Frost Hollow Hall: 'The Queen of Historical Fiction at her finest.' Guardian

Product Information

My thanks to Lex Harrison for writing with his own interesting observations about a local frost hollow: In the photo above the air has flowed down off the hillside, but then stopped as it hits the raised bank at the edge of a road. Most of the story felt like a creepy gothic ghost story but the end felt like too many confessions, everyone sorting their problems out and the start of a romance, most of which felt out of place with the time period. When We Were Warriors’ is a work of skill, intelligence and affection. The dark days of world war seem endless. Stan, June and Maggie are hopeful the chip shop might be open still when we open, with ‘ The Night Visitors’. Yet their journey is aborted when Pavilion Street is bombed. The children are evacuated urgently to Frost Hollow Hall, an historic house full of secrets and potential. Stan struggles to curb his emotions, suspicions and impulses. June is keen to take on the loudest boy with a series of bold dares. There are sightings of ghosts and a warning to stay away from the lake. What will the children discover in their new residence? Can the surprise arrival of an American platoon shed any light on the mysteries held within?

In the thrilling final tale, children in the city of Plymouth, on the south coast of the country, come up with a plan to evacuate pets to the countryside after the local warden refuses to allow animals into air raid shelters. I loved the inclusion of séances which were all the rage during that time period. The author highlights how many people desperately believed in these while others were more sceptical.

Tilly's heart sinks. Will's at the door of their cottage, daring her to come ice-skating up at Frost Hollow Hall. No one goes near the place these days. Rumour has it that the house is haunted . . . Ten years ago the young heir, Kit Barrington, drowned there in the lake. But Tilly never turns down a dare. Velvet’s mother works as a fire-watcher in Plymouth. The city is bombarded by German incendiaries. Velvet is weary of her lonely nights punctuated by episodes seeking safety in the air raid shelter. It is full of people and their animals, including those of her friends and neighbours. When the new air raid warden forbids animals in the shelter, Velvet works to arrive at an alternative. Mo’s home has a big shelter. Surely they could keep this location a secret from his house proud parents? ‘ Operation Greyhound’, the third story in this wonderful book, offers a new consideration, further challenges, and a very sympathetic main character.

There are some dislocations of tone in the production and the final denouement is all too easy, but the whole thing is made convincing by the exceptional performance of Jo Patmore as Tilly. Radiating sincerity – and effortlessly amusing at times – she makes us identify with her aspirations and dilemmas and accept as credible the unlikely tale that unfolds. I live in Bury, at the NW corner of the ‘crossroads’ of the South Downs and the River Arun. I used to cycle daily to Amberley Station on my Brompton folding bike and had a strange occurrence on two occasions around ten or so years ago during cold winters where my brake cables froze solid. The location is a tight ‘S’ bend where the road dips to a very low altitude (6m), immediately at the base of the Downs, below a woodland which forms what I understand is known as a ‘hangar’ (a sort of crescent shaped bowl in the hillside – a local Sussex word I am guessing). The novel is told in the 1 st person by young Tilly Higgins and Adrian Rawlins’ adaptation preserves some sense of that, especially in the mysterious episodes following her near-drowning, beautifully narrated by Jo Patmore. Tilly, the sort of girl who used to be called headstrong and is now dubbed feisty, has gone skating and boldly ventures onto thin ice. As she goes under, she is rescued by a youth so beautiful that she takes him for an angel, but it soon becomes apparent that he is the ghost of Kit Barrington, heir to the neighbouring Frost Hollow Hall, drowned in the same lake ten years previously. Tilly’s attempts – ultimately successful – to uncover the truth of Kit’s last days take her into a tempestuous spell as junior house-maid at the hall before old truths are told and old wounds healed.I’m guessing it was something to do with cold air being funnelled by the shape of the hangar and rolling down to the lowest point, but I’d love to know your thoughts. You probably know the steep road section of the A29 (Bury Hill) which runs across the top of it. I’ve been cycling for years and have never known this happen, other than due to mud/crud in the cable, but these were spotlessly clean at the time. The three sessions include the extracts/ texts and presentations for the whole class reading sessions on: Tilly saw the angel again, in her dreams. She realised that there was something he wanted; he wanted her to go to Frost Hollow Hall, and to make the reveal the truth of what had happened there ten years earlier.