A Spell of Winter: WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

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Helen Dunmore clearly claims the Bront”an landscape, emotional as well as physical, as her territory. . . . Dunmore is wonderful at establishing a sense of place; you smell what she smell, se what she sees.”” Book Reporter

Having abandoned her family, the mother remains a topic mostly avoided by the men at the estate. But Cathy has difficulty forgetting (and forgiving). After Cathy's abortion, she recalls a poem about a women's stillbirth: "A mother, a mother was born" (p. 196). What does this mean to Cathy? How does the abortion affect Cathy's bond with her mother? Contrast this with Cathy's feelings toward her father. When Rob breaks his leg, Cathy firmly confronts her grandfather: "I saw what he saw: my set, sullen face, my big hands. I was capable and I knew I was. I could inflict my will on him" (p. 164). Much is made of Cathy's physical attributes in this passage. Does her stature affect her personality? Discuss the role her physicality plays later in life, when only she and her grandfather are left on the farm. What's the significance of Grandfather shouting they should "CHERISH...one another"? (p. 265) Dunmore's writing is the star of the show here: gorgeously lyrical, evocative and atmospheric, alive with startling imagery and unexpected conjunctions. But there are too many long descriptions of woodland and flowers (so many flowers) that make the pace sluggish and congest the text. This was the first winner of the Orange Prize (now the Women's Prize for Fiction), and I found it very impressive. The atmosphere and setting reminded me of a couple of my favourite William Trevor novels ( Fools of Fortune and The Story of Lucy Gault - they share the decaying country house settings and the Anglo-Irish family settings, and they share the elegiac tone with darker overtones and the quality of the writing. An electrifying and original talent, a writer whose style is characterized by a lyrical, dreamy intensity.”” The GuardianWhen closely observing the paintings of Richard Tandy, Cathy notices that "the sky was so pale, it dazzled, and behind the wood there was a heap of hills, purple as damsons" (p. 86). Intrigued by the style, she suggests it represents a different "reality" and a different "language." Why did Mr. Bullivant want Cathy to see these works? In what kind of reality does Cathy exist? Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later. A Spell of Winteris a historical novel about two siblings, Cathy and Rob, whose parents have left them in the care of their grandfather and the servants that run his crumbling country house. No one talks about their mother, who has abandoned them to live in the south of France – she was a bit wild, with crazy Irish hair that poor young Cathy seems to have inherited. Their dad is in a home for the insane. They visit him one day as small children under the care of Miss Gallagher, the meddling governess who adores young Cathy but loathes Rob. The visit does not go well.

The author makes great use of closed spaces: the "snow-house" where the first incestuous union occurs (p. 99); the little "cottage" where the abortion takes place (p. 185); the tiny "clearing" where Miss Gallagher dies (p. 203). What relation do these physical landscapes have to the country estate? How do they correspond to the emotional landscape of the characters? Can you think of other enclosed spaces to which the author might be alluding? This book was like a dream. Dunmore’s fluid style, her depictions of English countryside, and her oddly flawed characters all seem like things I have seen whilst sleeping. There’s a lazy quality here, something difficult to describe, but something which is nonetheless compelling and confusing all at once.It had a silver shine on it,’ said Kate, `like the shine on money. But underneath the flesh was puffed up and purple. And the hand was swollen bigger than any hand I’d ever seen.’ Woodman, Sue (1 July 1996). "Orange is a female color". The Nation. Washington D.C . Retrieved 12 December 2011. (subscription required) Her most recent prize shortlisting, in 2006, was for the Nestlé Smarties book prize for children's fiction, with The Tide Knot, the second volume in a quartet of children's novels set, like Zennor, on the glittering, mysterious Cornish coast. The move into adult fiction in no way derailed her desire to write for children; in fact, she says, "It's something that's actually become more important in the last half-dozen years. Children are a completely different audience, and I enjoy that. There's something about the way they devour books that's wonderful; you don't get many fans of adult fiction sending you beautiful drawings of your characters. And it frees you to layer on the suspense and narrative drama – to create lots of worlds, real and unreal, and move into them. But at the same time, it's just the same as adult fiction in terms of the emotions. It's not milk and water."