“A Spell of Winter” by Helen Dunmore
OFF THE SHELF
“A Spell of Winter”
by Helen Dunmore
This is an unsettling story of love and betrayal, which is dark and claustrophobic in parts, but a story we all wanted to finish. It is set in turn-of-the-century England, with a Gothic literary genre. Catherine and Rob Allen are siblings two years apart, who grow up in a world of shameful secrets. Their mother creates a public outcry by abandoning her family for a bohemian life on the Continent and their father is committed to an asylum in the country. So, the children are sealed off with their grandfather, maid, and tutor in a crumbling country estate. The main overseer of their childhood is the well-loved servant, Kate, but the predatory tutor, Miss Gallagher lurks around in the shadows. In true gothic fashion, terror, blackmail, violence, and eroticism collect beneath every dark surface. Although the characters are emotionally complicated, they remain absorbing, and it is hard not to wish for the ‘cloud’ to lift.
Against this strange and secretive life, Cathy and her brother Rob develop a closeness so fierce that it eventually threatens to smother them both. The turning point in the story comes when Rob, in Cathy’s eyes, unforgivably runs away and she feels betrayed. She is left to build her life and relationships with two significant people who live close to her, her grandfather and Mr Bullivant. When World War I eventually bursts upon them all, Kate seems to find herself and learns quickly how to become self-sufficient. It’s only after she’s experienced this hardship that she’s given a second chance to be redeemed by love.
There is a slightly Austenesque edge to the characters and the book is intensely gripping if not slightly disturbing in parts. It is understandable why it won the 1996 Orange Book Prize. Our Book Club gave it a score of 8/10.
Isobel Davies