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When Nights Were Cold
As Queen Victoria's reign reaches its end, Grace Farringdon dreams of polar explorations and of escape from her stifling home with her protective parents and eccentric, agoraphobic sister. But when Grace secretly applies to Candlin, a women's college filled with intelligent women, she finally feels her ambitions beginning to take shape.
344 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2012
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849 people want to read
About the author
Susanna Jones
10 books53 followers"Susanna Jones was born in Hull in 1967 and grew up in Hornsea in East Yorkshire. She studied drama at Royal Holloway, University of London and then spent several years abroad, including two years in Turkey and five years in Japan. She taught English in secondary schools, language schools, a steel corporation and worked as an assistant editor and presenter for NHK Radio.
In 1996 she studied for an MA in Novel Writing at the University of Manchester and now lectures in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. She lives in Brighton where she is a co-creator of The Brighton Moment.
Her work has been translated into over twenty languages and has won the CWA John Creasey Dagger, a Betty Trask Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize." (susanna-jones.com)
In 1996 she studied for an MA in Novel Writing at the University of Manchester and now lectures in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. She lives in Brighton where she is a co-creator of The Brighton Moment.
Her work has been translated into over twenty languages and has won the CWA John Creasey Dagger, a Betty Trask Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize." (susanna-jones.com)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
January 1, 2024
(First read in 2012; reread December 2023.) This was a five-star book and instant favourite when I first read it. More than a decade later, I couldn’t remember much aside from a general impression of an unreliable narrator and wintry atmosphere – something that made it seem perfect to revisit in December. Having forgotten most of the plot, I had fun rereading this historical tale of suspense, though I wasn’t quite as impressed second time around.
It’s the early 20th century, and Grace Farringdon is a young woman single-mindedly obsessed with polar exploration. To her parents’ horror, she refuses to search for a suitor and instead takes up a place at a women’s college. Here, she forms the ‘Antarctic Exploration Society’ with three new friends – aspiring actress Leonora Locke, reticent Winifred Hooper and, most fatefully, Cicely Parr, who is standoffish but has much-needed experience in mountaineering. As this story is framed by an older, bitter Grace’s reflections on her life, the reader is well aware that the Society’s activities meet with not just disaster, but ignominy too. What Grace’s narrative slowly reveals is her part in that, and how exactly it played out.
I didn’t look at my original review until I’d finished rereading the book, and was surprised to find I’d been so effusive about it: ‘Every nuance of emotion in this story is so wonderfully – and, sometimes, painfully – evoked... I felt that I was living Grace’s experiences... Grace is a near-perfect example of the unreliable narrator... I loved this book, to the point that I would recommend it to almost everyone.’ It’s a compelling story, but now, I wouldn’t go that far. When Nights Were Cold is slow to start; while it becomes much more gripping in the second half, it’s unevenly paced – events unfold with implausible speed when the plot needs them to. The characterisation can be a little unwieldy, though there are some heartbreaking moments in Grace’s narrative (the disintegration of a doomed affair is particularly affecting).
I have always loved novels about solitary, insular, imaginative people and I’m sure that’s why this spoke to me so much in 2012. In the years since, I’ve read better versions of this plot, more sophisticated unreliable narrators. (In my original review I compared it to Sarah Waters, which isn’t something I’d stand by and just seems like a product of my inexperience as a reader at that point.) When Nights Were Cold is a good book, but of Jones’s novels, it hasn’t stayed with me the way The Earthquake Bird has.
It’s the early 20th century, and Grace Farringdon is a young woman single-mindedly obsessed with polar exploration. To her parents’ horror, she refuses to search for a suitor and instead takes up a place at a women’s college. Here, she forms the ‘Antarctic Exploration Society’ with three new friends – aspiring actress Leonora Locke, reticent Winifred Hooper and, most fatefully, Cicely Parr, who is standoffish but has much-needed experience in mountaineering. As this story is framed by an older, bitter Grace’s reflections on her life, the reader is well aware that the Society’s activities meet with not just disaster, but ignominy too. What Grace’s narrative slowly reveals is her part in that, and how exactly it played out.
I didn’t look at my original review until I’d finished rereading the book, and was surprised to find I’d been so effusive about it: ‘Every nuance of emotion in this story is so wonderfully – and, sometimes, painfully – evoked... I felt that I was living Grace’s experiences... Grace is a near-perfect example of the unreliable narrator... I loved this book, to the point that I would recommend it to almost everyone.’ It’s a compelling story, but now, I wouldn’t go that far. When Nights Were Cold is slow to start; while it becomes much more gripping in the second half, it’s unevenly paced – events unfold with implausible speed when the plot needs them to. The characterisation can be a little unwieldy, though there are some heartbreaking moments in Grace’s narrative (the disintegration of a doomed affair is particularly affecting).
I have always loved novels about solitary, insular, imaginative people and I’m sure that’s why this spoke to me so much in 2012. In the years since, I’ve read better versions of this plot, more sophisticated unreliable narrators. (In my original review I compared it to Sarah Waters, which isn’t something I’d stand by and just seems like a product of my inexperience as a reader at that point.) When Nights Were Cold is a good book, but of Jones’s novels, it hasn’t stayed with me the way The Earthquake Bird has.
April 13, 2012
I was intrigued by the idea of a novel about Edwardian lady mountaineers, and I was even more intrigued when I placed the name of the author. Because I recalled that Susanna Jones specialises in dark storytelling, unreliable narrators, and psychological drama.
I hoped that When Nights Were Cold would be something rather special, and it very nearly was.
When Grace Farringdon was growing up, she and her father followed the polar explorations of Ernest Shackleton and his contemporaries, studying every detail they could find.
It was only supposed to be a diversion for a little girl; Grace and her sister were expected to grow up into obedient women who would look after their parents and find good, respectable husbands.
They both wanted more, and their parents tried to clip their wings. They succeeded with Catherine, but not with Grace. She escaped, after using covert means to secure a place at an all-women college.
It was wonderful to watch, and my heart rose for Grace and fell for Catherine. There’s a fine line between realism and pastiche, and another between drama and melodrama. Susanna Jones walks both rather well.
It was wonderful to arrive at university with Grace. What a wonderful world it was: a world full of women seeking knowledge that no man may enter; a world where women were freed from social conventions, and addressed only by their surnames; a world of cocoa evenings, social clubs, new friendships, and so many wonderful possibilities.
Grace was inspired and, full of confidence, she formed forms the Antarctic Exploration Society to follow, and maybe even to emulate, their adventures.
Three other women joined Grace’s new venture: Leonora Locke, the confident and sociable daughter of liberal parents who wants to experience everything college can offer before she steps out into the world; Winifred Hooper, who is apprehensive about possible adventures, but curious and unwilling to be left out of any adventures that might present themselves before she settles into the traditional roles of wife and mother; and Cecily Parr, who is clever, forthright, knowledgable, and eager to take the lead.
A diverse quartet indeed, and that confirmed the idea I had that all of this was a little bit contrived. But the relationships between the four had a very interesting dynamic and the story had so many possibilities.
There would be adventures, there would be tragedies, and there would be repercussions. It was compulsive reading!
In the end Grace would be the only survivor, living alone in the family home that she had hated.
The stories of her friends, of her family, of just how she got there are complex, and quite extraordinary. And as those stories unfolded I began to question Grace’s sanity, and to question just how reliable her account of her life really was.
She was a wonderfully storyteller, catching the dark atmosphere of her home, the cold intensity of her adventures, the tangled relationships that surrounded her, so very, very well.
The story became more and more intense, more dark and claustrophobic, before winding up with a wonderful twist.
I loved it, but still I have to quibble a little.
Early in the story I loved the way Susanna Jones pitched her story between realism and pastiche, and between drama and melodrama. But later I began to wish that she would take her story one way or the other, and embrace that direction wholeheartedly.
And I wish some of her ideas had been developed a little more, and some of the story opened out a little more. She had four women, undergraduates, with opposing views on women’s suffrage and I wanted to hear them argue, but I didn’t. I wanted to spend more time with the Antarctic Exploration Society, to follow every detail of their activities.
It isn’t that this wasn’t a really good book – it was – it’s just that I have a feeling that it could have been just a little deeper and richer.
I hoped that When Nights Were Cold would be something rather special, and it very nearly was.
When Grace Farringdon was growing up, she and her father followed the polar explorations of Ernest Shackleton and his contemporaries, studying every detail they could find.
It was only supposed to be a diversion for a little girl; Grace and her sister were expected to grow up into obedient women who would look after their parents and find good, respectable husbands.
They both wanted more, and their parents tried to clip their wings. They succeeded with Catherine, but not with Grace. She escaped, after using covert means to secure a place at an all-women college.
It was wonderful to watch, and my heart rose for Grace and fell for Catherine. There’s a fine line between realism and pastiche, and another between drama and melodrama. Susanna Jones walks both rather well.
It was wonderful to arrive at university with Grace. What a wonderful world it was: a world full of women seeking knowledge that no man may enter; a world where women were freed from social conventions, and addressed only by their surnames; a world of cocoa evenings, social clubs, new friendships, and so many wonderful possibilities.
Grace was inspired and, full of confidence, she formed forms the Antarctic Exploration Society to follow, and maybe even to emulate, their adventures.
Three other women joined Grace’s new venture: Leonora Locke, the confident and sociable daughter of liberal parents who wants to experience everything college can offer before she steps out into the world; Winifred Hooper, who is apprehensive about possible adventures, but curious and unwilling to be left out of any adventures that might present themselves before she settles into the traditional roles of wife and mother; and Cecily Parr, who is clever, forthright, knowledgable, and eager to take the lead.
A diverse quartet indeed, and that confirmed the idea I had that all of this was a little bit contrived. But the relationships between the four had a very interesting dynamic and the story had so many possibilities.
There would be adventures, there would be tragedies, and there would be repercussions. It was compulsive reading!
In the end Grace would be the only survivor, living alone in the family home that she had hated.
The stories of her friends, of her family, of just how she got there are complex, and quite extraordinary. And as those stories unfolded I began to question Grace’s sanity, and to question just how reliable her account of her life really was.
She was a wonderfully storyteller, catching the dark atmosphere of her home, the cold intensity of her adventures, the tangled relationships that surrounded her, so very, very well.
The story became more and more intense, more dark and claustrophobic, before winding up with a wonderful twist.
I loved it, but still I have to quibble a little.
Early in the story I loved the way Susanna Jones pitched her story between realism and pastiche, and between drama and melodrama. But later I began to wish that she would take her story one way or the other, and embrace that direction wholeheartedly.
And I wish some of her ideas had been developed a little more, and some of the story opened out a little more. She had four women, undergraduates, with opposing views on women’s suffrage and I wanted to hear them argue, but I didn’t. I wanted to spend more time with the Antarctic Exploration Society, to follow every detail of their activities.
It isn’t that this wasn’t a really good book – it was – it’s just that I have a feeling that it could have been just a little deeper and richer.
July 31, 2014
Hell, did this book make me angry! I felt cheated by this one. Probably because I expected something totally different? This is basically just yet another novel about a Victorian heroine being straight-laced by strict parents, and as a result unable to fulfill her dreams, wasting her life dreaming and slowly going mad... A Guardian quote promised "a gripping psychological thriller", which totally led me unto the wrong track. The plot sounded promising, with its Shackleton/arctic exploration angle. Little did I know that all the aspirations of the Arctic Society the narrator Grace Farringdon founded would stay imaginary and only amount to some hare-brained students playing explorers with their fingers on the map! The alpine part stays a sketch too, revealed only in glimses and in hindsight. O.k. two of the friends manage to climb the Matterhorn later on, led by a native guide and wit disastrous results, but maybe that too was only a fever dream of the unhinged narrator, who is getting more and more unreliabel as the story unfolds. I also was not too impressed by the writing, which stayed oddly flat, staying on the surface of things, but maybe that was intentional as Farringdon is not one given to try and decipher the feelings of others.
February 7, 2012
Excellent novel about the life of Grace Farringdon, a young woman in the early 1900's who wants to leave her stifled life. Eventually she gets to Candlin College, where she meets Leonora Locke, Cicely Parr and Winifred Hooper and starts the Antartic Exploration Society. Looking back on how she is the only surviving member, Grace tells her story and evokes the restrictions on women with great atmosphere. Loved it.
April 30, 2014
Grace Farringdon has always been obsessed with polar exploration and diligently follows the exploits of Scott and Shackleton. When she enrolls at Candlin College she sets up a Ladies’ Polar Exploration society, joined by her friend Leonora Locke, an aspiring playwright and suffragist; Winifred Hooper, a budding botanist; and Cicely Parr, an irascible mountaineer whose parents died in a climbing accident but who continues to climb with her intrepid aunt and uncle.
Disaster strikes during an expedition to the Alps, and World War I also intervenes to divide the friends. A return journey to the Matterhorn brings yet another catastrophe, but this time it may have been manmade. As the last remaining member of the society and an isolated spinster, Grace is the one recalling the incidents of those years (roughly 1904-1923). But is her account reliable? She has always had a vivid imagination, and after graduation a few people thought she was showing signs of incipient madness; now she suffers from hallucinations brought on by medication, seeing dead friends and family members. So how accurate are her reminiscences about what happened on those two ill-fated alpine expeditions?
This is a terrific suspense novel with well-realized settings. [Candlin is a fictionalized version of the college where my husband used to work, Royal Holloway (part of the University of London; once known as Bedford College for women). Candlin’s red-brick turreted main building, the statue of Queen Victoria out on the north quad, pond and picture gallery with the famous painting of bloodied polar bears are all based on RHUL’s wonderful Victorian Founder’s Building.]
Disaster strikes during an expedition to the Alps, and World War I also intervenes to divide the friends. A return journey to the Matterhorn brings yet another catastrophe, but this time it may have been manmade. As the last remaining member of the society and an isolated spinster, Grace is the one recalling the incidents of those years (roughly 1904-1923). But is her account reliable? She has always had a vivid imagination, and after graduation a few people thought she was showing signs of incipient madness; now she suffers from hallucinations brought on by medication, seeing dead friends and family members. So how accurate are her reminiscences about what happened on those two ill-fated alpine expeditions?
This is a terrific suspense novel with well-realized settings. [Candlin is a fictionalized version of the college where my husband used to work, Royal Holloway (part of the University of London; once known as Bedford College for women). Candlin’s red-brick turreted main building, the statue of Queen Victoria out on the north quad, pond and picture gallery with the famous painting of bloodied polar bears are all based on RHUL’s wonderful Victorian Founder’s Building.]
September 27, 2013
I have never read anything by this author before and was not encouraged by the cover saying "a gripping psychological thriller". However, I didn't feel this book was a psychological thriller and it certainly wasn't gripping for me.
On the positive side, the book covered some potentially very interesting topics and had any of these areas (as described by previous reviewers) been developed I probably would have enjoyed the book. However they were not and the tantalising glimpses before the author changed tack yet again were just frustrating.
What was real and what was in the protagonist's imagination? Did I really care? No! I guess this switching between the two was what was meant to make it a psychological thriller but it just frustrated me and made me put the book down and go off to do something more productive. If it hadn't been the first book for a new reading group I certainly wouldn't have bothered to finish it.
It will be interesting to hear what other members of the group have to say, especially as the author is going to attend the meeting.
On the positive side, the book covered some potentially very interesting topics and had any of these areas (as described by previous reviewers) been developed I probably would have enjoyed the book. However they were not and the tantalising glimpses before the author changed tack yet again were just frustrating.
What was real and what was in the protagonist's imagination? Did I really care? No! I guess this switching between the two was what was meant to make it a psychological thriller but it just frustrated me and made me put the book down and go off to do something more productive. If it hadn't been the first book for a new reading group I certainly wouldn't have bothered to finish it.
It will be interesting to hear what other members of the group have to say, especially as the author is going to attend the meeting.
August 12, 2013
From Shade Point
Hours have passed and I am shivering. I could sit down here until I freeze, let frost be my skin and let icicles hang from my chin, let glaciers creep through London and crush my house. It is how I have lived these fifteen years.
Since her superb debut novel The Earthquake Bird, Susanna Jones has been crafting a place as one of this country's most impressive writers. She excels in dark, psychological mystery. Not procedural mystery, with detectives and so on, but the kind of sharp dissection of our devices and desires that reminds me of Du Maurier or Highsmith.
This new novel is her finest, and that's from someone who liked the previous three very much. Something about its chilly madness has stuck with me and I find myself returning often to her alternating worlds of Victorian drawing room and towering mountainside that seem to collapse together - both equally as forbidding and terrorising.
Just before the First World War, Grace Farringdon manages to secure a place at Candlin Women's College - very much against the wishes of her austere parents. There her childhood dreams of ice and exploration will become a reality as she forms an Antartic Exploration Society that will lead Grace and three fellow members into darkness on the alps. Imbued with this sense of adventure by a wounded and tragic seafarer of a father, the novel explores the dreams and fears that steep in the bloodlines of families, and where these single minded obsessions can take us when we let them take over our reason.
In fact, so haunted and chilling did I find this story, that I can well imagine readers lulled by the Romantic cover, the story of derring-do (and there is a wry bit of that here) only to be shocked on finding that here on the snowy peaks there is despair and pain, and locked in the dank rooms of her Victorian home is a madness flooding through all things. In one extremely memorable scene, Grace's forlorn sister Catherine sits on the floor, making endless piles of misshapen ghoulish rag dolls.The whole household at this point seems lost in eccentricity and delusion:
"... there were thirty or forty of them, all misshapen, strangely deformed with heads sewn onto their sides, stuffing falling out, limbs hanging off their bodies. I started at the sight of them. Catherine was snipping intently at a length of blue silk, tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth."
The central mystery at the heart of the novel is a tragedy that takes place on the Exploration Society's first major exhibition - climbing in the alps. It is an event that is described with such a suddeness and breathtaking simplicity that it succeeds completely in framing the rest of the book. It is an unforgettably well crafted moment. From an already unbalanced progress so far, this moment drives Grace into increasingly tighter, more claustrophobic mental spaces. A narrator that had seemed reliable, becomes increasingly unhinged. The reader will be compelled to read the last fifty pages or so in one sitting - driven on by the tension and menace. There are moments towards the end that have almost a surreal, hallucinatory quality, as Grace seems neither in London nor the Alps, but as said before, in some vicious hinterland between the two.
In the end it is a world of ghosts. The reader will move with Grace through one imagining to another, drifting in an out of what seems to be reality, what seems to be the truth of the tragedy in the mountains. But in a way, this is a chaotic world, and nothing is ever as it seems to be. The fiercest of sudden emotions, their reactions and consequences are laid bare in this darkly beautiful book. On a different level, it is about the death of an age - pomp and circumstance and stiff upper lip, dashed and broken on the slopes.
Hours have passed and I am shivering. I could sit down here until I freeze, let frost be my skin and let icicles hang from my chin, let glaciers creep through London and crush my house. It is how I have lived these fifteen years.
Since her superb debut novel The Earthquake Bird, Susanna Jones has been crafting a place as one of this country's most impressive writers. She excels in dark, psychological mystery. Not procedural mystery, with detectives and so on, but the kind of sharp dissection of our devices and desires that reminds me of Du Maurier or Highsmith.
This new novel is her finest, and that's from someone who liked the previous three very much. Something about its chilly madness has stuck with me and I find myself returning often to her alternating worlds of Victorian drawing room and towering mountainside that seem to collapse together - both equally as forbidding and terrorising.
Just before the First World War, Grace Farringdon manages to secure a place at Candlin Women's College - very much against the wishes of her austere parents. There her childhood dreams of ice and exploration will become a reality as she forms an Antartic Exploration Society that will lead Grace and three fellow members into darkness on the alps. Imbued with this sense of adventure by a wounded and tragic seafarer of a father, the novel explores the dreams and fears that steep in the bloodlines of families, and where these single minded obsessions can take us when we let them take over our reason.
In fact, so haunted and chilling did I find this story, that I can well imagine readers lulled by the Romantic cover, the story of derring-do (and there is a wry bit of that here) only to be shocked on finding that here on the snowy peaks there is despair and pain, and locked in the dank rooms of her Victorian home is a madness flooding through all things. In one extremely memorable scene, Grace's forlorn sister Catherine sits on the floor, making endless piles of misshapen ghoulish rag dolls.The whole household at this point seems lost in eccentricity and delusion:
"... there were thirty or forty of them, all misshapen, strangely deformed with heads sewn onto their sides, stuffing falling out, limbs hanging off their bodies. I started at the sight of them. Catherine was snipping intently at a length of blue silk, tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth."
The central mystery at the heart of the novel is a tragedy that takes place on the Exploration Society's first major exhibition - climbing in the alps. It is an event that is described with such a suddeness and breathtaking simplicity that it succeeds completely in framing the rest of the book. It is an unforgettably well crafted moment. From an already unbalanced progress so far, this moment drives Grace into increasingly tighter, more claustrophobic mental spaces. A narrator that had seemed reliable, becomes increasingly unhinged. The reader will be compelled to read the last fifty pages or so in one sitting - driven on by the tension and menace. There are moments towards the end that have almost a surreal, hallucinatory quality, as Grace seems neither in London nor the Alps, but as said before, in some vicious hinterland between the two.
In the end it is a world of ghosts. The reader will move with Grace through one imagining to another, drifting in an out of what seems to be reality, what seems to be the truth of the tragedy in the mountains. But in a way, this is a chaotic world, and nothing is ever as it seems to be. The fiercest of sudden emotions, their reactions and consequences are laid bare in this darkly beautiful book. On a different level, it is about the death of an age - pomp and circumstance and stiff upper lip, dashed and broken on the slopes.
April 19, 2012
Review also seen on: http://nothingbetterthanagoodbook.blo...
Grace Farringdon has always been mesmerized and fascinated with the great explorers and often daydreams that she could one day accompany Shackleton on a voyage to Antarctica. Grace decides that she will attend university against the wishes of her family and the expectations of society. There she meets like-minded women and forms an Antarctica Exploration Society. Soon play acting is not enough and they begin to embark on a life changing journey. The tragic events of their first real climb haunt Grace and its members - Locke and Parr for the rest of their lives.
Grace is a unreliable narrator. Her loved ones are of the opinion that she is not sound of mind but who are we to trust? because through her eyes they are the ones that are not sane. There are vague references to medication and hallucinations that once afflicted her father but there is great mystery surrounding her state of mind.
Mountaineering did not have as large a part as I thought that it would and that disappointed me slightly but this novel was in no way boring or uneventful.
This was a dark atmospheric novel that sought to mislead and deceive the reader. Grace and women in general seem to suffocate under the restrictions and expectations of their sex. The entire novel had a very claustrophobic feel to it, both socially, mentally and physically.
A great novel, very much in the vein of Sarah Waters.
Grace Farringdon has always been mesmerized and fascinated with the great explorers and often daydreams that she could one day accompany Shackleton on a voyage to Antarctica. Grace decides that she will attend university against the wishes of her family and the expectations of society. There she meets like-minded women and forms an Antarctica Exploration Society. Soon play acting is not enough and they begin to embark on a life changing journey. The tragic events of their first real climb haunt Grace and its members - Locke and Parr for the rest of their lives.
Grace is a unreliable narrator. Her loved ones are of the opinion that she is not sound of mind but who are we to trust? because through her eyes they are the ones that are not sane. There are vague references to medication and hallucinations that once afflicted her father but there is great mystery surrounding her state of mind.
Mountaineering did not have as large a part as I thought that it would and that disappointed me slightly but this novel was in no way boring or uneventful.
This was a dark atmospheric novel that sought to mislead and deceive the reader. Grace and women in general seem to suffocate under the restrictions and expectations of their sex. The entire novel had a very claustrophobic feel to it, both socially, mentally and physically.
A great novel, very much in the vein of Sarah Waters.
Read
January 14, 2016I enjoyed this one, albeit with a shudder of relief that I live here and now. From the start of the book, the reader is made aware that the reclusive narrator is notorious for some reason, and the narrative flickers back and forth between her present and her childhood and more adventurous early adulthood. My favourite part of the book was the account of Grace's escape to an early women's college and her friendships with three other students with an interest in the Antarctic. Their small rebellions and struggles against the restrictions of Edwardian society develop into an increasingly claustrophobic story of dreams denied as both Grace and her more compliant older sister buckle under the weight of social and family expectations. The mountain sequences are excellent and Grace's voice is well done and unsettling to exactly the right degree. It's a cold read, more one that I appreciated and found interesting than one that ignited my passion, but I recommend it.
July 2, 2017
A high quality novel in terms of style of writing and vivid description. The storyline, however, falters at some points and does not have the pace and cogency which I would have liked.
As a psychological thriller, this is story given by an unreliable narrator. As it goes on, more and more of the story is made up of scenes which may be imaginary or misunderstood. Indeed, it is possible that all of these expeditions and disasters are merely hallucinations - an indication of that, is the mental instability of the narrator's father. Has she inherited his state of mind?
The ending to me, is unclear. Does she perish in the fire she sets in the family home? This is rather like the actions of the mad wife in Jane Eyre. Or does she set fire to this place of sad memories and just run off?
I agree with some other commentators on When Nights Were Cold, that the most powerful part of the text is the looking back on early friendships, and the nostalgia for youth in a world which has been taken away by change.
In some psychological thrillers, there is an afterword - sometimes written in the form of a newspaper report, a letter from an observer, or a coroner's decision - giving an impartial view of the real status and fate of the narrator. This novel would be very much better with such an addition. It would improve the story with clarity and interest.
As a psychological thriller, this is story given by an unreliable narrator. As it goes on, more and more of the story is made up of scenes which may be imaginary or misunderstood. Indeed, it is possible that all of these expeditions and disasters are merely hallucinations - an indication of that, is the mental instability of the narrator's father. Has she inherited his state of mind?
The ending to me, is unclear. Does she perish in the fire she sets in the family home? This is rather like the actions of the mad wife in Jane Eyre. Or does she set fire to this place of sad memories and just run off?
I agree with some other commentators on When Nights Were Cold, that the most powerful part of the text is the looking back on early friendships, and the nostalgia for youth in a world which has been taken away by change.
In some psychological thrillers, there is an afterword - sometimes written in the form of a newspaper report, a letter from an observer, or a coroner's decision - giving an impartial view of the real status and fate of the narrator. This novel would be very much better with such an addition. It would improve the story with clarity and interest.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Want to read
February 1, 2021I learned of this book here https://youtu.be/o05uRtGoR9Y
February 6, 2021
I almost don't know what to say about this book without giving anything away. I enjoyed a lot of the premises of the book but was disappointed in the ending.
May 4, 2022
I am not too sure there was an actual point to this story. I'm not big on character analysis and mostly read for enjoyment - I like to live in the story, and be excited about what happens next. Seems that I kept waiting for something to happen and dragged myself through the book hoping there was some sort of a conclusion that explained everything.
The most interesting thing for me was the description of early bushwalking, and how it was not considered appropriate for women to participate in the activity.
The most interesting thing for me was the description of early bushwalking, and how it was not considered appropriate for women to participate in the activity.
Want to read
January 26, 2021Recommended on Miranda Mills YouTube Channel - January 2021
March 1, 2012
'We could all go mad in the mountains together.'
I love walking in the fells of the English Lake District, and in Snowdonia, and have done since I was a young girl. This book really appealed to me, telling as it does the story of four young women who grasped at their freedom and embarked on daring mountaineering excursions, with dramatic, tragic consequences. For me it lived up to its promise.
Grace Farringdon is a young woman in the early 1900's who is determined to escape a life of marriage and housewifely duties to get out into the world that she has learned so much about from her father, with whom she recreated the polar expeditions with maps, her 'darning needle representing Ernest Shackleton', and her father's 'button, Captain Scott'. Against her parents' wishes, and unlike her sister Catherine, she breaks free from her family, applies for and takes up a place at Candlin College, aided by financial support from her Aunt Edith in America. There she meets and befriends Leonora Locke, Cecily Parr and Winifred Hooper. Grace forms the Antarctic Exploration Society and together the four of them spend evenings studying and recreating the great explorers and their routes in their attempts on the South Pole. Grace dreams of one day being part of such an expedition. In the meantime, she contents herself with practice with her fellow mountaineers, first in North Wales, then in the Alps at Zermatt.
The different personalities of the four women explorers are interesting in their contrasts; for Grace, 'the purpose of the society is to conduct serious research...we're following Scott's preparation for his next expedition and learning from past ones'; whereas for Locke, who is fun, friendly and dreams of a future in acting, she sees that 'we have a lot of larks, really, don't we?'; Then there is Hooper, who looks forward to marriage to beau Teddy and a traditional life as a wife and mother after college, and who is nervous about walking in the mountains, and Parr, who is enigmatic, quiet yet forthright in her views, and unlike Locke and Grace, Parr is against the Suffragette movement. Parr brings prior knowledge of the mountains to the group, her Aunt and Uncle already having climbed extensively. But Parr has also suffered a tragic familial loss on the mountains. Though Grace befriends them both, Locke and Parr are never entirely friendly towards each other, and Locke gives a marvellous description of her chilly impression of Parr: 'I expect glaciers form under her gaze, avalanches hear her hard voice and turn straight back up the mountain.' The four of them embark on their expeditions, with the world around them on the verge of change, and nothing will be the same ever again for any one of them after their trip to the Alps.
We hear from Grace at the time everything was happening in her life, and then fifteen years later, just merely existing in the Dulwich family home, where she tells us 'I am shivering in my memories.' She is looking back, as the only survivor of the four in the group, with her memories unclear and clouded, her mind uncertain in it's recollections, and she conjures up people from her past into her present, but are these just imaginings, are they real or merely ghosts? What really happened on the mountains?
Susanna Jones effectively conveys the excitement of the young Grace, her desire to escape the constraints of home and the restrictions imposed by society due to her gender, and get out into the world; her fascination with the polar explorers, and equally, the sadness of the withdrawn figure who looks back and ponders how hope and friendship turned to disaster, guilt and loneliness. This is the first novel I have read by this author and I found her writing a pleasure to read.
When Nights Were Cold is an atmospheric read with an appealing storyline combining social change, friendship, adventure, excitement and tragedy - I loved it.
I love walking in the fells of the English Lake District, and in Snowdonia, and have done since I was a young girl. This book really appealed to me, telling as it does the story of four young women who grasped at their freedom and embarked on daring mountaineering excursions, with dramatic, tragic consequences. For me it lived up to its promise.
Grace Farringdon is a young woman in the early 1900's who is determined to escape a life of marriage and housewifely duties to get out into the world that she has learned so much about from her father, with whom she recreated the polar expeditions with maps, her 'darning needle representing Ernest Shackleton', and her father's 'button, Captain Scott'. Against her parents' wishes, and unlike her sister Catherine, she breaks free from her family, applies for and takes up a place at Candlin College, aided by financial support from her Aunt Edith in America. There she meets and befriends Leonora Locke, Cecily Parr and Winifred Hooper. Grace forms the Antarctic Exploration Society and together the four of them spend evenings studying and recreating the great explorers and their routes in their attempts on the South Pole. Grace dreams of one day being part of such an expedition. In the meantime, she contents herself with practice with her fellow mountaineers, first in North Wales, then in the Alps at Zermatt.
The different personalities of the four women explorers are interesting in their contrasts; for Grace, 'the purpose of the society is to conduct serious research...we're following Scott's preparation for his next expedition and learning from past ones'; whereas for Locke, who is fun, friendly and dreams of a future in acting, she sees that 'we have a lot of larks, really, don't we?'; Then there is Hooper, who looks forward to marriage to beau Teddy and a traditional life as a wife and mother after college, and who is nervous about walking in the mountains, and Parr, who is enigmatic, quiet yet forthright in her views, and unlike Locke and Grace, Parr is against the Suffragette movement. Parr brings prior knowledge of the mountains to the group, her Aunt and Uncle already having climbed extensively. But Parr has also suffered a tragic familial loss on the mountains. Though Grace befriends them both, Locke and Parr are never entirely friendly towards each other, and Locke gives a marvellous description of her chilly impression of Parr: 'I expect glaciers form under her gaze, avalanches hear her hard voice and turn straight back up the mountain.' The four of them embark on their expeditions, with the world around them on the verge of change, and nothing will be the same ever again for any one of them after their trip to the Alps.
We hear from Grace at the time everything was happening in her life, and then fifteen years later, just merely existing in the Dulwich family home, where she tells us 'I am shivering in my memories.' She is looking back, as the only survivor of the four in the group, with her memories unclear and clouded, her mind uncertain in it's recollections, and she conjures up people from her past into her present, but are these just imaginings, are they real or merely ghosts? What really happened on the mountains?
Susanna Jones effectively conveys the excitement of the young Grace, her desire to escape the constraints of home and the restrictions imposed by society due to her gender, and get out into the world; her fascination with the polar explorers, and equally, the sadness of the withdrawn figure who looks back and ponders how hope and friendship turned to disaster, guilt and loneliness. This is the first novel I have read by this author and I found her writing a pleasure to read.
When Nights Were Cold is an atmospheric read with an appealing storyline combining social change, friendship, adventure, excitement and tragedy - I loved it.
December 31, 2014
The novel is told in flashback by Grace Faringdon, the surviving member of the mountain climbing and Antarctic exploration society she formed at University.
There were originally four members of the group, the fate of the other three is gradually revealed to the reader through the narrative.
The flashback accounts date back to the years immediately preceding WW1, but are told from many years later (around 1940). Grace is, by then, living alone - a recluse - in her old family home. She is an extremely unreliable narrator, and the story twists and turns all over the place; we are never sure quite what to believe.
The focus of the story is the build up to, and aftermath of, the Society's preparation for an ascent of the Matterhorn. We learn about their preparations for this in Snowdonia and later climbs in the Alps.
There is a terrible accident on one of their climbs, of the Breithorn, and one of the group is killed in a fall. The remainder of the novel examines the accountability of the surviving members as seen through Grace's eyes. As I've said above, Grace's account of events cannot be relied upon and we are given strong indications throughout that she has had some kind of breakdown upon her return to London after the accident and has lingering mental health issues which have remained untreated.
What to believe? What really happened? Well, we only have Grace's word for what happened and by the end of the novel you really have no idea what is going on in her head. She seems to live in a fantasy world of her own making. Is she alone, or are there other people living with her? And what about her accounts of her sister? I have no idea now what to believe there.
I wasn't entirely gripped by this novel. I felt that it moved rather too slowly and the ending was confused (probably a strong indication of Grace's own mental confusion) and rushed. I didn't like the conclusion - it felt to me like the author was really at a loss as to how to end it and decided that would do. It didn't fit.
I felt, perhaps unfairly, that this novel was being compared to those of Sarah Waters. I have read two novels by Sarah Waters and this one doesn't have the literary finesse that hers have. It is set in a similar time and place to The Paying Guests but that is as far as it goes.
Sarah Waters's novels keep you turning the pages, without slowing the pace, gripped and enthralled, but I'm afraid this one didn't do that for me. A bit of a disappointing last read for 2014.
There were originally four members of the group, the fate of the other three is gradually revealed to the reader through the narrative.
The flashback accounts date back to the years immediately preceding WW1, but are told from many years later (around 1940). Grace is, by then, living alone - a recluse - in her old family home. She is an extremely unreliable narrator, and the story twists and turns all over the place; we are never sure quite what to believe.
The focus of the story is the build up to, and aftermath of, the Society's preparation for an ascent of the Matterhorn. We learn about their preparations for this in Snowdonia and later climbs in the Alps.
There is a terrible accident on one of their climbs, of the Breithorn, and one of the group is killed in a fall. The remainder of the novel examines the accountability of the surviving members as seen through Grace's eyes. As I've said above, Grace's account of events cannot be relied upon and we are given strong indications throughout that she has had some kind of breakdown upon her return to London after the accident and has lingering mental health issues which have remained untreated.
What to believe? What really happened? Well, we only have Grace's word for what happened and by the end of the novel you really have no idea what is going on in her head. She seems to live in a fantasy world of her own making. Is she alone, or are there other people living with her? And what about her accounts of her sister? I have no idea now what to believe there.
I wasn't entirely gripped by this novel. I felt that it moved rather too slowly and the ending was confused (probably a strong indication of Grace's own mental confusion) and rushed. I didn't like the conclusion - it felt to me like the author was really at a loss as to how to end it and decided that would do. It didn't fit.
I felt, perhaps unfairly, that this novel was being compared to those of Sarah Waters. I have read two novels by Sarah Waters and this one doesn't have the literary finesse that hers have. It is set in a similar time and place to The Paying Guests but that is as far as it goes.
Sarah Waters's novels keep you turning the pages, without slowing the pace, gripped and enthralled, but I'm afraid this one didn't do that for me. A bit of a disappointing last read for 2014.
July 5, 2012
A short novel set in Edwardian England in the years approaching the First World War, this follows the exploits of Grace Farringdon and a small group of like-minded friends at a ladies’ college whose interest in following the expeditions of the last great explorers becomes an expedition society of their own.
I should confess that one reason I read this was for the fact that the college featured was partly based on Royal Holloway, my old alma mater. There were a couple of references that made me smile, but it isn’t a significant part of the book – it’s much more character-driven to be too dependent on such particularities. If you really wanted to you could call it a historical thriller, but it doesn’t read much like genre fiction; the tone throughout is cool and controlled, and quite subtle.
I would have preferred a bit less dialogue and a bit more description, since the brief glimpses of interiority we do get are hauntingly well-rendered. It takes a while to get there, but the book really comes alive once Grace gets up into the mountains. Having been on one or two similar expeditions myself, those scenes rang true; though I’ve never been involved in anything nearly so dangerous, every such outing has one or two individuals who seem destined to forever lag behind, who risk being seen as ‘holding back’ the stronger members of the group. Grace isn’t one of those people on the hill, but in a sense she becomes one in life; something happens out there which leaves her damaged, a ghost of her former self. She is pinned by tragedy to one particular moment associated with an experience of which she had previously always dreamed.
And what were her dreams in the end? Always trailing after Scott and Shackleton, Grace never seems to associate exploration with any kind of triumph over nature or scientific discovery – more often her longing to travel seems to come from a kind of imaginative play, based in part on the rueful experiences of her father. I read somewhere recently that children progress from playing free-form imaginative games to sports with rules and regulations in order to better mimic the social order of the adult world; one might therefore wonder about the implications for those who choose to reject the latter in favour of the former.
It’s quite a sad book. It seems sadder the more I think about it. But I’m all right with that.
I should confess that one reason I read this was for the fact that the college featured was partly based on Royal Holloway, my old alma mater. There were a couple of references that made me smile, but it isn’t a significant part of the book – it’s much more character-driven to be too dependent on such particularities. If you really wanted to you could call it a historical thriller, but it doesn’t read much like genre fiction; the tone throughout is cool and controlled, and quite subtle.
I would have preferred a bit less dialogue and a bit more description, since the brief glimpses of interiority we do get are hauntingly well-rendered. It takes a while to get there, but the book really comes alive once Grace gets up into the mountains. Having been on one or two similar expeditions myself, those scenes rang true; though I’ve never been involved in anything nearly so dangerous, every such outing has one or two individuals who seem destined to forever lag behind, who risk being seen as ‘holding back’ the stronger members of the group. Grace isn’t one of those people on the hill, but in a sense she becomes one in life; something happens out there which leaves her damaged, a ghost of her former self. She is pinned by tragedy to one particular moment associated with an experience of which she had previously always dreamed.
And what were her dreams in the end? Always trailing after Scott and Shackleton, Grace never seems to associate exploration with any kind of triumph over nature or scientific discovery – more often her longing to travel seems to come from a kind of imaginative play, based in part on the rueful experiences of her father. I read somewhere recently that children progress from playing free-form imaginative games to sports with rules and regulations in order to better mimic the social order of the adult world; one might therefore wonder about the implications for those who choose to reject the latter in favour of the former.
It’s quite a sad book. It seems sadder the more I think about it. But I’m all right with that.
June 29, 2013
Right from the start, Susanna Jones struggles with the voice of her first-person narrator. Grace Farringdon feels awkward and self conscious, not because she is, but because the author doesn't know her and can't portray her. There is something quite inauthentic about Farringdon's voice throughout part one as she recounts her home life and university. Something changes into part two though, and the second half of the book is much better. It's not that the writing improves dramatically, more that there is more plot to carry it to what the blurb on the back calls "its tingling showdown". The climax is nothing of the sort; the bits that ought to be tense and exciting are over in a couple of pages or less and have little depth of feeling. If you've been paying attention, you'll know where the story is going.
There is a quote on the front, provided by the Guardian, that this is "a gripping psychological thriller". I was neither gripped nor thrilled, but there are hints at the psychological as Grace loses her mind and the reader must wonder just how unreliable a narrator Grace is.
When Nights Were Cold is not a particularly brilliant book, but it's not bad either. I was disappointed because I had expected more (possibly my fault, as prior to this I read a new Ian McEwan, and he does give so much).
There is a quote on the front, provided by the Guardian, that this is "a gripping psychological thriller". I was neither gripped nor thrilled, but there are hints at the psychological as Grace loses her mind and the reader must wonder just how unreliable a narrator Grace is.
When Nights Were Cold is not a particularly brilliant book, but it's not bad either. I was disappointed because I had expected more (possibly my fault, as prior to this I read a new Ian McEwan, and he does give so much).
March 16, 2013
Susanna Jones has always ranked highly with me being that 'The Earthquake Bird' is one of my all time favourite reads but I couldn't help feeling a wee bit deflated by what promised to be an excellent novel. The central premise of the story of four women forging themselves into a characteristically male pursuit of mountaineering did initially peak my interest but I found them all rather dislikeable and had very little empathy with any of the deceased or our storyteller Grace. The mysterious mystery of what had happened in the snowy wastes was instead not all that mysterious at all or gripping with rather intermittent passages of great description to vaguely hold my interest. Disappointing...
July 27, 2015
Catherine wants to be a concert pianist, Grace wants to be a polar explorer, their parents want them both to stay home. Grace is the more determined and does manage to leave home and attend a ladies college, where she meets other determined women, including a climber.
The story is narrated by Grace some years later and living in the family home. We know there has been some disaster in the past which haunts her and one comes half way through the book.
At first Grace's real life and her fantasies about the poles are sharply separate, but in the later part of the book the lines become blurred and Grace becomes a less reliable narrator. Susanna Jones handles this very well and there is some final uncertainty which left me wondering after I finished the book.
The story is narrated by Grace some years later and living in the family home. We know there has been some disaster in the past which haunts her and one comes half way through the book.
At first Grace's real life and her fantasies about the poles are sharply separate, but in the later part of the book the lines become blurred and Grace becomes a less reliable narrator. Susanna Jones handles this very well and there is some final uncertainty which left me wondering after I finished the book.
December 27, 2018
A gripping psychological thriller the guardian claims in bold on the front cover - not sure I agree!
There were parts of the story I liked. The way that Grace was wrong enough to try to follow her dreams, starting with university in a world where girls were expected to grow up, learn how to look after the house and get married. Setting up a club and going out with other strong minded young ladies to climb mountains. The way Grace was portrayed Had me guessing if she was in fact losing her mind or if in fact she was the sane one (maybe where the psychological part came from).
I found the book pretty slow going though and didn’t really like any of the characters at all. The ending was just odd, it didn’t answer any of the questions and just left me confused.
There were parts of the story I liked. The way that Grace was wrong enough to try to follow her dreams, starting with university in a world where girls were expected to grow up, learn how to look after the house and get married. Setting up a club and going out with other strong minded young ladies to climb mountains. The way Grace was portrayed Had me guessing if she was in fact losing her mind or if in fact she was the sane one (maybe where the psychological part came from).
I found the book pretty slow going though and didn’t really like any of the characters at all. The ending was just odd, it didn’t answer any of the questions and just left me confused.
June 26, 2013
Extremely enjoyable novel weaving together several issues of the early 1900's, from gender in society, to the Great War, and exploration (Shackleton, Scott, the Matterhorn tragedy and our own hills in England).
It's a great mix for a novel and easy to mess up, but Susanna Jones pulls it off very well, even managing to keep the reader guessing until the end.
Include Snowdonia and my key areas are all covered. It still needs to be written well and to succeed with a strong storyline as well is a real triumph.
It's a great mix for a novel and easy to mess up, but Susanna Jones pulls it off very well, even managing to keep the reader guessing until the end.
Include Snowdonia and my key areas are all covered. It still needs to be written well and to succeed with a strong storyline as well is a real triumph.
May 15, 2017
To me, 'When Nights Were Cold' was a thrilling read about young women at the beginning of the twentieth century with highly unusual ambitions for their time, namely climbing some of the highest mountains known all by themselves.
But the book goes miles beyond the accounts of in times fatal mountaineering expeditions and also tells a story of friendships and betrayal and madness and most of all, in my mind, of simply not finding one's place in the society one is born in.
But the book goes miles beyond the accounts of in times fatal mountaineering expeditions and also tells a story of friendships and betrayal and madness and most of all, in my mind, of simply not finding one's place in the society one is born in.
September 7, 2013
Really excellent book, which is unfortunately unavailable in the US (I ordered it from Amazon UK). A great story about women mountaineers in the early 1900s, dark and atmospheric, and made me want to keep reading all night.
October 9, 2012
Pretty unusual. The subject matter was very interesting and I enjoyed the way the story developed. It was a very sad story.
July 28, 2013
Loved this! Engaging and unusual idea, well-executed.
Want to read
April 2, 2015I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13001415
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13001415
January 22, 2026
Reread Jan 2026. So, so good.
August 15, 2017
This book left me confused as I was left wondering what was real and what was imagined.
I had hoped for more from this.......
I had hoped for more from this.......
December 31, 2017
Explores the thin line between fantasy and paranoia
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