August 2001

I am in the middle of a new novel, and another is humming about in the back of my head… meanwhile, some short stories have bubbled to the surface.. this happens less often than it used to but I enjoy writing them very much. It is a quite different form. In a novel, you can work your way in but a short story has to get it spot on from the first word. That opening sentence is vital. From it, everything else follows in the right sequence… there is no space to dawdle.

The first of the stories appeared in the October issue of TATLER. Its title is THE PUNISHMENT, and like much of my work, its origin is in my childhood and youth and a lot of the incidents are taken from my life then. But the story itself, about a young boy trying to punish a schoolteacher and priest who was indirectly responsible for the death of his brother, has no basis in real life and events, so far as I know.

This story will eventually appear in a collection provisionally titled KINDNESS NEVER PAYS but you can read it either in TATLER, or as an e-book - or rather, e-story, which can be downloaded from this site once you have joined the mailing list.

I am starting the next story now - the main character and the setting are in my head, and in notes, but I don`t yet know that vital opening sentence. Once I have it, the story will be written within a week.

The Pool

Very much a working title. This is to be the next novel. It is short, spare and very direct in tone… not much description. One family and a single terrible event are the focus of the whole short book - and the outcome of it all. I hope I may finish it by next spring.

Stephen Mallatratt`s brilliant adaptation of Susan Hill`s ghost story THE WOMAN IN BLACK continues to play at The Fortune Theatre in London`s West End - www.thewomaninblack.com and is also on tour around Britain.

SUSAN HILL