The Loney: the contemporary classic

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Not particularly. I don't think in 'gothic' terms about what I'm writing, because that would mean I would have to conceive of where the edges of the genre begin and end and what is and isn't 'Gothic'. But because the "supernatural" plays a part in the stories that I write, it's inevitable that my work is categorised under that umbrella. The 'gothic' is one lens you can use to read my writing, but Devil's Day, for example, is as much about history, family, loyalty, identity as it is about hauntings and demons.” Can you tell us a little more about the dark Northern landscapes that have inspired you? Why the North in particular? I don't think it has, possibly for the reasons above. I've never thought of myself as a 'town' or 'city' person and have always gravitated to the outdoors.” Your first novel ‘The Loney ’ has often been described as ‘Gothic’– why do you think this is and was this your intention? Also, there's all this mystery around this baby who we encounter still in the mum's belly throughout the book. Its birth is important, I'm assuming important for this group of weirdos that need it for their rituals and stuff. But then they exchange its life for Hanny. Why Hanny? why don't they use its juice for their benefit? Also, throughout the book you see people getting better, we assume because they too have been part of the ol' switcheroo. But with what babies? Overall my confusion comes primarily from WHY DO THEY HELP HANNY. Discuss "Blue-Collar Cash: Love Your Work, Secure Your Future, and Find Happiness for Life" by Ken Rusk" Let me start, though, with what I enjoyed about The Loney. Firstly, Andrew Hurley's prose is lucid and visual, evocative of the scenes he is describing to the extent that I felt unusually present in the narrative. His characters are thoroughly well drawn - and that's no easy accomplishment in a multi-character novel like this. He also manages to engender, from the beginning, an air of heart rate raising uneasiness. It's a little like going to a horror movie you know nothing about. You know something's going to happen, you're just not sure what!

What comes to mind the most is the impeccable setting. Everything in this book is gloomy, gray and sinister, and I loved it. You felt like you were standing in front of this desolate landscape of Loney yourself, but at no point did it become too scary or too gloomy, in my opinion. Furthermore, I felt like this book was kind of a psychological thriller which also very much appealed to me. Welcome to the Itinerary Planner. Use this tool to build your own journey or choose from an exciting range of specially selected tours.forgive the scare quotes, there is a lot to enjoy, and to consider. besides what I mentioned above, I particularly appreciated the serious exploration of what faith can actually look like. I guess that's a nice way of saying that the book shows that both Christianity and certain other religions involve rituals like blood sacrifice (not to mention the consumption of flesh), and the miracles of God can look a lot like the gifts bestowed by certain other supernatural figures. interesting stuff. And there is a boy, Andrew, called Hanny. He’s mute and somewhat withdrawn, perhaps autistic though it’s not defined. Every year the group with their priest-guide, father Wilfred, set off to the coastal Loney in kind of pilgrimage, to visit the remotely located sanctuary and pray for cure Andrew. On the spot they used to stay at Moorings, an isolated and rather creepy house. First published in a print run of just 300 copies by a small press, The Loney went on to win The Costa First Novel Award and Book of the Year at the British Book Industry Awards 2015. This gothic novel is set on a bleak stretch of the Lancashire coast near Morecambe Bay called The Loney, which is infamous for its dangerous waters. MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window)

The remote old estate that the priest rents out was built by a wealthy gentleman who took up taxidermy as a hobby. Preserved rats, two hideously stuffed chimpanzees seated on a tandem bicycle, and a sealed jar of urine are part of the odd charms of staying in this place called Moorings. The never ending rain and mist, fearsome locals speaking in bizarre dialects, and a mysterious, heavily pregnant 13 year old add twists of fear to the atmosphere. Indeed, all his parishioners deserved to feel like Miss Bunce. Different, loved, guided and judged. It was their reward for being held to ransom by a world that demanded the right to engage in moral brinkmanship whenever it pleased.” Postmistress wrote:I totally agree that this book is an enigma but it is hard to decipher whether the inconsistencies result from the unreliable1st person account or just poor editing.... It left me so frustrated. Many readers have heaped praise on Hurley's characterisation but I felt that this was the books biggest weakness and the main reason why the plot felt peppered with irrelevance. I was a teacher for many, many years, and it came to the point where I thought if I’m ever going to have the opportunity to write a novel, I need to not be teaching – it’s an all-encompassing job. I got a part-time job in a library, which was a lot quieter, and it allowed me time to write. Over three or four years, I wrote The Loney. It’s not an option about whether you write or not, really. You have this urgent necessity. The poor sod. Apparently he lost it when his wife died. Ended up sectioned in some hospital near Preston, where I always imagined him painting those seascapes over and over again. The boats getting a little smaller and the clouds a little bigger each time, until there was nothing but tempest.”

He is not above throwing in a piece of utilitarian prose to keep things moving, as if worried that the novel will get bogged down in the density of the language and imagery, although there’s little fear of it. Hurley shows genre skill in the framing episodes at the beginning and end. Wow, so glad I found this forum! I had the EXACT same questions that Giorgia did (thank you for articulating them so well!) and I appreciate WeeReidy's response--I think you nailed it! I had completely missed the description of the baby portraying the symptoms of all of the people it had unwittingly "healed." I feel more confident about understanding the story now. This is a novel of the unsaid, the implied, the barely grasped or understood, crammed with dark holes and blurry spaces that your imagination feels compelled to fill’ Observer

Hurley suspends the story in a limbo between the supernatural and the merely strange: it is not clear whether the fantastic has occurred, or whether characters are mad, or which of these would be worse. Where the supernatural is most explicitly suggested (a hawthorn blooming well before its season, say), it is done almost in passing, so that one may begin to doubt one’s own experience of the novel. This putting out of a hand to tug the reader into the text is at the crux of the gothic, and is as rare as it is delicious. The Loney is part of an English Gothic tradition running from the nuanced dread in Wilkie Collins to the ersatz satanic menace in Dennis Wheatley. There is an uncovering of ancient lore, powerful pre-Saxon forces lurking beneath the surface. The old rites are priapic and amoral. There is a need for runes and charms of warding. The unspoken hope of the party is that the narrator’s brother, Hanny, who is mute and institutionalised, will be cured of his affliction by visiting the local shrine; however, as the story progresses, it becomes apparent that all the pilgrims have their own secrets, sins and crosses to bear, and that all are in some sense seeking absolution. The boys’ mother, Mummer, is a woman on the edge: her fierce mourning for Father Bernard’s predecessor, the waspish and sadistic Father Wilfred, bespeaks a faith worn threadbare by the trials she has undergone.It was impossible to truly know the place. It changed with each influx and retreat, and the neap tides would reveal the skeletons of those who thought they could escape its insidious currents. No one ever went near the water. No one apart from us, that is. I also believe Hanny did kill the baby, but Tonto has stated in his diary it was Clement in case the baby is ever found and he is to hand his diary into the police. Astonishing literary fiction with a gothic dark undertone that had me alert from beginning to end. I read this in hours, unable to put it down and it's a powerfully written novel that doesn't need a fast pace or out of this world twists or in your face horror to get the story across to you. Mesmerising and disturbing.