Five Books For Wintry Evenings, fun stuff edition

A bonus recommendation, our monthly playlist, a poem, and more

The Magpie by Claude Monet, 1868-1869. That winter light.

Welcome to this month’s Fun Stuff Edition of Five Books For, a newsletter for people who love great stories.

It’s been a busy month here in Spain, not just with Christmas celebrations but because we have been moving house. We designed the new house ourselves and the construction process has been long and stressful; if you’ve ever seen an episode of Grand Designs then you’ll know what I mean. Kevin McCloud’s face in the video cover below basically sums it up. It’s amazing to finally be living in the house we’ve imagined (and worked towards) for so long, even though there’s still lots to do. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful December and enjoyed whatever festive celebrations you take part in.

On to more literary pursuits: over at Global Comment, in this month’s Great Adaptations I take a look at a favourite of mine in both books and TV, The Cadfael Chronicles. The books (a whole series!) are absolutely brilliant and must-reads for anyone who is a fan of murder mysteries, love stories or historical fiction and lead character Cadfael, a mystery-solving monk and former Crusader, is one of my all-time favourite characters. I think he’d be great dinner party company at one of those invite-anyone-from-history thought exercise dinners. In the TV series he’s played by the inimitable Derek Jacobi who is beyond perfect in the role and really brings it to life (I imagine he’d be excellent dinner company too).

As always for this edition of the newsletter, we have a bonus recommendation, a poem, a playlist and some reading links, all in keeping with this month’s theme of wintry reading. I hope you’ll find something here to surprise and delight you. If you aren’t already subscribed, then you can sign up here to receive these newsletters directly in your inbox. The newsletter is free but if you would like to support it with a paid subscription that option is also available. If you don’t have the funds for a paid subscription at the moment but would like to leave a tip, as it were, the link below will allow you to send an amount of your choosing as a one-off payment.

Let’s dive in!

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Bonus recommendation: The Ghost Hunters by Neil Spring

“A wise man once told me that for every moment that passes, there is another that might have been – moments we lose through the misfortune of circumstance that slip like sand through our fingers and scatter to the past. Only now, with fear in my heart, do I properly understand what he meant. For now I know what it means to feel the pain of regret, and to wish it gone.”

So what’s it about? This book is a fascinating mixture of fact and fiction based on the haunting of Borley Rectory, often described as the most haunted house in England. The story is told from the perspective of Sarah Grey, a young woman who has just taken on the job of personal assistant to famous ghost hunter Harry Price. Harry believes in science, and is sure that their investigation of Borley Rectory will go the same way as their previous cases: the fraud will be exposed, the media will celebrate his work, and they can move on to the next ‘haunting’. However, when they arrive at Borley, events take a strange turn that leaves both Sarah and Harry questioning whether something truly paranormal might be occuring after all.

What’s great about it? It’s an old tradition in England to tell ghost stories at Christmastime, and I do think that there’s something about dark nights and cosy blankets that works better for ghost stories than summer sun. While the book isn’t strictly wintry in quite the same way as the others I’ve recommended this month, it is a perfect winter read if you’re looking for something intriguing and spooky but not horrifying. It’s set in 1926 and works mainly as historical fiction with a ghostly mystery element rather than as a traditional ghost story and I think this shift in perspective gives it broader appeal. There are quite a few real people and events mixed in with the fictional aspects and the author’s note at the end of the book separates the fact from fiction and makes for fascinating reading in its own right.

Give it a try if: you love ghost stories; you love historical fiction; you like books which mix real-life people and events into a fictionalised narrative; you like books with interesting but imperfect characters; you’ve ever questioned whether ghosts really exist; you’re curious about the paranormal.

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Honourable Mentions

Melmoth by Sarah Perry is a brilliant wintry read, especially if you’re looking for something unsettling and beautifully written. The full recommendation is in Five Books For Spooky Season, October 2023:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte is also a perfect read for cold evenings. I covered that more recently over at Global Comment in my Great Adaptations column. You can find it here if you missed it previously.

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This month’s playlist

I thought this month it might be interesting to share a short playlist of some pieces of classical music that are on a winter theme. I would love to hear from you as to whether there are others I should have included - I love finding new music.

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This month’s poem

The Wall Of Cold Descends

By Marge Piercy

Near the end of our annual solstice party
as guests were rummaging through the pile
for their coats and hugging many goodbyes
the very first snow of the year began
to eddy down in big flat flakes.

It was cold enough to stick, with the grass
poking through and then buried.
Now the ground gives it back
under the low ruddy sun that sits
on the boughs of the pine like a fox

if red foxes could climb. The cats
crowd the windows for its touch.
The Wolf Moon seemed bigger than
the sun, almost brighter as last night
it turned the snow ghostly.

Now it too wanes. The nub end
of the year when all northern
cultures celebrate fire and light.
Tonight we’ll take the first two candles
to kindle one from the other.

When we go out after dark, our
eyes seek lights that bore holes
in the thick black like the pelt
of a huge hairy monster, a grizzly
who devours the warm-blooded.

We are kin with the birds who huddle
in evergreens, who crowd feeders,
kin with the foxes and their prey, kin
with all who shiver this night, homeless
or housed, clutching or alone

under the vast high dome of night.

Found via my favourite poetry Substack here:

The Wall of Cold Descends

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This month’s reading links

An interview with Snowdrops author A.D. Miller. (Webarchive, free)

This insightful article on the work of Maeve Binchy, and especially on the ways in which she broke new ground in Irish fiction, is a great read. (The Irish Times, free)

Here’s a reading guide for the Maeve Binchy novel I recommended this month, A Week In Winter. (Penguin Random House, free)

This 1993 profile of Ellis Peters/Edith Pargeter in The LA Times was written while the TV adaptation of Cadfael was in the casting phase and provides a tantalising glimpse of her personality. (The LA Times, free)

More on the history of Borley Rectory. (Wikipedia, free)

A collection of wintry poems. (Poetry Foundation, free)

This is a brilliant interview with Ruth Ware and explores some of the ways she makes her books so gripping. (Crimereads, free)

On the subject of fantasy dinner parties, who would you invite to yours? Leonardo da Vinci begs to be excused. On the same subject, The Financial Times has a whole column dedicated to fantasy dinner parties. (Points In Case, free and The Financial Times, paid)

For those of you who are more in the mood for listening this month:

Maeve Binchy is interviewed on Desert Island discs:

Sentimental Garbage covers Maeve Binchy’s first novel, Light A Penny Candle. There are further Maeve Binchy episodes if you enjoy this one.

The All About Agatha podcast interviews Ruth Ware:

Sophie Cousens talks about This Time Next Year and more on The Brit Lit Podcast:

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Thanks for reading!

As always, I’m grateful to each and every one of you who subscribes, free or paid. I know we all have such crowded inboxes these days and I feel so lucky to be sharing the joys of reading with you like this. I would love to hear from you - what have you been reading recently? Have you read or watched any of the books I’ve covered this month? Who would your fantasy dinner party guests be? Let me know in the comments. I’ll be back in just a few days with a special end of year bonus edition which I hope you’ll love.

Happy reading!

Kate

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