Whispers in the Shingle - An Eighteenth-Century Suffolk Smuggling Tale of Love and Lawlessness

1780. A time when graceful sailing ships plied the waters of the North Sea by day, but engaged lawlessness and subterfuge against His Majesty-s excisemen by night. Kate Goldsmith, a young woman from Orford, falls in love with a dashing young sailor, but there is more to him than first appears. When she finds out the truth, she hides it from her family and the respectable miller-s son who has come to court her. However, when Jack clashes with the preventive service and finds himself on the run, Kate becomes involved in his escape and unwittingly starts a feud between her two suitors.

Set amongst the marshy waterways, rustling reed beds and windblown heaths of Suffolk, Whispers in the Shingle tells a story of ordinary eighteenth-century folk, whose poverty drove many to a life of crime, encouraged and abetted by those who benefited from it.