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Post by dem bones on Jul 26, 2019 10:28:56 GMT
John Gordon - The House on the Brink (Puffin, 1986: Hutchinson, 1970)  Neil ReedBlurb: 'What's that?' she said.
He looked where she pointed.
'Don't know,' he said. 'Stump or something.'
'Tom! It's a body!'
A rich, lonely woman is terrified by sinister black log which emerges from the river by her house. Dick and his friend Helen try to discover if the log really is a body or something even more sinister. Or is the woman frightening herself and all the people round her for nothing‘? .... JG's "The Flesh Eater", "The Burning Baby" collection and, particularly, "The House on the Brink", are all excellent books. He's one of those very good authors of childrens' fiction who realises that writing for children doesn't equate with being childish. Agreed about The house on the Brink - in her celebrated bibliography of MR James inspired fiction, The James Gang, Rosemary Pardoe writes, "one of the best novel-length ghost stories and supremely Jamesian." Vivid fenland descriptions and great eerie atmosphere. Sixteen-year-old Dick Dodds celebrates end of the school term by liberating a rowing boat for a midnight jaunt along the river. His escapade almost ends in tragedy when the boat is washed out to sea. Trudging home across the fens, the young man is filled with inexplicable dread as he steps along a muddy trail near the river mouth. It is as though he has crossed into the world of the dead .... Dick attends evening literary classes hosted by Mrs. Knowles. Recently widowed, she lives in a vast Georgian house on the brink of the dark river - "Everything it contains is contaminated" - and her special place, a field that glows silver in a certain light. Mrs. Knowles was first spooked by the "body" while walking out with solicitor Tom Miller, with whom she is now romantically engaged. Dick learns that, depending on the eyewitness, that which wanders the fenlands is either a waterlogged tree-stump; "a black, blunt finger beckoning across the mud"; an uncanny gatepost; "some poor old tramp"; or, best of all, something which resembles "a man all tied up, no legs and no arms. But it kept moving. Sort of gliding," this last from Helen Johnson, a shy local girl whose garden Dick blunders during one of his nightly vigils. Helen confirms that, evening last, she watched the entity crossing her father's farm. Despite his being a townie and she proper fenland people, Dick and Helen's friendship fast develops into something even more sacred. When not cycling the flatlands or learning how to kiss properly, the couple perch on the park gate, talking through the latest developments in the investigation with Dick's sceptical best mate, Jim Peters, and his girl, Pat. Awkward, shy and easily embarrassed, the fledgling psychic detectives face up to an even greater ordeal, the nerve-shredding meet-the-parents challenge. Survive that one, kids, and the 'supernatural need never hold any fears for you. Dick and Helen call on Mrs. Shepherd, the local "witch," who confirms that both are natural born water dowsers and highly attuned to the marvels of the hidden world. She warns against using the gift for evil purposes. Should their abilities become known, opportunists will try leech onto them, as local solicitor Tom Miller has the bereaved and vulnerable Mrs. Knowles. Miller was with the widow when she witnessed the body rising from the ooze. As far as Mrs. Shepherd is concerned, Miller is using her to get his greedy hands on King John's non-existent treasure. Indeed, Tom Miller's obsession has convinced Mrs. Knowles that, the undead Guardian, having heaved free of the mud, is slowly advancing toward her house, and, should it reach her, she will die. Is she unnecessarily spooking not only herself but the impressionable teenagers? And what of Mrs Shepherd's more melodramatic pronouncements: is she so hostile towards Miller that she sees conspiracy where none exist? When Mrs. Knowles mysteriously vanishes from home, Dick has a pry around the solicitor's garden and gets to wondering just what - or who - lies rolled up in carpet inside Miller's conservatory? Had long put off reading The House on the Brink concerned that nothing could possibly live up to so towering a reputation. Finally relented and made a start on it yesterday evening, kept going .... Only thing I wasn't particularly taken with was the resolve, seemed anti-climactic at the time although even that has since grown on me.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jul 26, 2019 22:07:25 GMT
'The House on the Brink' increasingly seems to me like the great children's supernatural series that ITV didn't make back in the 70s when they were producing things like 'The Children of the Stones', 'The Owl Service', 'Sky' and so on... but might well have done.
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 27, 2019 8:07:28 GMT
'The House on the Brink' increasingly seems to me like the great children's supernatural series that ITV didn't make back in the 70s when they were producing things like 'The Children of the Stones', 'The Owl Service', 'Sky' and so on... but might well have done. Yes, wouldn't that have been marvellous? It seems to me John Gordon is still not getting the recognition he deserves. |
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Post by humgoo on Feb 4, 2023 8:53:43 GMT
Another cover (Patrick Hardy, 1983):
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