A Review By Zoe Boulton

This is another novel that I have been intending to read since it was published. As it is a ghost story, and Christmas always seems like a good time to read a ghost story, I read it over the holiday period a couple of weeks ago.

Set in an old Warwickshire country mansion after WW2, down country lanes not far from here, The Little Stranger sees country GP, Dr. Faraday becoming entangled with the troubled lives of the Ayres family who live at Hundreds Hall. Dr. Faraday was fascinated by the house as a small boy, his mother had worked there as a servant, and one bright summer’s afternoon he defaced the beautiful plaster border decorating the hallway by removing an ornamental acorn with his pocket knife. Thirty years later, he arrived back at the house to treat an unhappy servant, and is shocked at the tumble-down state of the building, and the genteel poverty of the remaining family. He becomes ever more involved with their lives as terrifying and inexplicible things begin to happen.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I couldn’t put it down. I love that it is set in Warwickshire, I went to school in a former regency era house, which was filled with plaster ceiling decorations, marble fireplaces, old call bells, and quite a bit of mould sprouting behind the wallpaper. It wasn’t difficult to imagine myself walking around Hundreds Hall. The story itself slowly builds up to become chilling, and intertwines class divides, obsession, changing social attitudes with a traditional style ghost story. It is brilliant, perfect for reading on wintery afternoons.