The Smuggler’s Secret

The Smuggler's Secret is a tour de force of historical imagination, a story with an enthralling plot, thick with the intertwining stories of richly drawn characters, and a brilliantly detailed portrait of the oppression of the poor by those who reaped the rewards of the British Empire. But most of all, this is a story of romance. Born into grinding poverty, ten-year-old Frederick Musgrave spent his childhood living by his wits. Agile in mind and body and never more so than when navigating his little boat across the swift-flowing waters of the Tyne between the busy seaports of North and South Shields.

The shillings he picked up running messages and smuggled goods, evading the ever-watchful eyes of the customs agents, helped to feed his family amidst the endless battle for survival fought by so many in this year of 1843. But one night a mission took this small runner to the house at The Towers, where madness had been known to lurk, and there he witnessed a scene of unremitting horror. His silence was bought and the tide of his life shifted.

This book has also been published under the titles The Harrogate Secret and The Secret.