 First edition | |
| Author | Susan Hill |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Getty Images |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Chatto and Windus |
Publication date | 2 Oct 2008 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print & ebook |
| Pages | 160 |
| ISBN | 0-7011-8340-3 |
The Beacon, is a novel by English author Susan Hill, first published in 2008 by Chatto and Windus and in paperback the following year by Vintage Books. [1]
Plot introduction
The four Prime children grow up in a bleak North Country farmhouse called 'The Beacon'; Colin and Berenice marry locally, May, the central character of the novel went to university in London but returns within a year. Only quiet, watchful Frank escapes to become a journalist on Fleet Street. But then he publishes a successful novel about his childhood which throws the family into turmoil...
Reception
- Joanna Briscoe in The Guardian described it as a "novel of great structural and stylistic control" and as being "an almost perfect little literary novel outside any genre. A cross-generational family story barely longer than a novella, it possesses the light tug of menace and almost invisible haze of tension that characterise Hill's ghost stories, yet there is nothing supernatural about this tale of a farming family grounded in the seasons. The slippery nature of memory is what casts an atmosphere of unease over the novel". [2]
- Laura Thompson in The Telegraph writes "this short book is richly satisfying. Hill's craftsmanship is masterly. We are always aware of the farming backdrop: the book begins with a superb evocation of rural hardship, whose inexorable rhythms read like pared-down Thomas Hardy." and goes on to describe it as "a little masterpiece". [3]
- The Times said it was "a moving, evocative and rewarding novel". [4]
Radio Dramatisation
The novel was dramatised for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Drama, broadcast in five 15-minute episodes from March 22–26, 2010. [5]
References
- ^ "The Beacon by Susan Hill". www.fantasticfiction.co.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2010.
- ^ Real and imagined terrors: Invented family traumas add menace to Susan Hill's near-perfect novel Joanna Briscoe, The Guardian, Saturday 18 October 2008
- ^ Laura Thompson reviews a magnificent novella about the riddles wrapped up in two enigmas, The Telegraph, 23 Oct 2008.
- ^ The Beacon: Amazon.co.uk: Susan Hill: Books Retrieved 2012-06-04.
- ^ Dramatisation of the novel by Susan Hill examining the effect of the publication of a 'misery memoir' on the family who are its subject Retrieved 2010-04-11.