Smoke Across The Fell / Cumbria Reading Detectives

The team

Other teams

Smoke Across The Fell Find!

Graham Sutton, the author of Smoke Across The Fell, was a notable Cumbrian writer who died in 1959 at the age of 67. He was born in Scotby and educated at St Bees (on the Cumberland coast) and Queen College, Oxford. He was a playwright, broadcaster and lecturer in addition to being a well known novelist who wrote his first books (detective stories) under the pen-name of Anthony Marsden.

But it is with his later novels set in Cumberland and the Lake District about the Fleming family that I feel I have truly found not one but several hidden gems! The characters in these stories were true Cumbrians and in the books the author shows a deep understanding of the rugged life of the North during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Smoke Across The Fell is the second novel in the series and follows the life of Dirck as he struggles to avert imminent disaster caused by his own mistake, by turning to smuggling in order to save his inheritance. The smuggling is not coastal so much as inland and the carrying of "wad" over the fells leads to daring exploits and eventual tragedy for Dirck and his brother Benet. The hard life of the upland sheep farmer, the back breaking labour of salt making and the threat posed to the rural communities by the ever growing influence of the iron industry along the Cumberland coast are wonderfully described. The prescence in the novel of the iron-master, John Wilkinson, is of particular interest as the great industrialist was born at Backbarrow just a few miles from Grange over Sands and later lived at a large house, Castlehead, in Lindale, now a Field Studies Centre where my younger daughter has recently got a part time job!

27 August 2009 from Anne

2 Comments

Catherine Serjeant | August 27, 2009 10:50 PM

And i and my daughter were responsible for the large wall murals at Castlehead. Are any still there. e.g the wild flower one on one of the corridors?!

Anne replied to comment from Catherine Serjeant | September 24, 2009 9:25 AM

Hi Catherine
Sorry don't know if the murals are still in Castlehead, but will try to find out. If they are will attempt to load some pics on the entry for Smoke Across the Fell.
Anne

All blog posts | RSS feed

Finds

Help the team

Have you got something to contribute? You can contact us to report your clues and you can comment on our blog posts. It doesn't matter where in the world you are!