The Greatcoat

Local Description

 

Review from our January Newsletter: Prize winning author Helen Dunmore packs a big punch into a small novella, leaving you pondering where the grey line is between reality and what is not. Isabel Carey, newly married to Phil, has just moved to a small Yorkshire village. It's 1954. He is the assistant doctor and is keen to prove himself with his dedication to the job, leaving Isabel alone and feeling lonely, struggling with her new role as a wife. To make matters worse the rooms they rent are cold and the landlady living above them is aloof and rather strange. Upon finding an RAF Greatcoat tucked at the back of a closet, Isabel starts using it as cover on her bed to keep her warm and is suddenly beset by vivid dreams. Or are they? One night a young RAF pilot named Alec knocks on her window while Phil is on call. So begins an affair that is both exciting and disturbing. Is this really happening? A good page turner with a clever ending.

Christine

 

Description

In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her husband Philip, a GP. Woken by intense cold one night, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the cupboard. Sleeping under it for warmth, she starts to dream. And not long afterwards, while her husband is out, she is startled by a knock at her window.

Promotion info

A chilling and atmospheric ghost story by the Orange-prize-winning Helen Dunmore.

Author description

Helen Dunmore is an internationally acclaimed writer whose works include novels, poetry, short stories and writing for children. She has won the Orange Prize for A Spell of Winter, the McKitterick Prize and first prize in the National Poetry Competition; she has also been shortlisted for both the T S Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Novel Award. Her books have been translated into twenty-eight languages, and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The Greatcoat is her first ghost story.