Description
Winner of the Gilpin Hotel Prize for Fiction, Lakeland Book of the Year 2022.
Brockenspectre: the magnified and detached shadow of an observer; typically on a mountain
The peace of an isolated Lake District university campus is disturbed by the arrival of mature student, Hild. For Miriam and Ed, the newcomer brings darkness and disorder which reshapes every aspect of their lives, and strikes at the core of their relationship.
Miriam is determined to exorcise the shadow Hild has cast, but how? And can she justify keeping another woman out of the light, the education, she has enjoyed?
“A powerful evocation of how shifting points of view can become fictions and unnervingly undermine a sense of identity.” – Jill Clough, Lakeland Book of the Year Prize for Fiction 2019.
“This is a story of obsession … thoughtful and beautifully constructed … playing off the tensions between the two women against the backdrop of the campus and the nearby fells. The final confrontation when it comes is spectacular. An absolutely fascinating read, highly recommended.” – Anne Banks, This Place I Know.
Brockenspectre was shortlisted for the Sceptre Prize.
Gail Aldwin –
Brockenspectre is a beautifully written novel. I became caught up in the lives of Miriam and Ed and was intrigued by Hild, who moves from the periphery of the story to centre stage. She gets under Miriam’s skin and wears away at her sense of self. Hild insidiously invades relationships and her motivations kept me guessing throughout. She’s quite a character.
Anne Hamilton –
‘The spectre stalked me…Its mimicry summoned you…Heddi, seducer, strife-bringer Whatever happened to you was always a disappointment, or worse…So unlike me. So like me’, so says Miriam, reflecting on her story.
Hild, a mature student studying English, joins Ed’s university classes and starts writing. Rom there on, her life becomes entwined with Ed and with Miriam. She’s a shadowy, tentative figure, nervous and full of doubt – or is that simply the impression she wants to portray? Either way, she’s always there, her motives unclear. The shifting relationship of the trio crystalises into a story of identity and obsession with the two women at the forefront.
Miriam and Hild rub each other up the wrong way from the start. Each so different to the other on the surface, fundamentally they’re not dissimilar and they feed off one another. For a while it seems possible that Hild is a figment of Miriam’s imagination – and then comes their final confrontation.
Brockenspectre is a clever, well-written novel, with a strong story of obsession at its heart. It’s atmospheric and haunting, yet at the same time very real. The strong sense of place helps, as do the naturally portrayed and very complex characters. None of them are that easy to like, but you’ll certainly care about what happens to them and why.