Fireside Gothic
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Fireside Gothic
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Narrated by:
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Leighton Pugh
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Peter Noble
About this listen
From the No.1 bestselling author of The American Boy and The Ashes of London comes a collection of three gothic novellas – Broken Voices, The Leper House and The Scratch – perfect for fans of The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley.
Three dark tales to read by the fireside in the cold winter months
BROKEN VOICES
It’s Christmas before the Great War and two lonely schoolboys have been left in the care of an elderly teacher. There is little to do but listen to his eerie tales about the nearby Cathedral. The boys concoct a plan to discover if the stories are true. But curiosity can prove fatal.
THE LEPER HOUSE
One stormy night, a man’s car breaks down. The only light comes from a remote cottage by the sea. The mysterious woman who lives there begs him to leave, yet the next day he feels compelled to return. But, the woman is nowhere to be seen. And neither is the cottage.
THE SCRATCH
Clare and Gerald live in the Forest of Dean with their cat, Cannop. Gerald’s young nephew, back from service in Afghanistan, comes to stay, with a scratch that won’t heal. Jack and Cannop don't like each other. Clare and Jack like each other too much. The scratch begins to fester.
©2016 Andrew Taylor (P)2016 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
‘Spine tinglers that cry out to be read in the flickering light of a wood fire… Wonderfully atmospheric’ Kate Saunders, The Times
What listeners say about Fireside Gothic
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kaggy
- 19-12-17
A very fine trio of spooky delights
To me a well written ghost story is a thing of absolute delight and here we have not one but three consistently chilling tales all read by some of the best narrators on Audible. If you are not sure if a gothic tale can work in a modern day setting, I point you to the last two stories and I'm certain you will be convinced. This is a genre that works most effectively when the author lets your imagination do the work and here Andrew Taylor has given us three intriguing and mysterious stories that you will want to read again and again.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rachel Redford
- 21-01-17
The Winter's Tales!
I reviewed Andrew Taylor's excellently atmospheric The Ashes of London read by Leighton Pugh on 27/4/16, and so downloaded this his follow-up as soon as I saw it. Taylor has produced 3 'gothic' tales, each one different but all of them subtle and engrossing, leaving the listener with unanswerable questions and nerves well stretched!
Broken Voices read by Leighton Pugh is a sophisticated account of a Christmas holiday before WW1 which two boys at a cathedral school with absent parents have to spend being looked after by a rather frail old teacher who entertains them with eerie stories about the Cathedral. The period detail and dialogue is exactly right. When the boys creep out at night and go searching for some lost music manuscripts, excitement turns to terror and tragedy. Behind what seems a traditional gothic story, themes such as loss, aloneness, memory and music are explored so that it's always more than just a gothic tale.
In the Leper House read by Peter Noble a man is returning from the funeral of his sister with whom he has always quarrelled. In the wilds of Suffolk his car has a puncture, his phone is useless and he wanders the wild wet paths in search of help as the sounds of the sea roar around him. He spends the night in an old house with a curious woman who to his consternation becomes somehow part of him. Next day the house isn't there. Again, it's not just a spooky story - the relationship between brother and sister; past and present mysteries; and the reality of past communities washed into the sea are explored.
In The Scratch read by Anna Bentinck the author creates a convincing first person woman narrator. Clare and Gerald are living happily in the Forest of Dean with their slightly feral cat Cannop when Gerald's nephew Jack comes to stay in an attempt to recover from his stress disorder following his near death experience serving in Afghanistan. On his arm is a scratch that won't heal but merely festers like his damaged psyche; he's terrified of cats and yet tries to find one in the surrounding forest. The festering scratch looms larger both physically and metaphorically as Clare's life disintegrates. This is the most unsettling of the three stories.
The title 'Fireside Gothic' suggests cosy ghostly stories told around the fire. They are like this: traditional and seemingly quite gentle. But lurking underneath each one is a great deal more and that's their strength. The three narrators are excellent story-tellers - thoroughly enjoyable listening!
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nicola Thompson
- 14-11-17
Beautifully written and read
The author has a beautiful realism about his writing, inspiring the imagination. The stories are exactly what short stories should be: moments in life. I’m generally not a fan of short stories, but this collection has turned me, at least to be more opened minded toward them.
Truly fantastic. A different reader for each story helped to bring the characters alive as well. Each of them did a brilliant job.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Kdurkin
- 11-06-18
Awful
The first story fits into the Gothic genre. The subsequent two are pushing it a bit. The first is well told &, though inconsequential at the finish, well written. The second is not so good. The last is hard to plough through. The third is cringingly told with the narrator ‘doing the voices’ in such a way that it caused me to feel embarrassed. On the whole it’s not enjoyable or good value - particularly if you are expecting to sample something of the Gothic genre.
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1 person found this helpful