also makes the point that most of the narrative was told by her to a man and so warns the reader that the book may sound like a man writing as a woman more than the real lived experience of a woman. This caveat seems to have no meaning or purpose within the world of the book but instead refers to the fact the (twenty-first century) novel is in fact written by a man and making excuses for the fact it sounds like a man writing a woman. This is still further complicated by the fact that Goody does in fact live as a man for a large section of the book which sort of makes her a pseudo-male narrator anyway.

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It capsized his life for quite a time,” his older brother says, “but he’s doing really well now, writing hits for Olly Murs, Little Mix and Alicia Keys.” Beaming, he adds: “He’s such a smart, sensitive and generous boy.” The building has an oddly truncated appearance. It is unclear whether the original plans for a large cruciform church were never finished, or whether the absence of a nave, tower, and transepts was the result of a devastating French raid on Winchelsea in 1380.

The LGBTQ rep here was complex, thought provoking, well presented and felt authentic in terms of the restrictions of the time period/societal pressures. Winchelsea is an extraordinary town, steeped in history. Every house has a story to tell, and many of them stand on much older foundations. A day spent exploring historic Winchelsea is a day well spent! Getting ThereHe would lose himself repeatedly in his beloved Moonfleet alongside Robert Louis Stevenson and Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series, and so the idea of one day trying to write a ripping yarn of his own always held appeal. “I enjoyed writing it enormously,” he says. 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.