This is a book about smugglers. It is atmospheric and gritty. The writing is lyrical and full of historical detail. There is murder,pirates and much more. The main character is flawed.

The setting of Winchelsea matched the real area and Preston does well to emulate the south coast. The story follows the smuggling traditions of the south well and reminds me of the local history eg. Doctor Syn.
The characterisation was strong and I enjoyed the protagonist being subversive but not over the top. She was strong willed and well written.

I loved this so much, I was draw in by the synopsis Winchelsea is a fantastic book I got so attached to the characters and what would happen, completely engaging and enjoyable read.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

'The year is 1742. Goody Brown, saved from drowning and adopted when just a babe, has grown up happily in the smuggling town of Winchelsea. Then, when Goody turns sixteen, her father is murdered in the night by men he thought were friends.

To find justice in a lawless land, Goody must enter the cut-throat world of her father's killers. With her beloved brother Francis, she joins a rival gang of smugglers. Facing high seas and desperate villains, she also discovers something else: an existence without constraints or expectations, a taste for danger that makes her blood run fast.

Goody was never born to be a gentlewoman. But what will she become instead?'


The first two books are an great fun, if slightly predictable. A tale of rival factions of smugglers operating under the noses of the revenue men in the town of Winchelsea on the Sussex coast. Goody Brown is an unconventional young woman who has been adopted by the town doctor who moonlights as a smuggler, and his French wife, after her birth mother drowned herself. The opening of the first book sets the scene for the brutality underlying the smugglers' exploits - with her mother and father, she is dragged out of bed by smugglers she has known and trusted since her childhood, made to walk to a steep cliff, and She is forced to watch as her father is summarily thrown off for siphoning off smuggled goods for himself and mother's tongue is cut out. Goody is spared because nobody knows the subterranean tunnels and surrounding marshes as well as she does and the smuggler gang needs her services.

Goody has an adopted brother twice her age, who is an escaped slave; together, they set about plotting a slow-burning revenge for their father's murderers, and she discovers why he risked his life to steal from his fellow smugglers.

The third book switches to the story of the doomed Jacobite rebellion in 1745, and there's a lot of history packed into this section. This is why I love historical fiction, there's something new to learn. I enjoyed this a lot and it provided the means for Goody's return to Winchelsea and her final revenge on the smugglers who, by now have completely terrorised the town, and her unconventional happy ever after.

This is definitely a tall tale, that rollicks along at a crackling pace. I did feel it tried to pack too much in, was a little too long and was a bit too sensationalist in places, trying to be very 'modern' with it's inter-racial relationships, same-sex attraction, orgies, non-binary sexual identities, and the smugglers' casual violence. Billed as a modern-day Moonfleet for adults, much of Winchelsea certainly delivers.

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.
It is the story of Goody Brown and the corrupt world that she lives in. Throughout the story you are presented with trials and tribulations far beyond your ken that you really do feel like you have been invited into another world.

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.

Winchelsea is really evocative of time, place and situation and Alex Preston has done an amazing job of transporting the reader with this story.

Winchelsea by Alex Preston is available now.

For more information regarding Alex Preston (@ahmpreston) please visit www.alexhmpreston.com.

For more information regarding Canongate Books (@canongatebooks) please visit www.canongate.co.uk.

This was a brilliant read, set in the 1740s on the south coast. The main character, Goody Brown, has been adopted by a doctor's family in Winchelsea after her mother was drowned. Goody Brown's father is killed by the local smuggling gang. He has been helping them move their contraband through the caves for years, but has been taking money to donate to the Jacobite cause. Her mother has her tongue cut out, and Goody and her have to flee. Goody is a fascinating character, a very strong woman (although only 16 at the start of the story) who grows in bravery and also in criminality, forced into working with other smuggling gangs to survive.

I knew very little about the history of the time but it was all explained well. The cast of characters (mainly villains) were well drawn and the language used was brilliant. I had to look up many 18th century words that I had never heard of before. Goody is a very believable character, which is a tough act to pull off when you are writing a woman that goes so fiercely against the constraints of her gender at the time. This book was action packed and had a great plot, with a very satisfying ending.

I really recommend this to anyone who enjoys literary historical fiction, or just a great smuggling yarn!

This felt so real. It plunges you into a fascinating world of smugglers on the English coast. I loved almost all of it, until near the end, when it switched heads twice and I was a little thrown. I'd have preferred one narrator.

I confess that I picked up Winchelsea by Alex Preston because I love Winchelsea. Perched high up above, the marshes marooned from the sea that gave it such wealth, a shadow of its former self. Even on a sunny day the stories of the past seem to whisper from stones. Winchelsea is set in the middle of the eighteenth century when the town was a smugglers paradise. 16 year old Goody Brown has her world shattered when her father is murdered by people she thought were friends. She sets off on mission to avenge her death that takes her into a world of violence and piracy. Ordinarily Winchelsea is the kind of book I love, it has a strong sense of place and history and yet I found that I didn’t ultimately care what happened and read on because I don’t like an unfinished book. I’m not sure what failed to grip me, nothing annoyed me, it was like a female, adult version of Moonfleet

Smugglers and bisexuality
All the makings of a good story. Love the swashbuckling style, the local language of Winchelsea, most of all the characters.
Good and bad in all of the characters, especially the smugglers gang. The men who nurtured Goody, bought her gifts and told her stories, turned into monsters depriving her of her beloved adoptive Father and taking the power of speech from her adoptive Mother.
Goody always a rebel never the Lady that her Father wanted her to be, she likes to dress as a man so she has the freedom for adventures. Falling in love with Lily, her adopted brother Frances and the tragedies that follow both relationships.
The descriptions of the tunnels, seafaring and battles are exciting , breathtaking and haunting.
Well done Alex and Thank you NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a review copy.

I really enjoyed this complex swashbuckling tale.
I loved hearing from Goody’s perspective and her awareness of the unreliability of how her story is being told.
I less enjoyed the perspective of the guy in the army as it felt abrupt to break from a narrator we’ve been with for her whole life.

Overall some great writing, fascinating characters and an enjoyable adventure and revenge story.

My goodness, but this gets off to a cracking start! Murder, torture, terror, all in an 18th century fog, and all told from the perspective of the young protagonist with an interesting past and a particular take on their individuality. Fabulous. It then takes a turn for the swashbuckling and we are off on another cracking adventure. And then… nothing much happens for quite a while to finally end up with another character picking up the story for no reason I can fathom other than to bulk out the last portion of the book. Maybe I’m being disingenuous, but it does seem a little jarring and pointless.

This type of book suits me down to the ground – rushing energy, valour and revenge in an historical setting. But to be fair, that type of book has been done a lot and so the inclusion of a main character who in modern parlance might call themselves ‘gender fluid’ certainly adds another element to the story and adds to the interest. However, although this stereotype subversion is not unwelcome, it often feels somewhat ‘shoehorned’ into the story in many places, rather than being either the crux of the narrative or just simply a facet of the protagonist.

So what we are left with is a novel attempting to deal with gender identity but not managing it in any meaningful way – it all feels rather too much 21st century to feel genuine in an 18th century story.
Judging from the skill with which the thrilling, page-turning portions are constructed, this could have been done in a much more skillful way, should the author have wished it to make it a major theme of the book. It may have been better for the flow of the story for this aspect of the character to have been simply included as statements of fact rather than bluntly inserting the theme at certain points in the narrative – there really are a few too many clumsily handled moments which were in danger of derailing the continuity of the story. In fact, it would be virtually unnoticeable in the narrative arc or in the impact of the gender identity aspect to simply edit-out these the blunt insertions of this theme, but overall, whilst a little irritating in parts, this didn’t detract from this story. It’s still a ripping yarn!

3.5 stars

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.

Goody was a very interesting and often surprising character. Her dramatic beginning in some way or other shaped her for her whole life. Despite being raised as a lady with as much comfort and education as her foster family could muster, she never was one. Always wild, she didn’t care very much about the pressure of social life and it’s rules. She was never certain as to whether she was man or woman, she lived her life as both and neither. I think that was one of the things I liked the most about her: she was living her life the way she wanted it to be. And at the same time, she went through so much at such a young age. The way she was portrayed gave me an inside as to what emotions she felt and through this she felt much more close to me.

“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.

As mentioned before, the beginning didn’t really catch me as very interesting. I might have as well dnf’d this book. But all in all, I do recommend reading it. If you can get through this first, quite boring, part.

I was sent a copy of Winchelsea by Alex Preston to read and review by NetGalley. This is a fair swashbuckling book about smugglers and survival. Told in three separate parts, narrated in the first person by three of the main characters, the story is told chronologically and I have to admit there were some sections that I preferred much more than others. The first section, told from the viewpoint of Goody Brown was beautifully written and a great start to get you really involved. While I wasn’t quite so keen on how some of the rest of the book was written I enjoyed the story enough to warrant almost the top 5 stars. It didn’t quite reach that peak but it was still well worth a read nonetheless.

When sixteen year old Goody Brown witnesses her father's smuggler friends turn on him to wreck revenge for past misdemeanors it fires in her the need to avenge her father's murder. With the help of her brother, Francis, Goody must step into the lawless world of rival smugglers whose moral compass is equally questionable, and soon they are both caught in a world of danger and high adventure.

Reminiscent of so many smuggler's tales, Winchelsea, is a rollicking romp through the hidden caverns and swirling seas of the seventeenth century when lives were lost and promises broken but throughout all the danger Goody shows great resilience as she makes her way in a male dominated world.

Authentically written, and with a fine eye for even the smallest detail, time and place come alive and with more than a nod towards J Meade Falkner's, Moonfleet, Winchelsea is a more grown up version of this classic adventure. Add together the dastardly nature of smugglers, the lure of the promise of the Jacobite King Across The Water, the adventurous nature of a young woman caught between two worlds, and you have all the ingredients for a rollicking good historical mystery.

I felt this was very much a book of two halves. The first half, told from the main protagonists POV, is a swashbuckling adventure among the smuggling gangs of eighteenth century Kent. Goody is a strong female lead through whose eyes the reader gets a convincing idea of both smuggling and the wider context within which it operated. I had read a short book about this earlier in the year, and was pleased to see the author drawing in the involvement of the money men in the City as well as the Jacobite sympathies of the time into this story. I also found the description of the landscape and society beautifully drawn and highly evocative.
Where it stopped being so enjoyable for me was when it abruptly switches from Goody's POV to that of The Chevalier as they embark on the '45 with Bonnie Prince Charlie. This section feels less accomplished and more a basic overview of the events without any real feel for it. This is followed by the final section, where Goody returns to Kent to take her final revenge on The Hawkhurst Gang, but again it's told from another POV which lacks the spark of the first half.
Personally, while I really enjoyed the first half, I found the second half disappointing.

1742 and the once prosperous town of Winchelsea is now just a haunt for smugglers. For orphan Goody Brown, her world is turned upside down when her adoptive father falls foul of the gang he works with and is mudered. Goody vows revenge and becomes a smuggler, a Jacobite and more.
Although this is a short book at times it feels interminably long and there are huge gaps in the narrative. It also feels as though several 'woke' elements are thrust together and lie uncomfortably in an already packed narrative. We have racism, slavery, lesbianism, transgender alongside violence and a strong historical element. The first part seems long yet Culloden and the rest gallops by - a solid enough book but not a memorable one.

My thanks to Canongate for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Winchelsea’ by Alex Preston in exchange for an honest review.

A rollicking adventure set in 18th Century Winchelsea, Sussex, historically known as a haven for smugglers.

As a baby Goody Brown was saved from drowning and adopted by cellarman, Ezekiel Brown. She has grown up happily in the smuggling town of Winchelsea. In 1742 when Goody turns sixteen, Ezekiel is murdered in the night by men that he had believed were his friends.

In order to find justice Goody and her adopted brother, Francis, join a rival smuggling gang. There she discovers an existence free of the constraints of society and discovers a taste for danger. No further details in order to avoid spoilers.

In his Acknowledgments Alex Preston states that the idea behind ‘Winchelsea’ was to write a grown-up ‘Moonfleet’. As in that children’s classic there are smugglers and pirates, secret caves and revenue-men, battles on the land and the high seas.

A number of historical events and figures are expertly woven into the narrative, including the Jacobite rising, the Battle of Culloden, and the Battle of Goudhurst. I found these vividly portrayed.

The novel has an unusual format. It opens with a Preface that introduces Goody and the town of Winchelsea. Book One makes up the first three-quarters of the novel and is narrated by Goody. Book Two contains the Memoirs of the Chevalier de Johnstone and Book Three is an account by another of the Battle of Goudhurst in Kent. It concludes with an Epilogue by Goody that neatly wraps up the story.

I have a great fondness for classic adventures and stories of pirates and smugglers such as the cited ‘Moonfleet’ and the Dr. Syn of Romney Marsh novels.

While there were a few points in the narrative where I felt that 21st century sensibilities came to the fore, for the most part I felt that in ‘Winchelsea’ Alex Preston captured the essence of such seafaring adventures; though with more mature themes and the inclusion of political and social issues of the day.

I also felt that he did well in evoking the seascape and landscape of the area including the Romney Marshes, the Sussex coastline and its communities. There were also references to folk traditions.

Overall, an enjoyable adventure that pays homage to the colourful history of the area. As Goody writes: “more than anything, I love this place and its surrounding country, love the Under-Reach and the wild woods, the marshes and lofty cliffs. I love the bay and the Brede.”

Definitely recommended.

Billed as a modern-day Moonfleet for grown-ups, much of Winchelsea certainly delivers if a modern feminist take on the traditional swashbuckling tale is your thing. It comes in three parts, prefaced by a (rather pointless, to my mind) postmodern warning from the narrator Goody Brown that, although it is her dictation and her final cut, the story has been written by a man and the reader should bear that in mind.

The first two books are an enjoyable, if slightly predictable, tale of rival factions of smugglers operating under the noses of the revenue men in the town of Winchelsea on the Sussex coast. Goody Brown is seventeen years old at the start, a tall, unconventional young woman who has been adopted by the town doctor who moonlights as a smuggler, and his French wife, after her birth mother drowned herself. An early episode sets the scene for the brutality underlying the smugglers' exploits - with her mother and father, she is dragged out of bed by smugglers she has known and trusted since her childhood, made to walk to a steep cliff, and forced to bear witness as her father is summarily thrown off for siphoning off smuggled goods for himself. Her mother's tongue is cut out, and she herself is spared only because nobody knows the subterranean tunnels and surrounding marshes as well as she does and the smuggler gang needs her services.

Goody has an adopted brother twice her age, who is an escaped slave although little is made of his back story. Together, they set about plotting a slow-burning revenge for their father's treatment, and Goody finds out why he had risked his life to steal from his fellow smugglers. Along the way, while not becoming a bodice-ripper in the conventional sense, there is much to titillate. Too much in fact, I felt - we have near-incest twice, inter-racial relationships, same-sex attraction, orgies and non-binary sexual identities, alongside the smugglers' casual violence.

The third part of the tale switches abruptly to the story of the doomed Jacobite rebellion of 1745, and a lot of history is packed into this section - I had to turn to Wikipedia to get some context. I found it less interesting than the smuggler section, but it provides a mechanism for Goody's return to Winchelsea, her final revenge on the smugglers who, at this point, have completely terrorised the town, and her rather unusual happy ever after.

As a tall tale, this rollicks along at a cracking pace. But I felt it tried to pack too much in, and at times it borders on being sensationalist. It's Gentleman Jack with added smugglers and war, and altogether a bit much. It is a quick read but not a very satisfying one.

This is an enjoyable read full of pirates, smugglers, romance and bloody murder. It’s also a journey of discovery for our main lady, Goody.

The scene sitting is excellent, and I really liked Goody as a character- though I did feel bad for all of the trials she had to go through.

I found this quite thought provoking, as I believe it is reasonably historically accurate.

An enjoyable read!

My thanks to Netgalley and Canongate Books for the copy in exchange for an honest review