Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

What's your favourite winter read?

The Guardian has started a series of columns called Winter Reads with two cracking recommendations. I don't know about you but I'm a seasonal reader. I like to read ghost stories and fantasy in the deep mid winter and pretty much anything that looks 'cold'. I'm about to re read the wonderful Susan Cooper books in 'The Dark is Rising' series with the intention of reading the second book, also called 'The Dark is Rising' in the run up to Christmas as it all takes place around the Winter Solstice.

Have you got any favourite winter books or poems to share with us? I could do with some recommendations to help me spend the book tokens I always get.

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Permalink Reply by Liz on December 2, 2011 at 13:09

Louisa has just tweeted a suggestion to me. Like it

Talking Turkeys by Benjamin Zephaniah

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Permalink Reply by Caroline on December 2, 2011 at 13:26

I like ghost stories in the winter too. Last winter I read 'Dark Matter' by Michelle Paver, and 'Cold Earth' both Sarah Moss. Both spooky tales based north of the Artic Circle. Both perfect for a dark winter night - I cannot recommend them highly enough.

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Permalink Reply by Liz on December 6, 2011 at 20:10

These sound just the ticket, Caroline. On my list to track down and read. Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by dont want to give name on December 2, 2011 at 22:22

A chilling winter ghost story called,"The Woman in Black", by Susan Hill.

"A Christmas Carol", by Charles Dickens.

A Christmas Carol^[1] is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim.

The book was written and published in early Victorian era Britain when it was experiencing a nostalgic interest in its forgotten Christmas traditions, and at the time when new customs such as the Christmas tree and greeting cards were being introduced. Dickens' sources for the tale appear to be many and varied but are principally the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.^[2]^[3]^[4]

The tale has been viewed as an indictment of nineteenth century industrial capitalism and was adapted several times to the stage, and has been credited with restoring the holiday to one of merriment and festivity in Britain and America after a period of sobriety and sombreness. A Christmas Carol remains popular, has never been out of print,^[4] and has been adapted to film, opera, and other media.

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Permalink Reply by Liz on December 2, 2011 at 22:26

Both top winter reads DWTGN. It's not really Christmas until I've read A Christmas Carol and The Woman in Black is v scary. Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by dont want to give name on December 2, 2011 at 22:32

Was this also a play in the West End?

The Woman In Black.By Susan Hill.

The house is situated on Nine Lives Causeway, and at high tide is completely cut off from the mainland with only the surrounding marshes and sea frets for company. Kipps soon realises there is more to Alice Drablow than he originally thought. At the funeral he spots a woman dressed in black and with a pale, wasted face, who is watched in silence by a group of children. Over the course of several days, while sorting through Mrs Drablow's papers at Eel Marsh House, he endures an increasingly terrifying sequence of unexplained noises, chilling events and hauntings by the Woman in Black. The hauntings included the sound of a horse and cart in difficulty which were closely followed by the screams of a young child and his maid.

Most of the people in Crythin Gifford are extremely reluctant to reveal information about Mrs Drablow and the mysterious Woman in Black, and most attempts to find out the truth cause pained and fearful reactions. From various sources, Kipps learns that Mrs Drablow's sister, Jennet Humfrye, gave birth to a child, but, because she was not married when she became pregnant was forced to give the child to her sister. Mrs Drablow and her husband adopted the boy, called Nathaniel, insisting he should never know that Jennet was his mother. The child's screams heard by Kipps were those of Nathaniel.

Jennet went away for a year but after realising she could not be parted for so long from her son, made an agreement to stay at Eel Marsh House with her son, so long as she never revealed her true identity to him. One day, a pony and trap carrying the boy across the causeway became lost and sank into the marshes, killing all aboard, while Jennet looked on from the window of Eel Marsh House as she waited for them. This was particularly distressing for Jennet Humfrye as she had planned to run away with her son, as they were becoming very close.

Jennet died later, but returned to haunt Eel Marsh House and Crythin Gifford with a vengeful malevolence, as the Woman in Black. According to local tales, seeing the Woman in Black meant that the death of a child would follow.

After the affair is settled, Arthur Kipps returns to London, marries Stella, and has a child of his own. At a fair, while his wife and child are enjoying a carriage ride, Kipps suddenly sees the Woman in Black once more. She steps out in front of the horse pulling the carriage and startles it so greatly that it gallops away and collides with a tree, killing the child and fatally injuring Stella, who dies of her injuries ten months later. The Woman in Black has had her vengeance.