'The Naked Light' contains all the ingredients of the very best historical fiction, and I knew I was going to love it from the very first page. Set in the years immediately after the First World War, the plot centres on three women - Kit, an androgynous artist seeking solace from the horrors of war, Florence, the repressed and stifled sister-in-law of a vicar, and Phoebe, a motherless adolescent, adrift and angry. All three women are living in a village bereft of most of its men following the war, and overlooked by the Face, an ancient crude 'face' cut into the chalk of the Downs. This Face has supposedly protected the village up until recently, but now darker forces are coming to the fore. The novel beautifully examines the age old traditions of our land and its dark and sometimes sinister myths, which may or may not be myths. It's also an achingly moving tale of forbidden love, amidst the devastation wrought by the Great War. 'The Naked Light' was utterly beguiling, heart-shatteringly emotional, and will stay with me for a very, very long time. Hand on heart, I haven't read a historical novel quite as good as this for years!
A village haunted by stories. Two women bound by a secret.
A haunting gothic tale of ancient darkness and a love that defies convention, from Sunday Times #1 bestseller Bridget Collins.
'At once a moving study of women's lives after the First World War, an exquisite love story and a terrifying folk horror. So beautifully written that I could hardly bear to stop reading, this is Bridget Collins at her beguiling best' EMILIA HART
'Bridget Collins' writing haunts my dreams' ERIN KELLY
'A spine-chillingly scary romance and a heartwarmingly romantic horror novel... I raced through it at breakneck speed even…
'Helm' is one of those novels that's so phenomenally good it's difficult to know how to describe its excellence without reducing its power. Ambitious in its construct, breathtaking in its range, heartbreaking and hopeful in its message, 'Helm' had me captivated from the first page. The first sentence, in truth. Sarah Hall has somehow, by some magic, and her beautiful prose, brought a wind to life! A wind that has shaped humans and land alike through eons, a wind imbued with superstition, folklore, fear and timeless stories. Sarah Hall is basically a genius to be able to harness all this in her book. I am in awe.
'Vital, fierce and free.' Financial Times 'Incandescently good.' Sarah Perry 'Pulsing with life and lyricism.' Spectator 'Fiercely exuberant.' Observer 'Delightfully playful.' Andrew Miller 'A truly astonishing thing.' George Monbiot
A wondrous, elemental novel from 'a writer of show-stopping genius'. Guardian
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE
Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind - a subject of folklore and wonder - who has blasted the sublime landscape of the Eden Valley since the very dawn of time.
This is Helm's life story, formed from the chronicles of those the wind enchanted: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate it, the Dark Age…
This is a rare book. A beautiful, heartbreaking, important book. It's a book that will stay with me for a very, very long time. The storyline follows Dawn in the 1980s, a young mother who falls in love with another woman, and her estranged daughter Maggie in the present day. Maggie has an unusually close relationship with her father Heron, who brought her up as a single father. But Heron has been keeping secrets from Maggie, and when the past comes back to haunt them, Maggie has to reckon with everything she thought she knew about her life. Utterly brilliant, I was captivated from page one.
A fascinating and deeply moving novel set in the chaotic early months of the First World War.
August 1914.
A world where men are deemed superior. But as World War One begins, two women will prove the world wrong.
Edie Lawrence has never been one to play by the rules. As war in Europe is declared, she disguises herself as a man with the aim of reporting the truth from the battlefields, and ultimately realise her dream of becoming a journalist.
Dr Lucinda Garland volunteers her medical services to the War Office. But her offer is met with rejection. Undeterred, alongside the French Red Cross she sets up an all-female-run hospital in Paris. As Lucinda does her best to cope with the horrific injuries that come her way, she finds herself losing her heart to someone unexpected.
And when Edie is injured and her gender revealed, the fates of these brave women, each determined to do whatever they can for their country, but also for womankind, intertwine in ways that none of them could ever have foreseen.
