Books: The Smugglers' Caves

Fiona Skowronski

The Hastings Caves is a pageturning mystery that is finally solved by four friends, each of whom has their own very real problems to face (parents, lack of parents, bereavement, disability and fear of being deported). While the story centres on the race to expose a smuggling ring, there is also a crazy backdrop of eccentric literary and historical figures who once lived in or stayed in Hastings – including the pre-Raphaelite painters, the great Shakespeare scholars Garrick and Capel and the poets Patmore and Thompson. It’s a ridiculously educational story without seeming to be, and culture-vulture parents will be delighted to see the learning their 11-year-old-ish offspring are absorbing as they read The Hastings Caves. That’s if the parents can put the book down long enough to let their children read it.
When I read the first few chapters to a group (of adults) at the West Cork Literary Festival, they all vowed to visit Hastings and see for themselves the caves, the castle, the fishing harbour, the hills and the Tudor streets of the Old Town.