So, I read this as filler, inbetween my reserved library books as I was expecting to get really into it and finish it in one go. Didn't like it much, unfortunately! ( )

I wanted to like it, but my mind kept wandering through the audio. I had several false starts, then just gave up. ( )

The fog, the mist, the marshy moors, a wraith and a mysterious house that could be in the Poe portfolio, The Woman in Black has all the classic gothic ingredients. "A rattling good yarn, the sort that chills the mind as well as the spine", so goes the blurb on the back cover (Guardian); and indeed this is an eerie tale rather than a full-on horror. It reads slightly like a short-story that goes on too long. However, it is an achievement in gathering classic Victorian gothic motifs, whilst maintaining some 'modern' sensibilities (the book was first published in 1983). In this respect, it is slightly mannered; in the vein of a TV costume drama, suited to viewing on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I did love the London Particular though, how did a thick fog get that appellation! Susan Hill's greatest achievement here is in her descriptions of an oppressive and foreboding landscape. The Woman in Black won't give you nightmares - at least I hope not... ( )

I will admit that I started listening to this on the way to the airport for my holiday, nodded off, half listed to it, and have then spent the next month or so getting round to completing listening to it.

That perhaps gives a poor reflection on the book (it should give more of a reflection on that fact I can fall asleep on a 3 hour coach journey to Gatwick). The story is spooky and mysterious and the narrator (Paul Ansdell) ably contributes to the ambiance and is written in the fine tradition of gothic horror novels.

Mrs Alice Drablow lived and died at Eel Marsh house, and Arthur Kipps is sent to the house to represent his firm at her funeral, and afterwards clear up her papers. At the funeral, he spots a woman dressed in black, with a wasted face behind her veil, and soon becomes aware of a malaise that inhabits the house. Searching through the papers, he pieces together a sad story, and he begins hearing and seeing things, and it soon pushes him to the edge of sanity. The Woman in Black has a reputation and it comes to haunt Kripps when he least expects it ( )

Predictable and underhwhelming.

No, I have not seen the movie. ( )