Richard Hughes would find immediate commercial and critical success with his debut novel, “A High Wind in Jamaica”, first published in 1929. When a high wind destroys the plantation home of the Bas-Thornton family, the parents decide that their five children, John, Emily, Edward, Rachel, and Laura, should return to their original home in England. Accompanied by two Creole children, Margaret and Harry Fernandez, the seven children see their lives upended when they are captured by pirates. Suddenly, the children find themselves living life aboard a pirate ship. A strikingly original novel, “A High Wind in Jamaica” turns the coming-of-age novel on its head by exploring the drive for sensual experience and the moral ambiguity that typifies the psychology of youth. In contrast, the pirates are not represented in the stereotypically criminal way, but rather as often incompetent, indecisive, and oddly paternal. Praised by critics for its descriptive prose, “A High Wind in Jamaica” remains to this day a psychologically rich novel that challenges the often romanticized literary depictions of childhood.
