Ghosts of Chanterlands by Catherine Cavendish
I would like to thank Flame Tree Press for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Flame Tree Press
Published - 18th August
Price - £20 hardback £3.82 ebook
“You don’t belong here. None of you do. None but us….”
1940. Pamela Courtney is evacuated to Chanterlands – the home of her aunts: Jilly, the eccentric one, who dreams of her days as a star of the silver screen, and Bunny, the pragmatic one.
But Chanterlands is home to more than just the living. There’s the spectral lonely boy whose room Pamela sleeps in and, in the long-neglected attic, she discovers a sinister secret of this once-great house. But greater danger awaits Pamela during that summer long ago when war raged all over Europe and the safety her mother had wished for her took a dark and fatal turn.
The historical ghost story always feels a suitable blend of story. In our world of constant recording be that by CCTV and phones ghosts feel more appropriate to times when even just turning on the lights was a novelty and all houses still had their dark corners; helped by a lack of heating. The stories also allow to show us the morals and culture of the time which can be alien, disturbing and horrifying without even a ghost appearing. In Catherine Cavendish’s hugely enjoyable Ghosts of Chanterlands we head to WW2 Britain where a young teenage evacuee finds her family’s many secrets about to pull her into a disturbing summer.
In 1940 the cities of the United Kingdom are facing the perils of the Blitz and so Pamela Courtney’s mother reluctantly agrees it may be far safer for Pamela to go to live with Pamela’s Aunts at the family home in the country known as Chanterlands. She meets her no-nonsense Aunt Bunny who takes the family responsibilities seriously while there is also the playful Aunt Jilly a former Hollywood silent screen star for whom talkies ended the fun far too soon. But quickly Pamela finds this new home disturbing she is sleeping in the room where a young boy died and this house feels restless at night. The beautiful grounds of Chanterlands also seem to cast a spell on the unwary where time and location can change without warning. Pamela starts to investigate the house and finds signs all in her family is not quite what it seems.
I really enjoyed this and I think a big part of the success of this story is the choice of Pamela as a main character and narrator. Firstly let me stress this is is not a book for young adults this s firmly adult horror but having someone who is intelligent but not yet fully aware of how her world works means she is the classic innocent in danger but also someone bright enough to put the clues together. Cavendish works hard to make the period come alive when war is starting to now be seen as something going to happen, when children and women were all very much felt to be in put in their place and yet there are signs of people starting to resist. The Aunts are not the classic good and evil ones we sometimes see in stories but complicated humans who can be kind and troubling depending on what is going on in their lives. Cavendish slowly builds up a picture of their upbringing which explains the adults they are now. Some of those revelations were played so skilfully I truly did not see them coming and make you question what you think you’ve been told from the start and at the same time reminds us the early 20th century was not the kind time some think it was.
This human drama of families and secrets neatly intersects with the supernatural and Cavendish builds the tension with initially strange noises and unseen voices but as Pamela investigates the house more the objects of the house seem all to have their own malevolent histories. Why yes there is even the classic creepy doll. What i really liked was how the house seems to make its occupants all suddenly act strange and yet they are all unaware and initially Pamela is just seeing this as adults being weird but gradually works out other powers are at work. being still a child we realise she is in more danger than she thinks so that invests us in her fate but as the eventual cause of the mystery is revealed we see we are witnessing a family cycle that has been many years in the making and realise very few can escape it. There is a impressive impact when events get truly dark in the story’s latter half.
Ghosts of Chanterlands is a suitable ghost story where the heat summer starts to (finally) chill down and the nights are getting steadily longer. Twilight is a suitable time for reading this when things don’t look quite as you expect but you’ll enjoy exploring these dark corridors. A great mix of period drama, family secrets and of course some unquiet guests in the house. Highly recommended!
