Through the Kitchen Window by Susan Hill

This is the third of my Susan Hill books about her life in the country. After being totally enchanted by The Magic Apple Tree last year, I bought Through the Garden Gate and this title. Susan Hill's voice has an gentle and honest quality, and I have become a fan of her writing.

This book is quite short and you would be able to read it in one sitting. Illustrated again by Angela Barrett, the pictures enhance the main themes of the book, which are home, family, living in a community, and cooking things that you have grown yourself. The whole book is infused with recipes alongside the authors recollections, stories and recommendations.

Arranged seasonally we are taken through a whole year in her kitchen...hearty meals in winter and dishes that help you get over a cold, young greens in spring, picnics, salads and fruit in summer, bottling and preserving in autumn. Naturally each seasonal festival is also included, The Christmas table, Easter treats, and suggestions for using whatever is in season.

The recipes are of a traditional nature with family in friends in mind, Fruity Tea Bread, Dorset Apple Cake, Sausage and Onion Plate Pie. Many dishes are mentioned without the recipe, as a nostalgic memory or appreciation. We also have 'Ten Pleasures of the Winter Kitchen' and sections on Damsons, Asparagus, Rhubarb and many more.

Again this is a book to treasure and dip into, very sensory, and a haven to retreat to during a busy day. Out of the 3 books this is my least favourite, and The Magic Apple Tree remains miles ahead, but if you like books about country living and Susan Hill's mesmerising writing voice, this is worth looking up.

To see more book illustrations by Angela Barrett, who mainly does childrens books, but whose contribution to some of Susan Hill's books can not be understated, use the link.

Through the Garden Gate by Susan Hill

After being totally enchanted with The Magic Apple Tree last year, by the author who is otherwise known for her ghost stories, I managed to buy second hand copies of her other similar books, about living in the countryside. Through the Garden Gate is the first of the 2 titles.

The illustrations by Angela Barrett draw you into this lovely book, where Susan Hills voice describes the various gardens throughout her life. Starting with The Gardens of my Childhood, and on to other chapters covering Herb Gardens, Rose Gardens, Wilderness, Winter Gardens, Vegetable Gardens, Potted Gardens, and Night Gardens, among others, you get a little burst of pictures and musings in each chapter. This book is about sharing a love of gardens rather than a tome of practical information. It is an indulgence, for writer and reader.

I loved the reference to Alice in Wonderland at the beginning, and the Ten Delights of a Garden which included such carefree thoughts of 'Rhubarb plants left to spread, tower and run all to seed...The smell of tomato plants inside a conservatory...Pincushion moss growing in the crevices of a stone wall'. Susan Hills gardens are not the ordered kind of exotic blooms, tamed into submission and planned to the last detail. They are places to get lost in, marvel at how they do their own thing, a little bit wild, but always beautiful, surprising and full of wonderful things. A partnership between gardener and garden with an adventure around every corner. Exactly the kind of garden I would love to have, but try to emulate with my modest bit of ground at the front and back of the house.

Although not quite as amazing as The Magic Apple Tree, it is certainly a book to dip into if, like me, you enjoy listening to Susan Hills voice, taking you around gardens of the imagination, that you would love to visit for real. A book to get lost in, very sensory, and a short read that some of you could polish off in one go.

The nearest places I have seen that come close to the ideal gardens of my imagination are The Forbidden Corner in Yorkshire (like visiting every childrens story you read when you were a child) and Newby Hall near Ripon, for a beautiful historic garden with quirky details, including a gate that was taken from Newgate prison in London when it was closed down in 1902.

I would love any recommendations for beautiful or interesting gardens that you know of.

The Magic Apple Tree: A Country Year by Susan Hill

I picked this one up in Oxfam when I was stocking up on Herbal Medicine books and I was totally drawn to it. By the author of The Woman in Black this is a completely different kettle of fish altogether. Documenting a whole year of her life in Moon Cottage in a small Oxfordshire village during the 1980's.

The book is split into seasons, starting with winter, and then split into chapters covering such things as village life, creatures, cooking, the garden, people, the wood, festivals and many other subjects. Overlooking all of it is the Apple Tree in the garden, gnarled, weathered and constant. Throughout there are lovely engravings by John Lawrence depicting the year passing around.

We are taken through all the lovely transitions of nature and how Susan and the other villagers lived alongside it, worked with it, and with each other to share their strengths and look out for each other. This is not a book about self sufficiency but about people living side by side. In fact Susan says she doesn't believe anyone can be totally self sufficient and she has seen many a well-meaning person arrive in the village only to depart a year or so later. The secret is not to exist alone but to exist as a community and this is a strong message that comes through in the book.

Susan's voice is unassuming and very easy to listen to, describing the beauties of the home she clearly loves and the people of the village. I loved hearing about the Twomey brothers who make cider, the WI autumn fair where jams and cakes are on show, the carol singing in winter, the preserving week in autumn, the hens, the cats, the walks with the dog in the woods. It is not about a super-woman ploughing the land single-handed in all weathers, but an attainable life in a small community, and what that meant to the author. It is quiet, observant and gentle. Looking for lights in the other houses, picking damsons, riding your bike up and down the lanes.

I totally loved this book. I felt a calmness descend upon me whenever I picked it up. Described as a 'comfort book' it was a pure pleasure to read and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in country life with nature and the English countryside on your doorstep.

Susan Hill has her own website and you can read about this book and lots of others by clicking the link.

The Woman In Black by Susan Hill

Now this is a ghost story!

After my disappointment at taking the plunge to scare myself witless with The Turning of the Screw and not getting so much as a shiver, I went for this one when I saw it for £1 in Reid of Liverpool. I saw it as a film one Christmas Eve some years ago on TV and it is one of the scariest things I have seen, (you can read about it on IMDb, read the users comments too). So I knew the story beforehand. It has also been adapted for stage as a play that has been on at the Fortune Theatre in London for over 20 years.

It starts on another Christmas Eve with another family telling ghost stories, leading Arthur Kipps to write down something unspeakable that happened to him earlier in his life.

As a young solicitor, level headed, engaged and with his whole life ahead of him, Kipps is sent to wind up an elderly lady's estate on the edge of a remote Northern England town. Misty and surrounded in marshes, the towns people are shifty and secretive, especially when Kipps explains his business there. At the womans funeral, attended only by himself and Mr Jerome, a local agent, Kipps sees a woman dressed all in black Victorian clothing, first at the back of the church and then in the graveyard some way from them. She appears to have a body wasting disease, her skin hangs on her bones. When Kipps asks Mr Jerome about her, the poor man becomes a dithering wreck, almost panicking to get away.

Kipps is obliged to go to the dead womans house to sort through her papers. She lived in a lonely house on the marshes, reachable only by a causeway at low tide. Only one person from the town will take him there. It is at Eel Marsh House that the main body of the story takes place. Kipps is determined that local superstition will not deter him and he decides to stay at the house to avoid the difficulties that arise getting to it. Poor naive soul!

With all the elements of a good haunting, suffused with good doses of malevolence and menace, this part of the book rockets along without pausing for breath, towards its conclusion.

This is a ghost story in its traditional sense, lots of gothic imagery, scene setting, and gentle tension building. When the roller coaster has finished its climb, the main part of the story whooshes along relentlessly with barely a breath.

I have always said that ghost stories scare me, a lot, and this one did raise my blood pressure more than once. Had I not known the story I may have found the tension and unpredictability more than I could cope with. Thank goodness for Spider, the little dog who stays with Kipps at the house. There is a decent story behind the happenings, leaked to us in pieces like a good mystery. The book uses lots of anticipation to keep us on the edge of our seat. All in all I found it an enjoyably exciting story, well paced and interesting with a number of scenes that made me nervous more than actually frightened (unlike the film where I thought my heart was coming through my ribs and I watched most of it peeping behind a cushion!).

Susan Hill has her own website where you can read about this book and her other work.

Readers Place also have a reading guide that includes starting points for discussion.

I read this for #11 of the 2009 mini challenges, to read something that was out of your comfort zone.