The Beacon (novel)

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]

The Beacon
First edition
AuthorSusan Hill
Cover artistGetty Images
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
PublisherChatto and Windus
Publication date
02 Oct 2008
Media typePrint & ebook
Pages160
ISBN0-7011-8340-3

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]

Publication history
  • 2008, UK, Chatto & Windus, ISBN 0-7011-8340-3, Pub date 02 Oct 2008, Hardback
  • 2009, UK, Vintage Books, ISBN 0-09-952695-6, Pub date 01 Oct 2009, Paperback

[6]

References
  1. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/susan-hill/beacon.htm Retrieved 2010-04-11.
  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.
  6. www.fantasticfiction.co.uk Retrieved 2012-11-19.
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