Customer Reviews

6 reviews

• Rachel Colville

  I can highly recommend this thrilling and enjoyable read. Breathing life into old Cornwall; it includes smugglers, love and murder. Totally captivating and absorbing; a real page-turner

• Lorraine Thomas

  “Rame is a very readable book, suitable for any age, with no offensive language or graphic undesirable scenes, but with an interesting plot and characters. The beautiful descriptive language used to describe Devon and Cornwall proves the author’s love of the countryside, as well as his skill with words. The is a wonderfully comfortable “call up by the fireside” book!”

• Dr D. Perry

  “Rame is a compelling, pull-you-in read. It takes place on the wild coast of south-west England in the early 1800’s. The story has credible characters, both goodhearted and vicious; cut-from-life scenes of poverty and class conflict; costly loyalties; believable romantic rivalries; genuine suspense and a gratifying sense of hope. Meanwhile, first page to last, shaping the lives of all, that ever-present friend and enemy, the sea.”

• John Ellwood October 2022

  I thoroughly enjoyed this fast-paced tale set in early nineteenth-century Cornwall against a backdrop of smuggling and the rivalry between two neighbouring villages. The various strands of the plot are skilfully woven together over a three-year period as the main characters, teenagers growing up in the shadow of their parents’ personal tragedies and sometimes baleful influence, seek to negotiate the cross currents of their friendships and animosities. There is a convincing sense of menace and foreboding threatening their young lives made more immediate by the presence of the unpredictable, ever-changing, capricious ocean on their doorstep. While justice hopefully awaits some, others display remarkable kindness and grace and unexpected courage in the face of all kinds of challenges. The grand themes of judgement and redemption are explored, and I very much hope there will be a sequel to this engaging reimagining of life in the West Country two hundred years ago.

• Celia Ellwood

  I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and thought it was very well written, set in Cornwall in the days of smuggling, and following the fortunes of young Dom and his kind and loving sister, growing up with a father damaged by the grief of losing his wife. I was rooting for Dom throughout the book as he tried to please his father and make him proud of him, and to deal with all the goings on around him of smugglers and the terrible plague that came to their village. He showed great courage in bravely trying to do the right thing throughout. The book was evocative of that time and place, and I could well imagine the small fishing villages with their towering cliffs overlooking the sea in the moonlight, as the gangs operated at night, bringing their smuggled goods in their boats. There were stark contrasts in how some of the characters behaved and some surprises in the fate of some, and also touching redemptive moments as the story drew to its close. It was a fast-moving book, difficult to put down!
  

• John Ellwood Teacher October 2022

  I thoroughly enjoyed this fast-paced tale set in early nineteenth-century Cornwall against a backdrop of smuggling and the rivalry between two neighbouring villages. The various strands of the plot are skilfully woven together over a three-year period as the main characters, teenagers growing up in the shadow of their parents’ personal tragedies and sometimes baleful influence, seek to negotiate the cross currents of their friendships and animosities. There is a convincing sense of menace and foreboding threatening their young lives made more immediate by the presence of the unpredictable, ever-changing, capricious ocean on their doorstep. While justice hopefully awaits some, others display remarkable kindness and grace and unexpected courage in the face of all kinds of challenges. The grand themes of judgement and redemption are explored, and I very much hope there will be a sequel to this engaging reimagining of life in the West Country two hundred years ago.

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