I Wish I’d Written: Angie Sage chooses Moonfleet

Angie Sage finds love, loss, friendship, fear and more, all wrapped up in a fantastic story.

When I was eight much to my father’s disapproval I spent a summer bingeing on the Famous Five, which is no doubt why he brought home a brand new paperback of Moonfleet. As soon as I opened the book I knew this was something special. I realise now it was the first time I experienced the joy of reading good writing—which is why I would love to have written Moonfleet.

I still love Moonfleet. The atmosphere and the way you are immediately transported to the Dorset countryside in the mid-1700s are wonderful. Right from the start, you and the hero are in this together and you just know that it is going to be a roller-coaster ride for both of you.

And so it is. On the way we encounter all aspects of being human—love, loss, friendship, fear, hope, greed, malice, loyalty and betrayal —all wrapped up in a fantastic story where fate is decided on the drop of a pin from a burning candle, where you are trapped in a vault of dead bodies, double crossed while down a well searching for a secret diamond. And that is just the start of it. What more can I say?

Moonfleet (978-0192734785) by John Meade Falkner is published by Oxford Children’s Classics, £6.99

 Pathfinder (978-1408858172), book one in Angie Sage’s new TodHunter Moon series is published by Bloomsbury, £6.99 pbk.