Product Description

Gillian Traherne and her mother Phoebe lead a remote existence in their grey, stone house on the Welsh borders. Gillian is a loner, an eccentric poet in her thirties, who has a difficult relationship with her very different mother: a well-known and expert gardener. Into their strange and secluded world, described with beautifully observed detail, come strangers from London to disrupt life as Gillian knows it. But with the joy of the love that she is to discover, will also come the pain and suffering of experience and the stark realities of the adult world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2885626 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio Cassette

About the Author
Sue Gee is an associate lecturer in Writing and Publishing Studies at Middlesex University. She lives in London with her Polish partner and their son.

Customer Reviews

A truly original serious novel, multi-layered and engaging
This novel is much better than its cover would suggest. The title, too, doesn't do it justice. It is one of those special books that take you into their own world, and you become wholly immersed in the sounds, smells, tastes of the place and time. The characters are fully rounded, and their dilemmas all too real. The different views of the world are depicted with a light sensitive touch, so we understand each person in turn, and each earns his or her share of sympathy. One critic compares Sue Gee with 'early Iris Murdoch'. In many ways, I think this book is better than most of Murdoch's novels. Here we have real people, in a real world. The poetry and religion which are woven in (along with the music) are fully part of this world - one which stays with me after the novel is finished.

Sue Gee's best novel to date
This was the first of Sue Gee's novels I had read; I immediately found and read all her others, all of which were enjoyable and compelling. This, though, her most recent, I thought by far the best. It's set on the Welsh borders and is notable for its evocation of the landscape, the seasons and the rigours of rural life. The main characters all live in or near a small village: Nesta, widowed in her early thirties; Edward, whose homosexual relationship with Rowland seems unlikely to flourish in this rural setting; Phoebe and her eccentric daughter Gillian, a poet; Phil, the young musician who befriends Nesta. The relationships are cleverly interconnected in a way that builds up all sorts of tensions. This is equally true of Sue Gee's earlier novels, but this one marks a change in her style, and a new confidence. THE HOURS OF THE NIGHT is completely engrossing and has some quite marvellous description, for example the scene where Edward, presiding over his first lambing, finds a ewe with a stillborn lamb. I look forward to Sue Gee's next novel.

Magical Storytelling
A friend left this book behind when she holidayed with me and it was the first by Sue Gee I had read. it certainly won't be the last. I was drawn in from the first by her wonderful ability to empathise with the characters and have you live the story with them. Each person was totally believable and I didn't want the book to finish, buy it and wallow in a hugely enjoyable read.