A Bit of Gothic.

I do love a good ghost story.
I have just read "The Woman in Black" by Susan Hill. This is the first time I've read anything of that genre as my reading genres are pretty limited :(
Susan Hill is a classic writer and this book is a traditional gothic story.

My love of a good ghost story stems from childhood when my friend and I would scare each other witless with repetitive recounting from our repertoire of cheesy, clichéd stories. This is the best way. Oral retelling, at night, by candle light or camp fire. We were about age 11, the perfect age. Too old to need to run to a parent for comfort, but too young to be a cynical non believer. There was The Black Hand, the slightly less scary Brown Hand and a few local tales such as the Stone House in Dunorlan where no man would dare spend the night.

I first came across The Woman in Black as a movie in 1989. This was one of those old school movies where less was more and it was your own imagination that scared you, not the visuals. What could be more scary.... walking into the old nursery of a completely deserted, remote old house to see a rocking chair rocking as if someone had just been sitting there? Or seeing a woman in a distant graveyard, wearing Victorian mourning dress and then mysteriously disappearing?

The recent remake of this starring Daniel Radcliffe, while having some good elements, was not in the same class in my opinion. I don't like the use in recent years of graphic horror and over use of creepy supernatural themes.

The book was great, a classic tale. Set in the deserted house of the late Alice Drablow, a young lawyer must sort through her affairs. The house is only reached by a causeway which the tide cuts off every day. This story has every element needed. A great unfolding plot and a scary, haunting location.
I wouldn't call it horror, I wouldn't call it supernatural, just a good old-fashioned haunting.
I did avoid reading it at night though!

Winter Reading.

Is reading seasonal? There's the summer holiday read, but is there spring, autumn and winter reads too?

"Woman at Beach Reading" Marie Fox               "Woman Reading in a Forest" Gyula Benczur

Summer and Autumn.....

"Woman Reading" Tavik Simon
Spring, you can tell by the peonies on the table.
It is warm enough to have the window open, but not warm enough to have a summer dress on.......











and winter.

"Woman Reading on a Settee"
William Churchill

Trying to catch that winter sun.






We are well into autumn now with the prospect of winter upon us. Thoughts of snuggling up with a book (or a movie) are wonderful.
So...three winter books from me:

The Lion, the Witch and the wardrobe, also a movie.
This is a lovely winter book because it places you so well into that snowy, wintry environment, you can almost hear the crunch of snow under foot and feel the warmth of the collar of the fur coat on your face. One of the wonderful things about winter is the promise of an eventual summer. This book shows the bleakness of a prospect of an eternal winter. Always winter, never Christmas. The cover says it all though, spring does come and the White Witch is defeated.

The Remains of the Day, also a superb movie.
The story of Mr Stevens, the old-school butler at Darlington Hall, recalling his life and his relationship with Miss Kenton, the house keeper. After serving Lord Darlington for many decades, the estate is purchased in 1950 by an American , Mr Farrady. It is a story of duty, loyalty, memory and loss. It's about the winter of life, the passage of time and eras that are no more
I must confess, this book sits by my bedside still as yet unfinished.

Wanting.
A Tasmanian book, by a Tasmanian author. I love Richard Flanagan, but he's no lightweight summer read that's for sure. This book tells the story of the young Tasmanian aboriginal girl, Mathinna, adopted by Lady Jane Franklin in the 1840's. But it is the interweaving of the story of Sir John Franklin's disappearance in an Arctic expedition with the failing of the marriage of Charles and Catherine Dickens that is chilling and heartbreaking. It's a cold and crushing book, but one that you can't forget.

By The Time I Get to Phoenix

By the time I get to Phoenix, she'll be rising
And she'll find the note I left hangin' on her door
And she'll laugh when she reads the parts that says "I'm leavin'"
'Cause I've left that girl so many times before

And by the time I make Albuquerque, she'll be working
And she'll probably stop at lunch and give me a call
But she'll just hear that phone keep right on and ringin'
Off the wall and that's all

And by the time I make Oklahoma, she'll be sleepin'
She'll turn softly and call my name loud
Lord and she'll cry just to think I'd really leave her
Though time and time I try to tell her so,
Guess she just didn't know that I would really go

No, she didn't know I'd go
She didn't know I'd go

I love this song and have done ever since Glen Campbell made it popular in 1967. I've got it on my ipod sung by Jimmy Webb. He actually wrote it and does a better version of it in my opinion.
It's evocative of childhood times and memories for me. I reckon "she" would have had a nice mod phone like this one on her wall. "She", wiki informs me, was Susan Ronstadt (cousin of Linda).

It occurred to me recently as I was listening, that no one could write a song like this anymore.
The version written today would have to go something like this:

By the time I get to Phoenix she'll be rising (auto correct would fix this error)
and she'll find my text I sent 11:43pm.
And by the time I make Albuquerque she'll have texted me 16 times from her desk and emailed me,
she'll probably call me again and get message bank "the person is unavailable".
And by the time I make Oklahoma, someone will have tweeted that they saw me in the street, she'll have located me on her smart phone and have snapchatted me several times.
She'll be lying in bed with her laptop, changing her facebook relationship status and blogging about our break up
"I just didn't know, he would really go"

Ahh, simpler times when a man could just walk out on a woman. Wiki also tells me Jimmy and Susan remained friends after this. :)