A thriller, a romance and an enduring Gothic success
"Jamaic Inn stands today, hospitable and kindly, a temperance house on the twenty-mile road between Bodmin and Lanceston."
This note was written by Du Maurier in 1935 and provides an accurate guide to anyone seeking to locate the Inn today.
I found the Inn easily on that road, still hospitable and kindly today but somewhat overwhelmed by tourist interest.
Du Maurier paints Bodmin moor as a hostile and eerie setting but nowadays, in the height of the summer it features traffic and acres of unspoilt greenery decorated with meadow flowers.
However, summer or winter, our author paints accurate descriptions of the weather in this part of the world. Granite skies, mizzling rain and gusty wind provide the backdrop to Mary Yellan's uneasy adventure and will colour any visit to the area today. Mizzle aside, Cornish beaches remain popular and provide the ideal environment to lie back and savour this popular classic.
Jamaica Inn follows the central character, Mary Yellan, who, young and recently orphaned, travels across Bodmin moor to find a hostile Inn where visitors are not encouraged and business is done behind closed doors, in the dark with hints of fatal violence. As the story develops, Mary faces betrayal and death and confronts her own moral compass on a Gothic journey to love and redemption.
All of our group enjoyed this book - and some had explored other tales by the same author. Rebecca and Frenchman's Creek were also highly recommended. For Jamica Inn, the pace, writing and characters were all praised - "it's refreshing to read a well written book".
We reviewed this book at our local Black Bull Inn which was built in 1755. It encourages visitors and is popular with locals and visitors alike.
For those considering eating at The Blsck Bull our individual views on the dishes we tasted were summed up as:
Lamb shank - deliciously wholesome
Fish & chips - typical goof pub food
Seafood pastry- rather dry
Our next read offers something else completely different for the summer:
