Review of Life of a Smuggler

The Life of a Smuggler by Helen Hollick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Smugglers. The word conjures up romantic images, but who were they and is what we know real or fictional? This query is the one Hollick attempts to answer in Life of a Smuggler. She opens by defining the word and explaining the conditions that give rise to these elusive men and women. Chapter one also examines the origins of the word, as well as the terms smugglers used when referring to themselves. She primarily focuses on historical smuggling to the mid 1700s, but also includes tidbits on later periods and present-day operations.

Subsequent chapters answer the main questions of when, why, and who. The main goal of the smuggler is to bring goods of interest to the populace into the country without paying taxes to the government. The first such tariffs (on wine) appeared in tenth-century England. Hollick also looks at other reasons for avoiding these taxes, the risks, the participants, the language of smuggling, and the switch from individuals to organized gangs. Equally important is the chapter on the law and incentives, or the lack thereof, that helped and hindered the revenue men.

After a discussion of the Battle of Sidley Green, readers learn about how smuggling worked, what items were smuggled, and various tricks of the trade. Among the names of individuals whom Hollick mentions is Thomas Jefferson, who participated in smuggling when serving as Minister to France. She also talks about punishments, including amputation, and which came first, the teacup or the teapot.

Four chapters are devoted to where English smugglers plied their trade, dividing the country into the West Country, the South-East, the East Coast, and the countries that comprise the United Kingdom. A fifth chapter looks at smuggling in the New World.

The final chapters address the factuality of inns often referred to as “Smuggler’s Rest”; the punishments smugglers faced if caught; where fictional authors hit the mark and where they don’t in adhering to the facts; how smuggling today differs from that of the past; and why we admire smugglers.

Hollick intersperses “Little Known Facts” throughout the book, although rather than placing these in sidebars, the publisher opted to place these within the main text. This tends to interrupt the flow of the narrative and, at times, these highlights contain the same information as the main text, making for repetitive reading. Black and white photographs are scattered throughout the book, and the book includes a bibliography and further reading list.

Readers seeking more in-depth histories on smuggling would do better to read Richard Platt’s Smuggling in the British Isles, Gavin D. Smith’s The Scottish Smuggler, or Alan L. Karras’s Smuggling: Contraband and Corruption in World History. But those who desire just an enlightening and entertaining introduction to the world and history of the illegal importation of goods will enjoy Hollick’s Life of a Smuggler.




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