The Beacon (novel)

The Beacon

First edition
Author	Susan Hill
Cover artist	Getty Images
Language	English
Publisher	Chatto and Windus
Publication date	2 Oct 2008
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print & ebook
Pages	160
ISBN	0-7011-8340-3

The Beacon, is a novel by English author Susan Hill, first published in 2008 by Chatto and Windus and in paperback the following year by Vintage Books. ^[1]

Plot introduction

The four Prime children grow up in a bleak North Country farmhouse called 'The Beacon'; Colin and Berenice marry locally, May, the central character of the novel went to university in London but returns within a year. Only quiet, watchful Frank escapes to become a journalist on Fleet Street. But then he publishes a successful novel about his childhood which throws the family into turmoil...

Reception

• Joanna Briscoe in The Guardian described it as a "novel of great structural and stylistic control" and as being "an almost perfect little literary novel outside any genre. A cross-generational family story barely longer than a novella, it possesses the light tug of menace and almost invisible haze of tension that characterise Hill's ghost stories, yet there is nothing supernatural about this tale of a farming family grounded in the seasons. The slippery nature of memory is what casts an atmosphere of unease over the novel". ^[2]
• Laura Thompson in The Telegraph writes "this short book is richly satisfying. Hill's craftsmanship is masterly. We are always aware of the farming backdrop: the book begins with a superb evocation of rural hardship, whose inexorable rhythms read like pared-down Thomas Hardy." and goes on to describe it as "a little masterpiece". ^[3]
• The Times said it was "a moving, evocative and rewarding novel". ^[4]

Radio Dramatisation

The novel was dramatised for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Drama , broadcast in five 15-minute episodes from March 22–26, 2010. ^[5]

References

1. "The Beacon by Susan Hill". www.fantasticfiction.co.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2010.
2. Real and imagined terrors: Invented family traumas add menace to Susan Hill's near-perfect novel Joanna Briscoe, The Guardian, Saturday 18 October 2008
3. Laura Thompson reviews a magnificent novella about the riddles wrapped up in two enigmas, The Telegraph, 23 Oct 2008.
4. The Beacon: Amazon.co.uk: Susan Hill: Books Retrieved 2012-06-04.
5. Dramatisation of the novel by Susan Hill examining the effect of the publication of a 'misery memoir' on the family who are its subject Retrieved 2010-04-11.

External links

• Author webpage
• Truth, lies and misery lit review by Katy Guest in The Independent
• Terrors of the imagination review by Paul Binding in The Spectator
• A twisted tale of malice aforethought, review by Nicholas Lezard in The Guardian
• Vintage books webpage