To The Last Page

The notion of Sarah Waters writing an old-fashioned ghost story is a strange one, but there's a lot more to The Little Stranger than at first appears, and while it may disappoint fans of the writer's earlier work, it turns out to be the logical next step for the writer of Fingersmith and The Night Watch .  Moving progressively towards more a more modern period, The Little Stranger 's post-war period is significant, with traditional notions of class being upturned, most notably in the narrator Dr Faraday who, born the son of a housemaid at the estate of the Ayers family known as the Hundreds, succeeds in becoming a doctor and somewhat accidentally ends up being the personal physician for the Ayers family and witness to their decline.  That decline into madness is caused by a spirit that appears to torment the household, but it could just as easily be the sense of personal guilt, gossip, prejudice and betrayal that have driven previous Waters' characters to the madhouse...

The cover of the proof copy of Sarah Waters new novel comes adorned with what might well be the subtitle of the book: “ A Lot Of People Who Lived Through the War Don’t Like to Talk About It ”, but it’s not just the war that is discreetly pushed aside by each of the characters, it is their unwillingness to face up to who they are, to the secret lives they were forced to lead and the terrible actions that each of them were driven to during a very turbulent time in their lives. Opening in 1947 after the war, each of the characters has a dark secret they wish to block out. Helen and Viv work together in a London dating agency on Oxford Street. Helen is in love with Julia, a writer of mystery fiction, but the necessity of keeping her love secret and her own jealousy is tearing their relationship apart. Viv is having an affair with a married man, Reggie – a relationship that is doomed as he is never going to leave his wife. Viv’s brother Duncan was imprisoned during the war years over an inc...

It is 1862. Sue is an orphan, her mother hanged for murder, who has been brought up by Mrs Sucksby and her little gang of thieves. She’s a “fingersmith”, a pickpocket. One of the gang “Gentleman” has a plan to marry a lady, Maud Lilly – the niece of a man he is binding prints for, who is the heiress to a great fortune. Sue is employed as a maid to Maud Lilly, to help Gentleman elope with her and, when the time comes, leave her in a madhouse and take her inheritance. For this Sue is promised £2,000. Engaged as Maud’s maid, Sue comes to feel a certain sympathy for poor Maud – a frail, poor sensitive girl, who has barely seen beyond the manor she lives in, assisting her uncle to catalogue and index his vast collection of books. As she suffers from nightmares, Sue sleeps in the same bed as Maud to keep her company and a mild sexual relationship develops. Nevertheless, in spite of her feelings for her mistress, she thinks of the money she will earn and helps Gentleman escape with Maud and q...