Editions

A High Wind in Jamaica

A High Wind in Jamaica

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.

Reviews

  • 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 thrillingly good book

    Martin Amis

  • 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 hot draught of mad, primal fantasy and poetry

    Rebecca West

  • A fascinating study in child psychology

    New York Times

More from this Author

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.

Richard Hughes

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