Showing results by author "Malcolm Bradbury" in All Categories

The very liberal Kirks are throwing a party. For Howard Kirk, liberal sociology lecturer whose deluded sense of heroism has him moving seductively around the university campus, the net must be perfectly cast: ‘if you want to have something that’s genuinely unstructured, you have to plan it carefully.’ Kirk embodies the contradictions of the era’s intellectual and political climate. As he navigates complex relationships with his wife, his students and his colleagues, he pursues personal and professional agendas under the guise of progressive thought.

Against his better judgement, Andrew Patterson accepts a job as a lecturer in English literature at a remote Northern redbrick university. His departmental colleagues are an eccentric bunch: doddery Head of English Professor Misty, who looks like he went to school with Little Dorrit; Amy Spade, who's suffering from an identity crisis and given to sending anonymous letters, and man-eating Melissa Murgatroyd, the honeypot of the Senior Common Room. Fortunately, Patterson has old friend and fellow lecturer Victor to show him the ropes - but even so, his first day does not go well.

This ghost story is set on the wild Atlantic coast of North Devon and is told through the eyes of Jenny, a girl of nearly 19, whose recently deceased grandmother Mary has bequeathed her Windover, the cottage where she is staying with her father and his girlfriend during summer vacation. Before long, Jenny is troubled by visions of two teenage girls and learns from a photograph taken in 1934 that these girls are her grandmother Mary and Mary's friend Cathy. As the days go by, Jenny finds herself drawn into tragic events that occurred nearly 80 years earlier.