 There’s something about the eerie stillness of snow – the sudden change in the world, the unfamiliar nip in the air, the way it quiets everything. Of course, winter is also the perfect time to draw a little closer to the fire, to pour a glass of something warming and share a chilling tale or two. So here are some of my snowy favourites: Like the best kind of haunted house story, Dark Matter by Michelle Paver takes place in an isolated setting, with no prospect of help. Here it is the Arctic which provides the distance, with a small outpost becoming the only refuge amid the snowy wastes. Already on his own as the poor man of the group, Jack is soon cut off from the normalising effects of society and left to the wilderness. Is the haunting real, or a result of his extreme isolation? Set in the 1940s, the story is recounted in Jack’s diary entries. I loved not only the terrific atmosphere but his idiosyncratic voice, which leads us ever deeper into the cold and the endless dark. ‘Everywhere was snow and silence. Snow and silence; the complete arrest of life; a rehearsal and a pre-echo of death.’ The Silent Land by Graham Joyce takes us to the French Pyrenees, where Zoe and Jake are caught in an avalanche while on a skiing holiday. The sense of eeriness builds from there – they return to find the village deserted and yet seemingly impossible to leave. With an unsettling, off-kilter scenario and wonderful characterisation, this beautiful novel is about love and loss and everything in between. The White Road by Sarah Lotz also has a terrific sense of place and plenty of shivers. The main character produces stories for a somewhat distasteful travel website, which specialises in spooky places, particularly those that can offer a dead body or two. Exaggerating his climbing experience, he joins an expedition to Everest, where the corpses of lost climbers are still frozen in the snow. Considering his motivation, it is perhaps fitting that rather more terrifying things also await him there – but are his visions real, or a symptom of altitude sickness? Hugely suspenseful and claustrophobic, I enjoyed the hell out of it. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent is set in nineteenth century Iceland and follows the story of Agnes, a young woman accused of murder. She is sent to wait out her final days on a remote farmstead, where the residents do their best to avoid her and only a young priest tries to listen to her story. They are soon forced to work together in order to survive the hardships of rural Iceland, however, while Agnes must come to terms with her own impending death. This is a beautifully written novel, based on a true story, and set in one of my favourite places. Finally, I can’t resist throwing in The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen. I always adored his tales – after all, aren’t some of our best-known fairy stories really horror for kids? Here a young boy is stolen away by the Snow Queen. He is forced to live in miles-long halls of ice, while his friend Gerda sets off into the wilds to try and find him. The real horror lies not so much in being stolen away as the threat of losing the memory of everything he has ever known. The boy, Kay, is kissed into forgetfulness, while a splinter of bewitched mirror in his heart turns it to ice. He begins to change inwardly even before he is physically stolen, the familiar becoming unfamiliar, something Gerda can’t recognise: ‘The word ‘alone’ Gerda understood quite well, and felt how much was expressed by it.’ I’ll bet they didn’t put that line in the Disney version. ALISON LITTLEWOOD Alison Littlewood’s latest novel, Mistletoe, is a seasonal ghost story which delves into the folklore around the eponymous plant as well as some of the early midwinter festivals that lurk, like another phantom, behind our Christmas celebrations. Her first book, A Cold Season, was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club and described as ‘perfect reading for a dark winter’s night.’ Other titles include Path of Needles, The Unquiet House, Zombie Apocalypse! Acapulcalypse Now, The Hidden People and The Crow Garden. Alison’s short stories have been picked for a number of year’s best anthologies and published in her collections Quieter Paths and Five Feathered Tales. She has won the Shirley Jackson Award for Short Fiction. Alison lives with her partner Fergus in Yorkshire, in a house of creaking doors and crooked walls. She loves exploring the hills and dales with her two hugely enthusiastic Dalmatians and has a penchant for books on folklore and weird history, Earl Grey tea, fountain pens and semicolons. WEBSITE LINKS Website: www.alisonlittlewood.co.uk Twitter: Ali__L Facebook: www.facebook.com/alison.littlewood.3 Mistletoe by Alison Littlewood 'Alison Littlewood has a real talent for building atmosphere, loaded with the promise of things to come - hints of dread with the possibility of hope' Guardian Leah thought Maitland Farm could give her a new life - but now old ghosts are dragging her into the past. Following the tragic deaths of her husband and son, Leah is looking for a new life. Determined to bury her grief in hard work and desperate to escape Christmas and the reminders of what she has lost, she rushes through the purchase of a run-down Yorkshire farmhouse, arriving just as the snow shrouds her new home. It might look like the loveliest Christmas card, but it's soon clear it's not just the house that needs renovation: the land is in bad heart, too. As Leah sets to work, she begins to see visions of the farm's former occupants - and of the dark secrets that lie at the heart of Maitland Farm. If Leah is to have a future, she must find a way to lay both her own past and theirs to rest - but the visions are becoming disturbingly real . . .   Comments are closed.
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