Watch the wall, my darling (by Jane Aiken Hodge)

(Amazon UK link)

I discovered some of Jane Aiken Hodge’s novels when I was a teenager, and on the whole liked them very much. One of my favourites was ‘Watch the wall, my darling’, quoting the famous line which ends… ‘while the smugglers go by’. I last read it in 2008, so had forgotten all the people and the storyline, although I realised that smuggling must somehow play a part.

This novel is set in Sussex, by the coast, during the Napoleonic war period. The heroine is a strong-minded, feisty American girl called Christina, who is in her early twenties. We meet her travelling across the marshes in a hired coach, with a very nervous driver and groom who have been paid well to take her to her destination. She’s been warned by a landlord that she should not travel, and it’s so dark and gloomy - and the journey is taking so long - that she begins to think that she should have take his advice.

The coach has to halt due to branches across the road, and when the three travellers start to pull them aside, they are attacked by masked men. When she says who she is, they are allowed to travel again, with dire threats if they tell anyone what happened. And, at last, Christina arrives at the mansion where, she hopes her grandfather is expecting her. She has never met him, but had promised her late father that she would try to get to know her English family. 

What she did not expect was to be caught up not just in smuggling but in politics. Her cousin Ross has several different roles, and she is not sure what to make of him. He feels instinctively that he can trust her, at least somewhat. But he has rather a poor view of women in general. In part this is because he has a very foolish, flighty mother. Still, he recognises a possible kindred spirit in Christina and a tentative friendship starts to develop.

Ross’s cousin Richard is very different: he is smooth, and charming, and cares more about fashion than about the house or farm where Ross works. And their grandfather, old Mr Tretteign, is bad-tempered and crusty, and has a lot of health problems. Everyone tries to keep him happy so he doesn’t have a stroke or anything else that might finish him off. 

I thought the characterisation was very well done, even if Ross’s mother was rather a caricature. I liked Christina very much. She speaks her mind and talks about things which young ladies of the era were not supposed to mention. She also has a secret, something she promised her father not to reveal until she had been with her relatives for six months. I had an inkling of what it might be - there are plenty of hints - but none of her family has any idea. 

There’s lots of excitement in the book, which I thought extremely well-written. I couldn’t remember who could - or could not - be trusted, and was shocked along with Christina when she discovered something unexpected, or learned that a supposed ally was in fact an enemy. The smuggling is in fact not a huge part of the story, though the preventative officers are determined to stop it. It seems much less of an issue to me than a possible invasion by the French, something which everyone lived in dread of. 

News in those days travelled by letter, or by word of mouth. However, just as happens nowadays, some supposed ‘news’ was deliberately false, and some was misunderstood. Since spies could lurk anywhere, and violence was rife, there are some very tense situations in the book. 

Naturally enough, the main characters all manage to pull through - that was pretty much essential in this kind of light historical novel written in the 1960s. And the very low-key romance that develops is entirely predictable. But it’s handled nicely, and feels believable. The final line even made me smile.

These books are long out of print, but sometimes can be found in second-hand shops, real or virtual. This one can also be found in Kindle form. If you like light historical novels, set in this era, then I would recommend this book.

Review copyright 2026 Sue's Book Reviews