Your three minutes of fear...

I've remarked before that I'm not a great one for reviewing stuff, because I can't bring myself to be critical. On the other hand, if I do see something brilliant - especially if it's something creepy! - I'm always keen to share it!

In the good old days, of course, most people came across intriguing references to ghosts in dusty tomes from the libraries of country houses, or glimpsed them in an old mezzotint.   Nowadays, however, we are nothing if not modern, and one of the best frights I've had in recent weeks was uncovered via Twitter. Film director Toby Meakins put out some tweets daring people to be scared, together with a link to his short film Lot 254. A lot of stuff gets posted on Twitter, and I don't often bother to click on links (enough of my time is lost to social media as it is) but this one sounded really interesting, so I watched it...and now I'm daring you to watch it too. It's three minutes long, but quite long enough to tell a story. It made me jump. I even said the F-word (tsk). Here's the link again: Lot 254.

Have you watched it? Yes? Well, those of you who survived it may be pleased to know that Toby has another short ghostly film in the pipeline, entitled Breathe. He was kind enough to let me see it, although it is not generally available online at the moment. It's doing the rounds of film festivals this year whilst a feature version is in development. Breathe has the same beautiful production qualities as Lot 254 but it's a different kind of ghost story, unsettling in another way. It has the feel of a very sinister urban legend. I don't want to say too much about it because spoilers are not fun, but the ghost can only be seen when you hold your breath. I became so involved in watching the film that I found myself holding my breath when the characters did! Well, just imagine...you wouldn't be able to resist trying it, would you?

I'll post details of when/how you can see Breathe when I hear them.

Crime scene: Brussels

Following the huge success of "Scandi crime" dramas such as The Bridge and Wallander, could Belgium be the next hot location for crime? Maybe...

This coming Saturday, 8th February, sees the appearance of Belgian crime series Salamander on BBC4. I love crime dramas and have been working my way through Whitechapel, Ripper Street, Hinterland and lately The Bridge. But I'll be taking a particular interest in Salamander, because my own YA crime fiction trilogy, Forbidden Spaces, is also set in Belgium. The first book, Silent Saturday (published in 2013) is set mostly in the suburb of Tervuren and the city of Brussels itself. The follow-up, The Demons of Ghent, coming in June 2014, is (self evidently) set in the Flemish city of Ghent, to the north-west of Brussels. The heroine, Veerle, is  a seventeen-year-old girl with a Flemish father and Walloon (French speaking) mother.

Now and again people ask me why I chose to set the trilogy in Belgium. For most Brits, it's probably associated with pralines, Eurocrats and the Manneken Pis rather than hard-edged crime. But for me the location was never in question. I chose it for a variety of reasons.

I lived in Flanders (the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium) for three years, so I had an opportunity to observe life there in detail. I've always been very much inspired by location, so my exploration of my surroundings provided lots of ideas. Abandoned castle? Hmmm, intriguing. Ancient bell-tower? Yes, we'll take a peek up there. Tram ride, Metro, visit to the sewers...? Yes, yes and yes. (The last one was a bit niffy.) Ghent was so inspiring that it has an entire book out of the trilogy set in it: a city that numbers a 95m high bell-tower and a torture museum amongst its attractions positively cries out for a thriller to be set there.

It wasn't just about the proliferation of interesting places to write about though; after all, the German Eifel (where my first three novels were set) has plenty of those. Brussels has a large expat population - estimated at 1 in 10. Some (though not all, of course) are very wealthy, with advantageous tax arrangements and a lot of expenses paid. A trawl through the luxury end of the real estate market in Brussels reveals that there is even an option to search the property databases for "castles/palaces"! I wondered what might go on inside some of those opulent homes when the occupants disappeared off for a week or two to visit their home countries - and that is where the idea for Silent Saturday came from. The houses in the book are, of course, fictional, but I used to get inspiration by looking at those real estate websites, with their suggestion of impossibly glamorous lives. A nice foil to the grubbier scenes in derelict buildings, and indeed to the distinctly un-glamorous things that happen to some of the characters.

Belgium as a location? It'd be a crime not to use it...

My latest new old book!

Two blog posts in one day may be a first for me (not quite sure), but since I've managed to find five minutes during which neither man, child nor cat wants anything, I thought I'd share some pics of my latest acquisition...yes, another "new old book".

This one is The Lady Ivie's Trial by Sir John Fox (Oxford, 1929). If, like me, you are a fan of the ghost story writer M.R.James (yes, I know I said I wouldn't go on about him any more, at least for a bit, but, er...), this book title may ring a vague bell.

Lady Ivy is the shrieking ghost who appears in MRJ's tale A Neighbour's Landmark, and he refers to the book at the very end of the story: "Thanks to the researches of Sir John Fox, in his book on The Lady Ivie’s Trial (Oxford, 1929), we now know that my heroine died in her bed in 1695, having — heaven knows how — been acquitted of the forgery, for which she had undoubtedly been responsible."

I must admit that although I had read this story probably dozens of times, I had never actually stopped to wonder whether the book referred to was a real one or not. The Sertum Steinfeldense Norbertinum referred to in The Treasure of Abbot Thomas was an invention of MRJ's, so I suppose I thought Fox's book might be, too.

A Neighbour's Landmark is actually one of my favourite M.R.James stories. As I have mentioned on this blog before, I wrote a prequel to Canon Alberic's Scrap-book for the recently published Ghosts and Scholars Book of Shadows - a second volume of stories is now in the pipeline and I decided this time to write a sequel to A Neighbour's Landmark to submit to it. (I'm pleased to say that my story was accepted - more details of the publication date etc in due course.)

Whilst working on my story, I went over the original tale with more than usual care, and one of my internet searches turned up some references to Sir John Fox's book. So it was a real book; and there were a handful of copies on sale through second hand dealers, two in the UK, of which I ordered one.

The book arrived a couple of days ago, and I was delighted to see that it has a preface by the "Provost of Eton", none other than M.R.James himself! There is also a nice frontispiece with a portrait of the notorious Judge Jeffreys, who presided over the trial.

I haven't had time to start reading the book properly yet, but when I have, I will report back - perhaps it may shed some interesting light on MRJ's story about Lady Ivy. 

In the meantime, I was interested to see that the name of a previous owner of the volume was written neatly in pencil on the fly leaf:

I ran an internet search on the name too, not particularly expecting it to come up with anything (but you never know), and was amazed to find that Roger Mynors actually knew M.R.James. Mynors, later Sir Roger, was a student at Eton whilst MRJ was Provost, and MRJ was a great inspiration to him. 

I bought this particular copy of The Lady Ivie's Trial without having any idea of this - I think of the two copies on sale in the UK it was very slightly cheaper if the postage costs were taken into account. So I was very excited to find that it had belonged to someone who actually knew M.R.James! 

One of my Twitter friends wonders whether the volume is haunted, and advises me not to sleep with it on the bedside table, just to be on the safe side. I think the only shrill shrieking noise likely to disturb me is my alarm clock, but if anything more interesting occurs, I'll let you know...

Calling all UK based YA book bloggers!

Last Thursday I made one of my  rare forays out of Scotland, and took the train down to London for a flying visit to my publisher, Random House. I was there to give a talk about my Forbidden Spaces trilogy at their Crime Fiction Showcase evening.

Book one of the trilogy, Silent Saturday, was published in hardback in 2013, and the more affordable, yet still highly desirable (cough) paperback is out at the end of March 2014. The next book, The Demons of Ghent, is being published in June 2014. Check out the cover art (left) - gorgeous, no? I mean the design of course...

Anyway, it is in the nature of things that not every YA book blogger, librarian or journalist could be at the event (otherwise they'd have to have hired the Albert Hall), and some of those who were supposed to be there were unable to attend. So I thought it might be a nice idea to post my talk on YouTube for any YA book blogger or other writing-about-YA-books type person to watch.

I am not posting the talk as a public video, as the point of the talk was to give a sneak preview of upcoming delights to YA book bloggers! So it is unlisted, and if you are a YA book blogger, you can see it by getting in touch with me, and I will send you a link to the video.

You can contact me to ask for the link by DM'ing me on Twitter @helengrantsays or via email at helengrantsays@gmail.com

NB ARCs of The Demons of Ghent are not yet available.

The Tractate Middoth (BBC) - my thoughts

Yes, I am going to shut up about M.R.James for a bit (soon) and no, this isn't officially a review. I don't review anything very often - certainly not books, unless I happen to love them, because I know how much love and effort goes into writing one, and I can't bear to be critical. 

However, this Christmas brought a great treat for M.R.James fans - an adaptation of The Tractate Middoth, directed by Mark Gatiss and starring Sacha Dhawan and Louise Jameson amongst others. 

At risk of sounding like an MRJ geek, I have to admit that I watched it four times before the BBC removed it from iPlayer this evening... 

Anyway, I'd like to share my thoughts about it and I'd also love to hear what other people thought! (NB Spoilers ahoy.)

I have to say first off that I am quite a traditionalist when it comes to MRJ adaptations. Of the two Oh whistle adaptations, I much prefer the 1968 version with Michael Hordern to the more experimental 2010 version with John Hurt. So I was delighted that The Tractate Middoth adaptation did not deviate substantially from the original story. I have heard some criticism that the story was brought forward to the 1950s but for me this was absolutely not a problem. MRJ himself said in his essay Ghosts, treat them gently! that "It cannot be said too often that the more remote in time the ghost is the harder it is to make him effective, always supposing him to be the ghost of a dead person." The 1950s is a period far enough behind us to have the necessary antique flavour, but not so far in the past that it feels downright historical. I also felt that the ancient university library setting had the prerequisite antiquarian atmosphere. The ghost himself was timeless; in his black cloak he could easily have been Victorian, and indeed Dr. Rant must have been born in that era whether in the original story or in this version. 

The other area in which the adaptation deviated noticeably from the original was in the sinister implications of the ending. In the original version, the death of John Eldred ends the appearances of the ghost. William Garrett's promotion to prospective owner of Bretfield Manor, "now in the occupation of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Mary Simpson" is not overshadowed by any threat of future interference by Dr. Rant. I hesitate to say whether this is better or worse than MRJ's ending(!) but it is certainly more modern - the implication of more terrors to come being a staple of the final scene of horror movies. 

It does cast a very different light over the ghost itself. MRJ's Dr. Rant seems to be satisfied with justice having eventually been done, as the terms of the most recent will are applied. In spite of the horrific physical appearance of the ghost, one might infer that he wishes, or is somehow obliged, to see that justice done. The new Dr. Rant, however, seems to be motivated entirely by spite, and his malevolence has no use-by date. This seems rather unfair towards the entirely innocent Mr. Garrett, who can presumably look forward to some further manifestations. 

But what of Mary Simpson and her daughter? I was very interested in the portrayal of those two characters. Much of their dialogue is lifted directly from MRJ's text and so one would not expect to react to them any differently in the adapted version. And yet, and yet... I found them both - well, not actually unsympathetic, but more difficult to like unreservedly in their new incarnation. Mary Simpson expresses, I suppose, feelings that many of us would have about a spiteful will-shaking old relative (even if we didn't express them), but in the original story this is softened somewhat by the revelation that she feels her husband's life was shortened by their poverty. I felt too that the strident 1950s make-up and the knowing glances exchanged by mother and daughter gave a less than warm impression. I wondered whether this was intentional - a counterbalance to the fact that the ghost is clearly not finished with them yet when the story ends. 

I liked the adaptation very much. Of course some details of the original story were changed, but I felt the spirit and flavour of it remained. I thought the ghost was excellent; I thought the hero was sympathetic and "Sniffer" (the library doorkeeper) amusingly and revoltingly realistic. I do hope Mark Gatiss will be directing further Christmas treats! 

Old books: sometimes dangerous.