As adults, Cathy and Rob's relationship begins to develop into something forbidden, and it sets off a tragic chain of events that spread into the years of the First World War. 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.

I wanted the thermometer to drop lower and lower until not even a trace of mercury showed against the figures. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel. The maturity of Catherine, even though she lives in a world with limited experiences, is amazing and is possible because she accepts what is and keeps an even appearance to the outside world. Cathy and her older brother Rob grow up without their parents on an estate in rural England in the early 20th century.Her third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and she went on to become a Sunday Times bestseller with The Siege, which was described by Antony Beevor as a ‘world-class novel’ and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year and the Orange Prize. Although I was expecting more plot, and more revelation, this is more a study of sadness or an exploration of family. There are some very surprising twists in this novel and I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it. Despite the word “winter” in the title, this is an excellent book to reach for at the height of spooky season (it would also be great for winter, of course).

The siblings are left to their own devices with only an unlikeable governess, and a single servant to see to their needs. Unsettling love and stifled horror create and then destroy the claustrophobic world of this lush, literary gothic set in turn-of-the-century England. Largely left to fend for themselves, Cathy's relationship with Rob becomes unhealthily close, with tragic consequences which are played out at length against the historical backdrop of the immediate pre-Great War setting. I’ve found the book lingering in my thoughts ever since I finished it, but I still wish she’d stick with the gothic vibes.I felt like I was being a little picky lowering my rating for that shift at the end (especially since I wasn’t the first one to get there and KNEW it was coming). Mostly the children run wild in the woods and there is a sense of nature, both bounteous and grisly in Dunmore’s atmospheric setting where images of violence against small animals recur.

A wonderfully written saga of love and decline both in the class system and amongst a pair of siblings. Voor mij 5 sterren omdat dit boek niet onder 1 noemer te vatten valt, omdat de taal zo mooi en verzorgd is, omdat de schrijfster mij soms ongemakkelijk deed heen en weer schuiven in mijn zetel, omdat ik het moeilijk kon opzij leggen.Kamps noted that once the War starts, Cathy shows signs of "something akin to sympathy for others", but added that it is too late "to believe, or care, that the clouds in Cathy's life are suddenly parting. I really did have a good time with this one, even though the ending didn’t quite live up to the rest of the book for me. And this is what keeps you reading, even when things get a little icky (don’t let the prologue put you off). My father was the eldest of twelve, and this extended family has no doubt had a strong influence on my life, as have my own children. It is is set in Leningrad during the first year of the siege of the city by German forces, which lasted for 880 days from the fall of Mga on 30th August 1941.