Matthew Dennison

Another bleak house on the Fens

issue 27 October 2012

Some years ago, Susan Hill stated in an interview: ‘It’s not plot that interests me but setting, people in a setting, wrestling with an abstract subject.’ In her ghost stories, of which Dolly is the latest, Hill exploits the impact of setting on character: the
role of atmosphere and environment in shaping human suggestibility and the dramatic
and sensational possibilities of this encounter.

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