Mehalah - Sabine Baring-Gould

I was interested to read this book as it was set in the Essex marshlands near where my ancestors lived. Baring-Gould was the local vicar and wrote countless fiction and non-fiction books, poems and hymns, the best known probably being Onward Christain Soldiers. This book was his most highly acclaimed novel and with it he drew comparisons with Hardy, Dickens and Charlotte Bronte. I certainly see the Dickens similarity as a lot of his characterisations echo Dickens style of almost caricatures.

Our heroine is a young woman called Mehalah who lives on a small island off of Mersea with her sick, widowed mother. She is a bit of a tom boy and is as capable as any of them men when it comes to handling the boats. She has an admirer is a young fisherman called George, plus an elder, wealthy landowner called Elijah. Elijah uses his power and influence locally to try and win Mehalah away from George.

The writing style is very typical for a book set in the 1880s, thus the old style language doesn’t flow well for those used to reading more contemporary books. Some events that happen in the book don’t ring true. Without giving too much away, the author is somewhat heavy handed in his attempts to add a bit of mystery and it is often plainly obvious to the reader what the true story of events is, and it is frustrating when the characters don’t realise this, regardless of the strange coincidences that seem to have befallen them.

Whilst it was not an easy read it was still an interesting book to read, but one I am unlikely to pick up again.