Jamaica Inn

"I was in my later teens when I discovered Daphne du Maurier , an author I still love today. Frenchman’s Creek is usually the obvious romantic choice for young adults, but the book that gripped me most was the dark, gothic and truly scary Jamaica Inn . The way Du Maurier uses setting to create atmosphere and immerse you in the action is fantastic. Bodmin Moor in Cornwall is truly another character in the book – all that mud and sweeping rain! The weather shadows every key moment, isolating the reader almost as much as the heroine, Mary Yellan. Mary is made of sterner stuff, however, and ultimately the freedom the landscape offers is transformative. It is, but we have to remember local people were starving. Smuggling and salvaging what washed ashore meant survival. Of course wrecking was horrible – but nothing is ever black or white, and the subject makes for thrilling reading. Absolutely. Even the thick mists that descend around them is like a physical presence. It cloaks everything with a menace and secrecy that the reader must stumble through."