A Spell of Winter: WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

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They are stories in which things are so odd and sort of awful, but you get pulled in and start to feel the weight of the events surrounding the most normal of things, like the eating of a piece of cheese. Rob just flounces off to Canada for no particular reason, and then he comes back and goes off to the war and we never find out what happened to him? An older, wealthy neighbour Mr Bullivant befriends Cathy, but she is more interested in her brother. It certainly adds more tragedy to Cathy’s life, and the time period explains certain habits / ways of life at the manor, but I would argue that it doesn’t change Cathy’s relationships with any of the main characters, which in my opinion is the central focus of this story.

The children are never told exactly what caused their family to splinter apart so they grow to rely solely on each other in this circumscribed world.I saw her once at a festival and thought, no, she's much too serious for me, but at the start of the year I set myself a challenge to read those who've won The Women's Prize for Fiction. But as I read, bits of the setting and characters started to come together, particularly the narrator Catherine. The plot describes the life of Catherine, who lives with her grandfather, her brother Rob and an Irish servant Kate in her grandfather's country house, which they struggle to maintain, after her mother has left her father and the family and the father has died.

Her writing is so powerful and evocative it enables her to depict the dark events in this novel as something beautiful and real.

Nevertheless, the book has some beautiful aspects to it that make it worth a read, aside from its captivating prose.