AUTHOR OF THE WEEK February 7 Monday
Susan Hill
(Novels/Short Stories, Mystery and Ghost Fiction)
“Ghost stories … tell us about things that lie hidden within all of us, and which lurk outside all around us.”
“I wrote ghost stories because I’d always enjoyed reading them, and they seemed to be fizzling out… I don’t take them terribly seriously. It’s like a cake, with ingredients.”
“Though they don’t always have to be set in fog, weather is incredibly important in ghost stories. As is suspense: you’ve got to turn the screw very, very slowly.”
“I have only read very classic traditional English ghost stories, other than Henry James, who wrote some magnificent short ones as well as the longer ‘Turn of the Screw.’ He, Dickens, and M.R. James are my influences.”
Dame Susan Hill, Lady Wells, DBE is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror, and I’m the King of the Castle, for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971. Other awards include Whitbread Novel Award for The Bird of Night (1972); and the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for The Albatross (1971), a collection of short stories.
Her Simon Serrailler Crime Mysteries are popular novels, beginning with the first in the series The Various Haunts of Men.
Reviews:
“A gripping whodunnit and a subtle study of the mind of a psychopath” Daily Mail
“I loved this book. Masterly and satisfying” Ruth Rendell
“This book must be judged as a potential successor to the great sequences of detective writing by PD James and Ruth Rendell…excellent” Daily Telegraph
“She has the priceless ability to construct a solidly-researched narrative that keeps the reader turning the pages” Independent
Interview with Susan Hill speaking about wickedness, her dark new novella – and why she would never read the latest Man Booker winner.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/25/susan-hill-books-interview
Interview about ghost stories:
Here is the trailer for The Small Hand, a short story by Susan Hill
Visit Susan Hill’s Amazon Book Page: https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Hill/e/B096X8W23Z
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Paula Cappa 
The Woman in Black has become a ghost story classic. It is on par with The Haunting of Hill House. I highly recommend the 1989 adaption of the novel and also a radio play that is floating around youtube.
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That film is a beauty, for sure, Lisa. I didn’t know about the radio play. Definitely will look for that one. Thanks!.
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I love Susan Hill’s stories! Excellent pick.:-)
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Priscilla, she is my favorite too. Very talented.
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