Gillian White Books

A valuable background book for young adult and adult students of English, combining information on life in the UK with opportunities for lively discussion.

‘Peace on earth and mercy mild...’ But there’s no mercy here. There is no telling how long the body has been down in the cellar, rising as the water level rises...In a wintry seaside resort an old woman goes missing from her residential hotel for the elderly, the inappropriately named Happy Haven. And in a remote farmhouse not far away, the Moon family gathers for Christmas. Clover Moon, the farmer’s wife, looks forward to the forthcoming festivities with quiet desperation and dread.What terrible events from the past are coming back to haunt them? As gales and blizzards cut off the power and maroon the Christmas gathering, where did the body come from which is swept into the farmhouse cellar by the rising flood water? In Gillian White’s dark and disturbing world, where nothing is quite as it seems, a mystery from the past becomes a terrifying ordeal in the present, and a traditional family Christmas turns into nightmare.

Shelley loves her kids passionately, but Joey, her eldest, has always been a problem. She has defended him through all his misdemeanours, but when he is involved in the death of a young baby, she is distraught. When the authorities send her and her familyto the Boltons' remote farm, they find a refuge. But many families have come to the Boltons' farm, and not all of them have left it."

Martha tolerated Jennie, took her on holiday, helped her with the children—but all the time she was wondering how much longer she could stand living next door to her. As time went on, however, the roles seemed to reverse. As Jennie became more confident and successful, Martha's life was falling apart. At times they seemed less like friends, and more like sworn enemies. Their relationship became bitter and twisted—a relationship which only one of them could survive.

Like a combination of Cold Comfort Farm and Psycho , Gillian White’s brilliant new novel begins very quietly, almost romantically, then builds inexorably to nearly unbearable suspense. It’s about an attractive, fortyish widow, very lively but deeply wounded in her psyche, who inherits her brother’s cottage in a remote part of rural Devon. Georgie is a London social worker in flight from unwanted tabloid celebrity when a child who is part of her caseload is killed. The little girl’s father has been under suspicion of abusing the child, and Georgie is accused by the press of having ignored all the warning signs and abandoned the little girl to her father’s cruel, and finally fatal, beating. An inquiry exonerates Georgie, but the press doesn’t forgive her, and she can’t forgive herself, so when she inherits her brother’s cottage, she is happy to go there and sort things out. Georgie settles in and takes stock of her neighbors. Chad Cramer, a small-time thief and poacher, has appropriated most of her brother’s belongings and lives with Donna, a witless but somehow disturbing waif, who is clearly in terror of Chad; the Buckpits, dairy farmers, a ferocious, brooding gorgon of a mother and two hulking, brutish sons; and Nancy and George Horsefield, a well-to-do married couple whose brightly expensive lifestyle seems to conceal some hidden tragedy, for Mrs. H. is clearly crazy, and Mr. H., though he cares for her, is strangely on edge… For a while, Georgie gets by restoring the cottage to something approaching livability and cleaning up the garden shed, in which something strange has clearly been going on, and her life seems almost idyllic. Then a darker note is heard. Georgie sees a mysterious and threatening stranger, who runs away when Georgie approaches; Chad Cramer turns nasty; Donna begins to cling to Georgie; Mrs. Buckpit is openly hostile; and Georgie continues to be haunted by the child who was under her care and died, and by the thought of the child’s father in prison now. As the summer ends, the countryside begins to turn savage and threatening, and now real terror creeps in. Georgie’s beloved dog is stolen, her attempt at painting is livened up with splashes of blood, an intruder stares into her cottage at night with a baleful eye… Finally, step by step, the horror increases to Psycho level as a snowstorm isolates the village and cuts Georgie off from the world—leaving her at the mercy of a killer whose identity she can’t even guess as the ax descends on her…

Eine junge englische Familie steht im Mittelpunkt einer Dokumentation über sozial Schwache. Die skrupellosen Filmemacher bringen die Öffentlichkeit gegen sie auf.

Von Eifersucht und Rache getrieben denkt sich Rose für ihren Mann Michael, der sie betrügt, einen perfiden Plan aus.

Augen scheinen sie aus den Nichts anzustarren,sie fühlt sich verfolgt und ein Unbekannter ist im Haus eingedrungen:Die Sozialarbeiterin Georgie Jefferson begint an ihrem Verstand zu zweifeln.Seit ihr Schüzling Angela umgebracht wurde,ohne dass sie es verhindern konnte,hat sie sich nach Dartmoor zurückgezogen,in das einsame Gottage ihres verstorbenen Bruders. Doch irgend jemand scheint ihr keine Ruhe zu gönnen...