Orphaned John Trenchard grows up in the village of Moonfleet with his aunt, entranced by the local legend of the ghostly Blackbeard, who rises each winter night to search for his lost diamond. While conducting his own hunt for the treasure, John is trapped in the church crypt and discovers the true secret of the village: smuggling. Taken under the wing of the gruff innkeeper and chief smuggler, Elzevir Block, John begins a dangerous adventure which will see him in a hair-raising chase along a precarious cliff path and deciphering a hidden code in an ancient castle. Moonfleet is thrilling story of revenge and betrayal, of loyalty and great sacrifice, but it is above all a story about friendship.

I came across Moonfleet for the first time in Anne Dufourmantelle’s The Power of Gentleness, where John Trenchard, the quiet young hero of the book can be found in the company of Herman Melville’s Billy Bud, Sailor as an exemplary character of gentleness. Afterwards, I read it twice in quick succession. First, for “research”, and then again out loud to my 9 year old daughter, at times finding it difficult to hold back the tears when overwhelmed with emotion from the intensity of love between John and his friend and father-figure Elzevier Block. My daughter would fall asleep and my wife and I would read on for sheer pleasure, overexcited and a little giddy, unable to stop. — Swen, jotbookshop

Vintage, 2011, 272pages.