Latest Read - The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore

 

Blurb

In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her husband Philip, a GP. With Philip spending long hours on call, Isabel finds herself isolated and lonely as she strives to adjust to the realities of married life.

Woken by intense cold one night, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under it for warmth, she starts to dream. And not long afterwards, while her husband is out, she is startled by a knock at her window.

Outside is a young RAF pilot, waiting to come in.

His name is Alec, and his powerful presence both disturbs and excites her. Her initial alarm soon fades, and they begin an intense affair. But nothing has prepared her for the truth about Alec's life, nor the impact it will have on hers ...

Thoughts

It certainly gripped me, I read it in on sitting and didn't want it to end. The ending was a little ambiguous, but Helen Dunmore is one of our finest literary authors so I went into the read expecting fine and subtle writing rather than obvious horror and gore. Didn't make the hairs on my neck prickle like Barbara Erskine can, but I loved it as much for the writing and use of words as the story. The depiction of early fifties Britain still struggling with the after effects of the war were superb as was the way the past and present meshed and intertwined through the story. Heroine was possibly a little too accepting of what was happening, but the twist at the end was good, even if it didn't resolve everything neatly. It's the kind of story that leaves the readers having to think on afterwards and I think that suits the genre. Ghost stories lose something if you're not left thinking, what happened there? Or what if....

This was a library lend and I'm buying my own copy just to study the prose. It's one of Hammer's new imprints of horror/ghost stories they're also making into films, I believe. I can imagine actually a film of this book would be a lot creepier than reading it. And yes, that is the Hammer House of Horror, of the cheesy fifties and sixties vampire horror films. Anyone remember the friday night late night horrors that used to be on? All vincent price and twins of evil who looked like swedish models?