The Loney: the contemporary classic

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There are only certain things that are of value, only certain things which are worth doing because they contribute to the community; and if they don’t, then they don’t do them. These two types of knowledge, the symbolic and the practical, are presented as distinct but interdependent, as if both are necessary if you are to live with – that is to say, both within and off – your territory, your cruel little piece of the land. Photograph: Alamy The Lancashire coast, as much a character in The Loney as any of its human inhabitants. The problem is that in the Endlands one story begs the telling of another and another,” admits John Pentecost to his 10-year-old son Adam, “and in all of them the devil plays his part.

He wrote about Clement's intervention so as to keep his brother out of trouble for when he then reveals the whole manuscript to the police.The retreat is led by the newly installed parish priest, Father Bernard McGill, who struggles to shake off the ghost of his predecessor, the hardline Father Wilfred.

On the Heath a gale stripped the glorious blaze of colour from Kenwood to Parliament Hill in a matter of hours, leaving several old oaks and beeches dead.

His story offers a thoughtful, restrained, and literary denouement but most fans of gothic fiction will want a few doors noisily slammed, a few bell towers to crumble to dust, and maybe even a reanimated corpse. The landscape that I saw and felt when I was writing The Loney was one of co-existing opposites: then and now, buried and unearthed, permanent and transitory, real and unreal. The previous zealous, ritual obsessed priest, Father Wilfred, is now mysteriously dead leaving behind questions. Other disasters seem all the more harrowing for how close the vessels were to their destination: “Ruby 10/10/1777. His second novel, Devil's Day, was published on 19 October 2017 by John Murray ( ISBN 978-1473619869) [11] and Tartarus Press ( ISBN 9781905784981) [12] Its setting, "The Endlands", is based on Langden valley in Lancashire's Forest of Bowland.

Unfortunately, though the denouement, when it came, seemed piecemeal, short on power and failed to answer too many of my remaining questions. Already hailed as a “modern classic”, it’s been compared to The Wicker Man, and arrives with a plaudit from Stephen King.His characters are thoroughly well drawn - and that's no easy accomplishment in a multi-character novel like this.