Susan Hill – The Travelling Bag

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Book Review, Ghost story, Susan Hill, The Travelling Bag, The Travelling Bag and Other Ghostly Stories

Well written ghostlies, but creating mild goose-bumps rather than uncontrollable shivers

Susan Hill is always worth reading, and she does the ghostly brigade well, though I must confess to wishing for a little more of those factors which would have had me whimpering in slight fear, and turning on all the lights. She did this marvellously of course in The Woman In Black, knowing how to turn up the volume knob of terror slowly and inexorably.

This moderately long story collection comprises 4 tales of the ghostly, and whilst they are well done, the first two did not create any unease in me at all – possibly because the chosen constructions for both stories tended to minimise and undercut fear in the reader, because fear was not really there for the narrator.

The first story, The Travelling Bag is not the narrator’s own story, and so there is a distance from emotion, through the using of one person to tell another’s story. This makes it a ghost story told as entertainment, so I was not surprised to find no hairs rising on the back of my neck, though there might well be some vivid images which make certain readers feel a little whimpery and uneasy!

Boy Number 21 also has a device which turns the fearful volume knob down. The narrator is reminded of an event from his long ago childhood. This concerns the paranormal. At the time, others in his circle were a bit spooked, but he himself was not, so, really, the absence of the narrator’s fear didn’t stir mine

Degas: Intérieur

It was only the third, and really, the fourth story which made me get close to any kind of feeling spooked and a bit scared – and that, after all, is surely one of the reasons we like ghost stories (those of us that do)

The central characters in the last two are female, as indeed the possible spookers are. What makes it work is that the characters the reader is being encouraged to identify with are uneasy, and becoming increasingly so, as the story progresses, so we have mounting fear going on. In the third story, Alice Baker, the inexplicable spooky goings on take place in the mundane surroundings of the typing pool in an office block.

The last story, The Front Room, was the one which most satisfied my desire for being a bit scared, set in an unexceptional twenties suburban house, at a time pretty close to the present, as DVD players and TVs figure! What makes for a better fear factor is that everyone, bar the source, is in the end scared. And this includes small children, which somehow made the scary happenings more sinister and potent.

The Monkey’s Paw – W.W. Jacobs – scariest ghostly ever, written in 1902

Hill is an old-fashioned ghost story writer – which I like, in that she focuses most on the psychology of the person being ‘spooked’, not to mention, the psychology of the haunter, so that the journey is about increases in tension rather than the BANG! RATTLE! of a plethora of sudden shocks, clanking chains, groaning coffins and the like which are the territory of what I dismissively think of as ‘Pulpy’ Horror writers.

Though, personally, as stated I do rather like the scare factor of a good ghost story, so would have liked to be a little more terrified, this would be a good one for a reader wanting a milder, gentler shivering turn

        Photo credit Ben Graville

I bought this as a download, but the ‘real’ book by all accounts is a beautifully presented one, and it’s probably particularly well-marketed for a Christmas stocking filler

The Travelling Bag Amazon UK
The Travelling Bag Amazon USA

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Susan Hill – The Woman In Black

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Book Review, Ghost story, Susan Hill, The Woman In Black

As the nights get longer: ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night

Susan Hill’s transmogrified-into-many-media “The Woman In Black” remains a wonderful, atmospheric ghost story, still holding its own after its 30 plus years in print. Though I’m – amazed/amused/shocked to find that it is now listed as a best seller on Amazon in the CHILDREN’S ebook category. I don’t believe it was initially written, or published, for that market. So I’m not quite sure what this shows – the literary sophistication of children? Sure, post a-film-starring-Daniel-Harry-Potter-Radcliffe, probably new audiences are coming to the book, but it is quite a slowly paced, literary piece of writing (hence its standing the test of time on a re-read for this reader). It’s a properly paced, slow-burn, atmospheric piece of writing, with a wonderful sense of lonely place – set on the North-East coast, much of the horror arises from Hill’s ability to create an eerie, beautiful, mysterious and isolated tidal estuary landscape, complete with the suckings and soughings, the glimmers, glistens and dankness of wind, water and sea-frets.

Parson Drove, Cambridgeshire, photographer Richard Humphrey, Creative Commons licence

Arthur Kipps, now a middle aged man on his second marriage, is immured in a family Christmas. His teenage stepsons embark, in high spirits, on the telling of ghost stories

Unwillingly, the years roll back memories of a quarter of a century and more ago, when Kipps, as a young solicitor, was sent to deal with the estate of a recently deceased reclusive woman in her eighties, who had lived in isolation in a house at Eel Marsh, some distance from a little market town called Crythin Gifford. Eel Marsh can only be reached when the tide is out, and is then completely cut off from the outside world, and the outside world from it, once the tide comes in again. There was some unexplained horror to do with Eel Marsh. Locals drop veiled hints, but Kipps, a pragmatic, modern young man, not given to flights of fancy is of course dismissive…………..until.

This is a proper Victorian Gothic style story, even though set in a modern era. Everything is done through its effect on Kipps, the slow drip drip of fear and horror into his psyche. It’s a superb ratcheting up of horror, and there is nothing to cynically laugh at, no crass clankings of chains and slamming doors, opening graves and the like. Hill takes normality and just progressively makes it go wrong, chill and definitely evil.

We had travelled perhaps three miles, and passed no farm or cottage, no kind of dwelling house at all, all was emptiness. Then, the hedgerows petered out, and we seemed to be driving towards the very edge of the world. Ahead, the water gleamed like metal…..I realized this must be the Nine Lives Causeway…..and saw, how, when the tide came in, it would quickly be quite submerged and untraceable……..we went on, almost in silence, save for a hissing, silky sort of sound. Here and there were clumps of reeds, bleached bone-pale, and now and again the faintest of winds caused them to rattle dryly

And that’s BEFORE the sea-frets come!

A short, chilly, chilly, read. Hill is a writer who understands less is more and has no need for crude schlock effects.

The Woman In Black Amazon UK
The Woman In Black Amazon USA

Susan Hill – The Soul of Discretion. It’s publication day!

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Book Review, Susan Hill, The Soul of Discretion

It’s release day for Susan Hill’s 8th book in her Simon Serrailler series. Hill continues to use this series to explore wider themes than the original crime and investigation. Having thought she was maybe running out of steam with the series with Serrailler 7 (not reviewed here), this one gets the thumbs up from me. Here is my  original review,  after receiving it as an ARC from NetGalley in digital format

Release date in The States (for the bookie version) is later than in the UK, but Kindle versions are available today

The Soul of Discretion Amazon UK
The Soul of Discretion Amazon USA

Susan Hill – Strange Meeting

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Book Review, First World War, Strange Meeting, Susan Hill

A beautifully written story about male friendships and the First World War

Susan Hill, almost always a writer whose fictional books deal with ethical or philosophical issues as well as whatever else she is writing about, writes in three main styles, a couple of which are ‘genre fiction’ Firstly, books with a supernatural, often gothic element – most famous of which was Woman In Black – book, then stage play, TV version, radio play, then film – I’m sure there is a tee shirt too! Then there is her incarnation as a crime writer, with the Simon Serrailler series (number 8 is the latest). Finally, there are literary fiction books which are outside a genre, though she is always a writer of literary fiction, whether or not her writing also fits within genre.

Strange Meeting belongs to this third category. Though of course particularly apposite in this hundredth year anniversary of the outbreak of the First War, Hill’s book about two soldiers in that war, and the deep friendship which develops between them, was published some forty years ago.

It is a short, quietly powerful read. The focus is on the two central characters, young officers. John Hilliard comes from a typically correct, emotionally repressed background, and is isolated, restrained and unable to be easy with his fellows. David Barton is one of the golden ones, a young man of great charm, ease and likeability, with a natural warmth which pleases everyone he meets. He comes from an unusual family, where such ability to express delight, and to not keep a stiffened lip, is responsible for his sunniness.

The two develop a friendship and love for each other – though whether that love is platonic or sexual is never mentioned – and in many ways Hill is respectful of a time and place where the strong expression of friendship may or may not mean either overt or covert sexual feelings. (There of course are biblical echoes in the forenames of the two young men)

The relationship, and the changes which the horrors of the trenches visit upon the soldiers themselves, their relationships with their families and the wider society back home who are still caught up in early jingoism, and a belief that the way will be a short push and then over, are beautifully drawn

Given the facts of that war, there can only be 4 possible outcomes to this story, only one of which would be less plausible than the other three. In a sense the story of ‘what happens’ is not the point of the book – which is the relationship, the characters, and the experience of the men in that war, and their estrangement, by and large, from an ignorant public at home, who, not having experienced the horrors themselves, cannot fully understand the terrible changes which happen when such hell is engaged with.

Cheshire Regiment trench Somme 1916 From the collections of the Imperial War Museum. Wiki Commons

Immediately, he was conscious of his own flesh, of the nerves beneath the skin, of the bone and muscle which obeyed him: clench, unclench, move this finer, bend that. His hands looked huge and pale under the water. He had never realised before how much he cared about his own body, simply because it was so familiar, because he knew better than he knew anything every shape and crease of it, the exact width of knuckle, the flatness of his fingernails. So that, when he imagined his hand torn off at the wrist it was not the thought of the pain which so terrified him, but simply the loss of a part of himself, something he had always known. He was his hand – and his legs and neck, ribs and groin

My only cavil with the book is the full and frank letters which Barton writes to his family. Officers of course censored the letters home which the ‘other ranks’ sent, but I found myself working hard to suspend a sense that Barton’s letters would surely have been censored by those of higher rank, and if not, as Hilliard was party to the letters Barton sent and received, that he, as a very correct man, would have intervened and censored the truths which Barton was telling his family about the awful futility of the war.

However – why the present front cover photo for the Kindle edition shows a group of remarkably modern squaddies is a bit of an artist and publicist goof I would have thought!

Strange Meeting Amazon UK
Strange Meeting Amazon USA

Susan Hill – The Soul of Discretion (Serrailler 8)

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Book Review, Simon Serrailler, Susan Hill, The Soul of Discretion

Just when I thought the Serrailler series might be running out of steam…….

Susan Hill was a fabulous and thoughtful writer of complex and often dark psychology long before she embarked on the crime genre

So when, all those years ago, she joined the ranks of detective novel writers, with an on-going cast of characters, to appear novel by novel, she was never going to abandon her initial writerly strengths and vision, and would instead bring these to her interpretation of the genre.

She begins with a particular person DCI Simon Serrailler, as her detective to follow and over the years (this is outing 8) traces the development not just of Serrailler himself, and relationships he has as a professional, the development of and relationships of individuals within his team, but also looks at Serrailler within his immediate and wider family, and their development. That family of course also being set within a particular time and place ‘Lafferton’ a small cathedral town, somewhere in Southern England.

This gives, as the series wears on, Hill a chance to explore much wider themes, within the lives of her characters, and the culture of the times. The particular ‘crime’ which may be the page turning element of the plot will spread out into the lives of the community at large, and Hill may also investigate further ethical and philosophical themes and sub-themes in each novel, as well as charting how decisions from Central Government may be filtering down onto the ground. These will obviously be around policing and judiciary, and may deal with issues such as economic migrants and how they are viewed, but, as Serrailler’s sister Cat Deerbon is a doctor, the exploration of the changing face of health-care and policies relating to this, are also, increasingly, at the centre.

This might make her sound dry, white-paper minded and pedantic. Anything but – it adds depth, integrity and interest. Continuing readers of the series know all the above, and my advice of course for the first time reader would be that though this (book 8) is absolutely fine, as they all are, to read as a stand-alone first book, if you enjoyed it, go and explore, in order, the rest of the series, from book 1, and work your way through, then reading this again, for even more enjoyment.

Later books in the series have explored strong meta-themes.

Broken dolls, Wiki Commons

In this one, we are back into the territory of sexual crimes – and the wide context is about consent, and who is capable of giving consent; sex without consent is always violation. Centrally, we are in the horrid territory of organised paedophilia, but there is also another story going on around adult rape, and issues of power between the sexes. Hill is never salacious, there are no accounts designed half to titillate as they repel, but she does not hesitate to make the reader understand difficulties, injustices, ambiguities and still bleak challenges within the legal system

She also continues to explore a theme which surfaced in Serrailler 6, around terminal care, and assisted dying, death itself – both un-natural, visited through violence by one on another, and the process itself which comes to all, which in the main we find so difficult to engage with. As a contrast to the difficulties in Serrailler 6, we have here, through Cat Deerbon’s medical practice, an exploration of what proper hospice care could offer, what is being lost through cost-cutting policies, and indeed a humbling (for Deerbon) and revealing series of conversations with a patient in the process of dying (this is no spoiler, it is very obvious, immediately, known to Deerbon, known to the family) This is part of the ‘heart’ of the book, an exploration of communities, both what is supportive about communities – and of course, that flip-side, the community of perversion which the police story is all about.

Initially, I started this book with a sense that maybe the series had run its course, that there was nowhere else to go. I do believe Hill proved me wrong. There are very certain developments, and onwards, not to mention an ending which has beautiful poise.

So yes, I will be interested in Serrailler 9, should Hill want to take us from that poise, onwards.

Her books are not really about guessing plot, we know who, we often can surmise, through the meta-themes, ‘and who else’; we often also know generally why (the litany of human chosen wrongdoing often comes down to simple motives), but the trick, or the point, is to get down to the particular weft and weave of individuals.

I received this as a digital ARC, via the publishers, Random House Vintage, complete with a few strange vanished sentence or clause endings, and the odd typo, which I assume will be corrected by an eagle-eyed and diligent final proof reading. That aside, recommended

Publication date in the UK 2nd October, Stateside has the same date for Kindle, but next year for the ‘proper bookie book’
The Soul of Discretion Amazon UK
The Soul of Discretion Amazon USA

Susan Hill – The Betrayal Of Trust

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Assisted suicide, Book Review, Susan Hill, The Betrayal of Trust

Susan Hill continues to explore interesting territory with her Simon Serrailer series. In fact, in many ways, the crime solving stuff is the least important part – it is the vehicle to carry other things.

I agree with other reviewers to a sense of disappointment, slight unreality and rush with the ending – I did find myself being curiously logical and saying ‘Yebbut, yebbut it really can’t just be left here – how would police procedure have to unfold?’ (I don’t think this is a spoiler)

However, the main thrust of the novel is the much more interesting debate about assisted suicide, and also the equally painful debate and fact about the loss of a person, and the identity of a person, through dementia – both for the dementia sufferer themselves – when they don’t remember who they are or where (in their lives) they have been, who or what is the person who is left raging about this. And then of course, the pain for the friends and family, who have lost the person they loved, whilst a stranger seems to have taken up residence in the loved one’s body

There are several characters in this book who are all somewhere along this road of illness and suffering, and more characters who are their carers and family members.

I like the fact that Hill does not provide easy answers (though I think it may be clear where her own ideologies lie) to a reality where there may BE no answer which is a ‘one size fits all’ one. In a sense, there may not even be a ‘right’ answer at all, only the necessity for accommodating the fact that every decision brings pain, grief and heartache.

Serrailer and his personal family dynamic continues to unfold. Hill, as she generally does, uses her detective fiction form as an arena for deeper philosophical debate, without thrusting dry polemic at her readers – we FEEL the debate, and the feeling forces thought about the debate.

The Betrayal Of Trust Amazon UK
The Betrayal Of Trust Amazon USA

Susan Hill – Howards End Is On The Landing

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Book Review, Books about Books, Howards End Is On The Landing, Reading about Reading, Susan Hill

The pleasure of curling up with a good book about the pleasures of curling up with a good book

Susan Hill’s book about her books and the profound nature of the reading experience is unalloyed JOY. The premise is simple, she searches for a book from her shelves which she can’t find, gets lured by the contents of those shelves, and decides to explore her bookshelves more deeply; this sparks her to write a book about the experience.

This is much, much more than one of those dreary ‘list’ books – books you should read before you die, top classics etc etc. She spins off into a relationship with reading itself, and also some of her favourite books take her into accounts of writers she has met.

She did attract some reviews which commented negatively that the book is just ‘name dropping’ It doesn’t come across like that to THIS reader. Hill is a writer who had her first book published aged 18. She’s been fortunate to have mingled with literary life, and, personally, accounts of her brief meetings with, for example, such a wide range of ‘different greats’ as Edith Sitwell, Ian Fleming and even Benjamin Britten are utterly fascinating.

She’s an eclectic, unsnobby quirky reader – and I guess that’s why I find her appealing – someone who is as at home with Ian Fleming as they are with the book of Common Prayer, Tove Jansson’s Moomintroll and Trollope (Anthony) as well as Victorian diarists but NOT Jane Austen is an interesting mind.

Though I don’t share her discomfort with Jane I found her Austen immunity interesting.

There are also chapters extolling favourite reading places, the physical experience of reading, the pleasure of fonts, dustjackets and bindings, and, constantly poking through, a sense of books as mysterious, totemic objects with perhaps a secret life of their own…….she muses about which books might be happy or unhappy to be sitting next to its booky neighbour. Magic realism!

A charm (literally!) and an utter delight.

And maybe the subtitle  ‘A Year Of Reading From Home’, just MIGHT be a piece of useful advice for myself (and compatriot bookiephiles) as i gaze in horror on the huge and mounting wobbly piles of unread books (often added to following squints to see what others are reading) which exist on chairs, bookcases and of course, almost invisibly and therefore more dangerously, on the Kindle. With the unread Kindles at 86, and the piles on the chairs (never mind elsewhere) at 40 plus I reckon that if I DID manage Hill’s  ‘only read what you have at home’ that could comfortably see me through the year, and if it didn’t, well the pleasure of re-reads would be there. Will I do this? Unlikely, dear reader, unlikely. Maybe if no bookie bloggers read or blog about their reading, if Amazon reviews all vanish, if I wear a sign saying DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT BOOKS around my neck, if I never pick up a newspaper or magazine which has book reviews, hear or watch any programme about writing, writers etc. I probably need casting away on a desert island with only the unread books, no internet access, and helicopter drops of food parcels. Ah well. I’ll happily re-read Hill again!

Howards End Is On The Landing Amazon UK
Howards End Is On The Landing Amazon USA