Mary is another strong farming woman, brought up by her mother after her father died when she was six, helping her mother on the family farm as soon as she was old enough. We meet her in the coach from Helston to Bodmin, about to start a new life with her aunt and uncle. Anyway, I went into the novel knowing the story, but interested to read the source. Perhaps I have good ears, or a higher tolerance for ‘mumbling’. It was widely criticised for its dialogue being impenetrable, but I didn’t struggle to tell what the characters were saying. I watched the 2014 BBC adaptation of Jamaica Inn and thoroughly enjoyed it. I picked up a second hand copy of Jamaica Inn at Bookmark in Falmouth and included it on my list of 10 books to read for Cathy’s 20 Books of Summer reading challenge. In recent years, we’ve enjoyed exploring Cornwall on holiday.

I have read a few du Maurier novels – Rebecca, Frenchman’s Creek, My Cousin Rachel – and I’ve been keen to read more. Set at a similar time to the last book I read, Mary Webb’s Precious Bane, it concerns coastal life in a very different landscape to rural Shropshire, but captures the same flaws in human nature as are found in Webb’s book. It’s the novel that established du Maurier’s reputation and the author drew on the Cornish landscape and history she knew so well.

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