Susan Hill
Encyclopedia
Susan Hill is an English
author
of fiction
and non-fiction
works. Her novels include The Woman in Black
, The Mist in the Mirror
and I'm the King of the Castle
for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award
in 1971.
She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre
and literature
. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry
where her father worked in car
and aircraft
factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school
, Barr's Hill
. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English
, French
, History
and Latin
, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London
. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson
in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".
Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle
, The Albatross
and other stories, Strange Meeting
, The Bird of Night
, A Bit of Singing and Dancing
and In the Springtime of the Year
, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.
In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells
and they moved to Stratford upon Avon
. Their first daughter, author Jessica Ruston, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.
, which was published in 1983. She has expressed an interest in the traditional English ghost story which relies on suspense and atmosphere to create its impact, similar to the classic ghost stories by Montague Rhodes James and Daphne du Maurier
. The novel was turned into a play
in 1987 and continues to run in the West End
of London, joining the group of plays that have run for over twenty years. It was also filmed for a TV movie in 1989. She wrote another ghost story with similar ingredients, The Mist in the Mirror
in 1992, and a sequel to du Maurier's Rebecca
entitled Mrs De Winter in 1993.
Since 2004, Hill has begun a series of crime novels featuring Detective Simon Serailler, entitled The Various Haunts of Men
(2004), The Pure in Heart (2005), The Risk of Darkness (2006), The Vows of Silence (2009) and The Shadows in the Street (2010).
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
and non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
works. Her novels include The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black is a 1983 thriller fiction novel by Susan Hill about a menacing spectre that haunts a small English town.It was adapted into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt...
, The Mist in the Mirror
The Mist in the Mirror: A Ghost Story
The Mist in the Mirror: A Ghost Story is a novel by Susan Hill. The novel is about a traveller called Sir James Monmouth and his pursuit of an explorer called Conrad Vane.-References:...
and I'm the King of the Castle
I'm the King of the Castle (novel)
I’m the King of the Castle is a novel written by Susan Hill, originally published in 1970. The French film Je suis le seigneur du château is loosely based on the novel.-Plot summary:...
for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award
Somerset Maugham Award
The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each May by the Society of Authors. It is awarded to whom they judge to be the best writer or writers under the age of thirty-five of a book published in the past year. The prize was instituted in 1947 by William Somerset Maugham and thus...
in 1971.
History
Susan Hill was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1942. Her hometown was later referred to in her novel A Change for the Better (1969) and some short stories especially "Cockles and Mussels".She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
where her father worked in car
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
and aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
, Barr's Hill
Barr's Hill School
Barr's Hill School and Community College is a comprehensive secondary school in Radford, Coventry, England.-Admissions:Barr's Hill is situated on a spacious green field site just north of Coventry city centre on the B4098 , south of the Coventry-Nuneaton Line. The site of the former Jaguar factory...
. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson
Hutchinson (publisher)
Hutchinson & Co. was an English book publisher, founded in 1887. The company merged with Century Publishing in 1985 to form Century Hutchinson, and was folded into the British Random House Group in 1989, where it remains as an imprint in the Cornerstone Publishing division...
in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".
Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle
I'm the King of the Castle (novel)
I’m the King of the Castle is a novel written by Susan Hill, originally published in 1970. The French film Je suis le seigneur du château is loosely based on the novel.-Plot summary:...
, The Albatross
The Albatross
The Albatross is a novella written by Susan Hill first appearing in the collection The Albatross and Other Stories published by Hamish Hamilton in 1971. It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1972.. It appeared as a standalone book published by Penguin Books in 2000....
and other stories, Strange Meeting
Strange Meeting (book)
Strange Meeting is a novel by Susan Hill about the First World War. The title of the book is taken from a poem by the First World War poet Wilfred Owen...
, The Bird of Night
The Bird of Night
The Bird of Night is a novel by Susan Hill. It won the 1972 Whitbread Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Susan Hill commented in 2006: A novel of mine was shortlisted for Booker and won the Whitbread Prize for Fiction. It was a book I have never rated. I don't think it works, though...
, A Bit of Singing and Dancing
A Bit of Singing and Dancing
A Bit of Singing and Dancing is a short story collection by British writer Susan Hill. It was published in 1973.The story mainly focuses on the tyranny and the freedom.Many people desire for the freedom just like Esme Fanshaw in this story...
and In the Springtime of the Year
In the Springtime of the Year
In the Springtime of the Year is a 1973 novel by Susan Hill. Hill states that the book was inspired by the sudden death of a man whom she had been close to for eight years....
, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.
In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells
Stanley Wells
Stanley William Wells, CBE, is a Shakespeare scholar and Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.Wells took his first degree at University College, London, and was awarded an honorary DLitt by the University of Warwick in 2008...
and they moved to Stratford upon Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
. Their first daughter, author Jessica Ruston, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.
Published works
Hill's novels are written in a descriptive gothic style, especially her ghost story The Woman in BlackThe Woman in Black
The Woman in Black is a 1983 thriller fiction novel by Susan Hill about a menacing spectre that haunts a small English town.It was adapted into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt...
, which was published in 1983. She has expressed an interest in the traditional English ghost story which relies on suspense and atmosphere to create its impact, similar to the classic ghost stories by Montague Rhodes James and Daphne du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
. The novel was turned into a play
The Woman in Black (play)
The Woman in Black is a 1987 stage play, adapted by Stephen Mallatratt. The play is based on the book of the same name, which was written in 1983 by Susan Hill. It is notable for only having two actors perform the whole play. It was first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, in...
in 1987 and continues to run in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
of London, joining the group of plays that have run for over twenty years. It was also filmed for a TV movie in 1989. She wrote another ghost story with similar ingredients, The Mist in the Mirror
The Mist in the Mirror: A Ghost Story
The Mist in the Mirror: A Ghost Story is a novel by Susan Hill. The novel is about a traveller called Sir James Monmouth and his pursuit of an explorer called Conrad Vane.-References:...
in 1992, and a sequel to du Maurier's Rebecca
Rebecca (novel)
Rebecca is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. When Rebecca was published in 1938, du Maurier became – to her great surprise – one of the most popular authors of the day. Rebecca is considered to be one of her best works...
entitled Mrs De Winter in 1993.
Since 2004, Hill has begun a series of crime novels featuring Detective Simon Serailler, entitled The Various Haunts of Men
The Various Haunts of Men
The Various Haunts of Men is a novel by Susan Hill. It is the first in a series of six "Simon Serrailler" crime novels by the author...
(2004), The Pure in Heart (2005), The Risk of Darkness (2006), The Vows of Silence (2009) and The Shadows in the Street (2010).
Awards
- 1971 Somerset Maugham AwardSomerset Maugham AwardThe Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each May by the Society of Authors. It is awarded to whom they judge to be the best writer or writers under the age of thirty-five of a book published in the past year. The prize was instituted in 1947 by William Somerset Maugham and thus...
I'm the King of the Castle - 1972 Whitbread Novel Award The Bird of Night
- 1972 John Llewellyn Rhys PrizeJohn Llewellyn Rhys PrizeThe John Llewellyn Rhys Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kingdom...
The Albatross - 1988 Nestlé Smarties Book PrizeNestlé Smarties Book PrizeThe Nestlé Children's Book Prize, also known as the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, was an annual award given to children's books written in the previous year by a UK citizen or resident. The prize was administered by Booktrust, an independent charity which promotes books and reading, and sponsored by...
(Gold Award) (6–8 years category) Can It Be True?: A Christmas Story
External links
- Susan Hill's official web site
- A writer's life: Susan Hill from The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
- Contemporary Literary Criticism : Susan Hill