SELECTED FOR FICTION UNCOVERED BEST BRITISH NOVELS OF 2012: A gripping tale of ambition and rivalry, madness and revenge - in the vein of Sarah Waters and Beryl Bainbridge
When Nights Were Cold
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Review
‘Jones's fourth novel is an atmospheric, beautifully controlled account of intense female friendship and ambition. And it's also a gripping psychological thriller – the missing link, were one ever inclined to hunt for it, between Rosamund Lehmann's Dusty Answer and Joe Simpson's Touching the Void. Recommended’ Guardian
‘Superior psychological thriller . . . Jumping between the past and the present the reader gradually begins to realise that the picture is not so straightforward . . . Ultimately, however, When Nights Were Cold is a novel about a soul that has frozen over. Some years ago the husband and wife team Nicci French wrote an excellent novel called Killing Me Softly which also centred on events that happened far up on a mountain, away from civilisation, amid the ice and snow. This book is a worthy successor. Ice in veins and all that’ Daily Express
‘An unsettling tale of turn-of-the-century lady adventurers. Susanna Jones specialises in chilling tales with ambiguous narrators, somewhere between straightforward crime and psychological speculation . . . This all-female environment is vaguely unsettling, and Jones relishes its disquieting atmosphere . . . There is an air of hectic derangement to the story, a cackling foreboding; every figure appearing as a type – none more so than Grace, an arch dissembler. Right up to its tingling showdown on the Matterhorn, this claustrophobic, disturbing books excels’ Sunday Telegraph
‘A vivid, shivery tale of obsession and emancipation in Edwardian England . . . Eerily atmospheric, Jones' novel is a pitch perfect study of the volatile emotions that can transform friendships' Marie Claire
‘Grace Farringdon is that most interesting of fictional characters: the unreliable narrator . . . in a tense and compelling piece of storytelling, the author shows us the ultimate confrontation between these two women. A rich, rewarding read’ Sunday Express
‘Superior psychological thriller . . . Jumping between the past and the present the reader gradually begins to realise that the picture is not so straightforward . . . Ultimately, however, When Nights Were Cold is a novel about a soul that has frozen over. Some years ago the husband and wife team Nicci French wrote an excellent novel called Killing Me Softly which also centred on events that happened far up on a mountain, away from civilisation, amid the ice and snow. This book is a worthy successor. Ice in veins and all that’ Daily Express
‘An unsettling tale of turn-of-the-century lady adventurers. Susanna Jones specialises in chilling tales with ambiguous narrators, somewhere between straightforward crime and psychological speculation . . . This all-female environment is vaguely unsettling, and Jones relishes its disquieting atmosphere . . . There is an air of hectic derangement to the story, a cackling foreboding; every figure appearing as a type – none more so than Grace, an arch dissembler. Right up to its tingling showdown on the Matterhorn, this claustrophobic, disturbing books excels’ Sunday Telegraph
‘A vivid, shivery tale of obsession and emancipation in Edwardian England . . . Eerily atmospheric, Jones' novel is a pitch perfect study of the volatile emotions that can transform friendships' Marie Claire
‘Grace Farringdon is that most interesting of fictional characters: the unreliable narrator . . . in a tense and compelling piece of storytelling, the author shows us the ultimate confrontation between these two women. A rich, rewarding read’ Sunday Express
Book Description
As Queen Victoria’s reign reaches its end, Grace Farringdon dreams of polar explorations and of escape from her stifling home with her protective parents and eccentric, agoraphobic sister. But when Grace secretly applies to Candlin, a women’s college filled with intelligent, like-minded women, she finally feels her ambitions beginning to be take shape. There she forms an Antarctic Exploration Society with the gregarious suffragette Locke, the reserved and studious Hooper and the strange, enigmatic Parr, and before long the group are defying their times and their families by climbing the peaks of Snowdonia and planning an ambitious trip to the perilous Alps. Fifteen years later, trapped in her Dulwich home, Grace is haunted by the terrible events that took place out on the mountains. She is the society’s only survivor and for years people have demanded the truth of what happened, the group’s horrible legacy a millstone around her neck. Now, as the eve of the Second World War approaches, Grace is finally ready to remember and to confess . . . From one of the finest writers of the psychological thriller comes this beautifully woven, deeply unsettling historical novel; powerfully atmospheric, shivering with menace and reminiscent of the very best of Sarah Waters.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Roman Clodia
TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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Opening in the first years of the twentieth century, awkward, obsessive Grace dreams about exploring the Antarctic. In the present, Grace is confined to her family home, full of lodgers and ghosts - but the question of what is `real' and what only exists in Grace's mind haunts this intelligent and impressive novel.
This is a quiet book, built on interiority and subjectivity rather than big, bold dramatic events which do take place but which don't necessarily drive the narrative. I found this very atmospheric, redolent of the dreadful claustrophobic narrowness of women's lives in the pre-war years, despite the rise of feminism in the suffragette movement.
The tensions simmering between the four women, between Grace and her parents, Grace and her sister, the relationships between men and women are reproduced with subtle skill, and the question of what is `real' gradually takes over the narrative.
This reminds me of a (post) modern take on Virginia Woolf, with its play of repression and fantasies of liberation. There is something deeply ambiguous about the book which I liked a lot - is the world `outside' of the mountains ultimately a source of freedom for these women, or just another way of confining them within a deeply conservative, patriarchal system?
This is a quiet book, built on interiority and subjectivity rather than big, bold dramatic events which do take place but which don't necessarily drive the narrative. I found this very atmospheric, redolent of the dreadful claustrophobic narrowness of women's lives in the pre-war years, despite the rise of feminism in the suffragette movement.
The tensions simmering between the four women, between Grace and her parents, Grace and her sister, the relationships between men and women are reproduced with subtle skill, and the question of what is `real' gradually takes over the narrative.
This reminds me of a (post) modern take on Virginia Woolf, with its play of repression and fantasies of liberation. There is something deeply ambiguous about the book which I liked a lot - is the world `outside' of the mountains ultimately a source of freedom for these women, or just another way of confining them within a deeply conservative, patriarchal system?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the story of a group of idealistic young women mountaineers in the early 20th century. Their struggles and rivalries could be interpreted as a metaphor for the struggles and rivalries among women as a gender - from the Suffragettes to the modern age - and yet the book is never didactic or heavy-handed. It's a deftly-told thriller, chilly with foreboding, which presents a subtle and poignant picture of the emotional shifts and transitions in the emotional lives of the characters.
Grace Farringdon, the heroine, is a brilliantly slippery creation; unreliably unreliable, a narrator we can never entirely trust, but with whom we identify completely. Her wanderlust and spirit of adventure is thwarted at every turn, and ultimately leads to tragedy.
A sense of haunting melancholy pervades this novel which stayed with me long after I had finished reading it.
Grace Farringdon, the heroine, is a brilliantly slippery creation; unreliably unreliable, a narrator we can never entirely trust, but with whom we identify completely. Her wanderlust and spirit of adventure is thwarted at every turn, and ultimately leads to tragedy.
A sense of haunting melancholy pervades this novel which stayed with me long after I had finished reading it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Jo
Format:Hardcover
I was drawn to this novel via the quiet hubbub this year and last around various Shackleton/North Pole related books. The challenges and personalities of those expeditions are fascinating, but somehow not enough to draw me into a whole book on the topic, even though I've been interested to learn more. So Susanna Jones novel seemed to offer the perfect compromise, with a female social history slant, and a meaty dollop of foreboding - far more my cup of tea.
And it certainly delivers - a proper page-turner, with a quite compelling but not terribly sympathetic narrator/protagonist, satisfyingly unreliable, and a cast of women part Chalet School, part SATC, and part - well, just themselves. Ms Jones packs in plenty of social history - women's education, the suffragettes, Victorian pioneerism - without it impingeing on the narrative (you don't realise how much you're learning!), and the action transfers from suburban London to Snowdonia, to the Alps and back again with quite a pace. Not forgetting, of course, the icier ground covered in Grace's imaginings. A story of potential squandered, the characters as much victims of their own shortcomings as of the social constraints of their time. Part Poe, part Sarah Waters - it's hard not to make comparisons though it's not fair, really, as this is more Jones than anyone else! If you've read any of her earlier books you'll recognise the dark undertones; the complicated characters and motives.
Recommended to anyone who likes a good Victorian novel or a good whodunnit, and for anyone keen to get a more human, real life perspective on a time of great achievements, and enormous sacrifice.
And it certainly delivers - a proper page-turner, with a quite compelling but not terribly sympathetic narrator/protagonist, satisfyingly unreliable, and a cast of women part Chalet School, part SATC, and part - well, just themselves. Ms Jones packs in plenty of social history - women's education, the suffragettes, Victorian pioneerism - without it impingeing on the narrative (you don't realise how much you're learning!), and the action transfers from suburban London to Snowdonia, to the Alps and back again with quite a pace. Not forgetting, of course, the icier ground covered in Grace's imaginings. A story of potential squandered, the characters as much victims of their own shortcomings as of the social constraints of their time. Part Poe, part Sarah Waters - it's hard not to make comparisons though it's not fair, really, as this is more Jones than anyone else! If you've read any of her earlier books you'll recognise the dark undertones; the complicated characters and motives.
Recommended to anyone who likes a good Victorian novel or a good whodunnit, and for anyone keen to get a more human, real life perspective on a time of great achievements, and enormous sacrifice.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Atmospheric writing
Grace Farringdon lives with her parents and older sister in turn of the 20th century London. She is stifled by them and lives for her play-acting with neighbour, Frank Black, when... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Nicola
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gorgeous
Loved this book. Stayed up late reading. Wonderfully paced and plotted.
The characters were all fascinating and well formed. Brilliant
The characters were all fascinating and well formed. Brilliant
Published 1 month ago by Paula brackston
3.0 out of 5 stars
Promised much but didn't deliver.
this book had a promising start ,capturing the Edwardian period very well and stressing the difficulties that young, independently minded women had to endure. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. J. Haines
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting idea
I was quite keen to read this book and fairly enjoyed it, however I found the confusion or portrayal of such almost too confusing and muddled which hampered its pleasures after... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ally
5.0 out of 5 stars
An engrossing read until the very last page
This is an intelligent and atmospheric novel, well up to the high standard of Jones's previous books. Read more
Published 1 month ago by G Comstock
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark and Quite Unsettling
I read this book about six months ago, and although there were some problems with it, I have to admit it left an indelible impression on my psyche, atmospheric and strange, it... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Macalpi
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really well written, with just the right amount of mystery.
I really enjoyed reading this novel which I found sharply observed, with its uneasy relationships and adventure. Its really well written and I read it in one sitting.
Published 2 months ago by Chocolatestumpy
3.0 out of 5 stars
Climbs well but doesn't achieve the summit of expectations.
I must admit this tale of Grace Farringdon, and her college cohorts Locke, Parr and Hooper, left me feeling a little unsatisfied despite some good writing, ideas and descriptive... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Arkgirl
4.0 out of 5 stars
Where has Susanna Jones been hiding?
I read this book because I have an interest both in mountains and women climbers. In fact it was less about that than a psychological book (although I thought the descriptions of... Read more
Published 10 months ago by bookworm
3.0 out of 5 stars
Solid bedtime read
Plenty of reviews of this already, so this just bolsters the middle ratings which I think the book deserves. It was good enough to keep me reading but not particularly thrilling. Read more
Published 10 months ago by A Ryder
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