A High Wind in Jamaica
  • Published: 30 June 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446433980
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 192
Categories:

A High Wind in Jamaica

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One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, but relatively little-known. This book has a small, obsessed following.

On the high seas of the Caribbean, a family of English children is set loose - sent by their parents from their home in Jamaica to receive the civilising effects of England. When their ship is captured by pirates, the thrilling cruise continues as the children transfer their affections from one batch of sailors to another. Innocence is their protection, but as life in the care of pirates reveals its dangers, the events which unfold begin to take on a savagely detached quality.

Writers' reviews for A High Wind in Jamaica:

'One of my all time favourite books' Ann Patchett

'I wouldn't let a 14-year-old near it' Meg Rosoff

'I read the whole thing in one gulp. It was remarkable. Tiny. Crazy. I felt just like I did as a kid.' Andrew Sean Greer

'When I really like a book I'll sometimes read a passage or two aloud to whoever's nearby; this one I'd happily recite cover-to-cover' Imogen Hermes Gowar

'A thrillingly good book' Martin Amis
  • Published: 30 June 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446433980
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 192
Categories:

About the author

Richard Hughes

Richard Hughes was born in 1900 and educated at Chaterhouse School and Oriel College, Oxford. A highly original and idiosyncratic writer, he wrote poems and plays as well as novels, but it is for these that he is best remembered, the most famous of which was his first, A High Wind in Jamaica, published in 1929. A remarkable man, he could number Masefield, Yeats, T.E. Lawrence, Robert Graves, Augustus John and Dylan Thomas amongst his friends and acquaintances. Married to the painter Frances Bazley in 1932, he died in 1976.

Also by Richard Hughes

A High Wind in Jamaica
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Praise for A High Wind in Jamaica

A fascinating study in child psychology

New York Times

A hot draught of mad, primal fantasy and poetry

Rebecca West

Never once has he struck a false note

Vita Sackville-West

What starts as merely masterful storytelling becomes something dreamlike and haunting; it's not a book you easily forget

Independent on Sunday

Before Lord of the Flies there was A High Wind in Jamaica, an unflinching, wryly observed portrait of the madness of children

Guardian

On one level it's an exciting adventure story with great storms and earthquakes, terrific animals, unruly children and some dubious pirates. What more, when young, could you want? But all this coexists with another narrative, darker and more sophisticated, complex and tragic. You can read this book over again and have read a different novel.

Michael Holroyd, Guardian

A surreal novel of childhood adventure that turns how we see the human mind upside down

John Gray, The Observer

I read Richard Hughes’ A High Wind in Jamaica this year and felt breathless with shock and awe… Appallingly dark story…dreadfully funny.

Meg Rosoff, Independent

A High Wind in Jamaica is like those books you used to read under the covers with a flashlight - only infinitely more delicious ... and macabre

Andrew Sean Greer, NPR

Wow. Just....wow. This is a nasty, wicked little book. It's wonderful

Lydia Kiesling, The Millions