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The Greatcoat: A Ghost Story
Bestselling novelist Helen Dunmore’s historical novels have earned her comparisons in the press to Tolstoy and Emily Bronte. In her newest book, Dunmore mines the past to chilling effect in this evocative and sophisticated ghost story about a love affair between a neglected wife and a mysterious soldier.
It is the winter of 1952 when Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her new husband, Philip, a medical doctor. While Philip spends long hours working away from home, Isabel finds herself lonely and vulnerable as she adjusts to the realities of being a housewife in the country.
One evening, while Philip is on call, Isabel is woken by intense cold. When she hunts for extra blankets, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under the coat for warmth, she starts to dream and is soon startled by a knock at her window. Outside is a young RAF pilot wearing a familiar coat. His name is Alec and his powerful presence disturbs and excites her as they begin an intense affair. Nothing though has prepared her for the truth about Alec’s life, nor the impact it will have on her own.
It is the winter of 1952 when Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her new husband, Philip, a medical doctor. While Philip spends long hours working away from home, Isabel finds herself lonely and vulnerable as she adjusts to the realities of being a housewife in the country.
One evening, while Philip is on call, Isabel is woken by intense cold. When she hunts for extra blankets, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under the coat for warmth, she starts to dream and is soon startled by a knock at her window. Outside is a young RAF pilot wearing a familiar coat. His name is Alec and his powerful presence disturbs and excites her as they begin an intense affair. Nothing though has prepared her for the truth about Alec’s life, nor the impact it will have on her own.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2012
85 people are currently reading
1435 people want to read
About the author
Helen Dunmore
117 books970 followersI was born in December 1952, in Yorkshire, the second of four children. 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. In a large family you hear a great many stories. You also come to understand very early that stories hold quite different meanings for different listeners, and can be recast from many viewpoints.
Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later.
I studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland.
At around this time I began to write the poems which formed my first poetry collection, The Apple Fall, and to publish these in magazines. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel.
During this time I published several collections of poems, and wrote some of the short stories which were later collected in Love of Fat Men. I began to travel a great deal within the UK and around the world, for poetry tours and writing residences. This experience of working in many different countries and cultures has been very important to my work. I reviewed poetry for Stand and Poetry Review and later for The Observer, and subsequently reviewed fiction for The Observer, The Times and The Guardian. My critical work includes introductions to the poems of Emily Brontë, the short stories of D H Lawrence and F Scott Fitzgerald, a study of Virginia Woolf’s relationships with women and Introductions to the Folio Society's edition of Anna Karenina and to the new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy's My Confession.
During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.
In the late 1980s I began to publish short stories, and these were the beginning of a breakthrough into fiction. What I had learned of prose technique through the short story gave me the impetus to start writing novels. My first novel for children was Going to Egypt, published in 1992, and my first novel for adults was Zennor in Darkness, published in 1993, which won the McKitterick Prize. This was also my first researched novel, set in the First World War and dealing with the period when D H Lawrence and his wife Frieda lived in Zennor in Cornwall, and came under suspicion as German spies.
My third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and since then I have published a number of novels, short story collections and books for children. Full details of all these books are available on this website. The last of The Ingo Quartet, The Crossing of Ingo, was published in paperback in Spring 2009.
My seventh novel, The Siege (2001) was shortlisted both for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. This was another researched novel, which grew from a lifelong love of Russian history, culture and literature. 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. The Siege has been translated into Russian by Tatyana Averchina, and extracts have been broadcast on radio in St Petersburg. House of Orphans was published in 2006, and in 2008 Counting the Stars. Its central characters are the Roman poet Catullus, who lived during the last years of the Republic,
Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later.
I studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland.
At around this time I began to write the poems which formed my first poetry collection, The Apple Fall, and to publish these in magazines. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel.
During this time I published several collections of poems, and wrote some of the short stories which were later collected in Love of Fat Men. I began to travel a great deal within the UK and around the world, for poetry tours and writing residences. This experience of working in many different countries and cultures has been very important to my work. I reviewed poetry for Stand and Poetry Review and later for The Observer, and subsequently reviewed fiction for The Observer, The Times and The Guardian. My critical work includes introductions to the poems of Emily Brontë, the short stories of D H Lawrence and F Scott Fitzgerald, a study of Virginia Woolf’s relationships with women and Introductions to the Folio Society's edition of Anna Karenina and to the new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy's My Confession.
During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.
In the late 1980s I began to publish short stories, and these were the beginning of a breakthrough into fiction. What I had learned of prose technique through the short story gave me the impetus to start writing novels. My first novel for children was Going to Egypt, published in 1992, and my first novel for adults was Zennor in Darkness, published in 1993, which won the McKitterick Prize. This was also my first researched novel, set in the First World War and dealing with the period when D H Lawrence and his wife Frieda lived in Zennor in Cornwall, and came under suspicion as German spies.
My third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and since then I have published a number of novels, short story collections and books for children. Full details of all these books are available on this website. The last of The Ingo Quartet, The Crossing of Ingo, was published in paperback in Spring 2009.
My seventh novel, The Siege (2001) was shortlisted both for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. This was another researched novel, which grew from a lifelong love of Russian history, culture and literature. 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. The Siege has been translated into Russian by Tatyana Averchina, and extracts have been broadcast on radio in St Petersburg. House of Orphans was published in 2006, and in 2008 Counting the Stars. Its central characters are the Roman poet Catullus, who lived during the last years of the Republic,
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November 3, 2018
Another alleged ghost story, but not quite a ghost story. It is set in 1954 in the East Riding of Yorkshire amongst the old airfields of world war two, now abandoned and beginning to crumble. Dunmore write well about Britain just after the war, with rationing still in place and in a small town. The shadows of the war are long and still strong.
It is a straightforward story. Isabel and Philip are newly married. Philip is a newly qualified doctor and they have moved into their first flat together in a strange new town. Philip, whilst caring is a man who feels his wife should not work. Isabel is in a new town with no friends and feels a bit like a piece of china wrapped in cotton wool. There is also a strange and rather uncommunicative landlady. The flat is cold (we are before central heating) and Isabel finds an old army greatcoat in a cupboard. Using the greatcoat for warmth Isabel starts to dream and one evening hears a knock on the window. Outside is a young airman, who seems to want to come in. Initially she does not let him in (Philip is out on night calls). Eventually one evening she lets him in. Isabel often walks during the day and a few miles away is an abandoned airfield which she occasionally explores. One day it is a fully working airfield; I think at this point I might have questioned in some way what was happening, perhaps even sought help? The airman is called Alec and is the pilot of a Lancaster bomber (it is a bomber base nearby). An affair develops. The reader is given some clues about what is going on and the timeline is all over the place. It didn’t at any time seem like a ghost story although there were chilling moments.
There are a few good unveiling moments and Dunmore does capture some aspects of post war life very well and the description of the derelict airfield is very good. The portrait of Philip, an essentially good man who wants to help society, but who is constrained by his upbringing and his notions of what a woman should be and do is very well written. He is trapped by the dominant ideology and unable to think outside of it; Isabel recognizes this and when an opportunity seems to present itself, she takes it. There is a choice to be made at the end as Isabel begins to see what is happening.
On the whole though the story is without real depth and there are too many plot contrivances which solve a little problem. Reception has been variable and I suppose that reflects how I feel about it. It was ok but no more.
It is a straightforward story. Isabel and Philip are newly married. Philip is a newly qualified doctor and they have moved into their first flat together in a strange new town. Philip, whilst caring is a man who feels his wife should not work. Isabel is in a new town with no friends and feels a bit like a piece of china wrapped in cotton wool. There is also a strange and rather uncommunicative landlady. The flat is cold (we are before central heating) and Isabel finds an old army greatcoat in a cupboard. Using the greatcoat for warmth Isabel starts to dream and one evening hears a knock on the window. Outside is a young airman, who seems to want to come in. Initially she does not let him in (Philip is out on night calls). Eventually one evening she lets him in. Isabel often walks during the day and a few miles away is an abandoned airfield which she occasionally explores. One day it is a fully working airfield; I think at this point I might have questioned in some way what was happening, perhaps even sought help? The airman is called Alec and is the pilot of a Lancaster bomber (it is a bomber base nearby). An affair develops. The reader is given some clues about what is going on and the timeline is all over the place. It didn’t at any time seem like a ghost story although there were chilling moments.
There are a few good unveiling moments and Dunmore does capture some aspects of post war life very well and the description of the derelict airfield is very good. The portrait of Philip, an essentially good man who wants to help society, but who is constrained by his upbringing and his notions of what a woman should be and do is very well written. He is trapped by the dominant ideology and unable to think outside of it; Isabel recognizes this and when an opportunity seems to present itself, she takes it. There is a choice to be made at the end as Isabel begins to see what is happening.
On the whole though the story is without real depth and there are too many plot contrivances which solve a little problem. Reception has been variable and I suppose that reflects how I feel about it. It was ok but no more.
November 21, 2016
To be honest, the cover probably is the thing that got me to buy the book. Sure, the blurb about a time slip, an RAF ghost, and a mystery did help, but I can't help it, I absolutely love that cover. So, it is with a bit of a heavy heart that I write this review. It's not like the book is bad, it's just not so fantastic that I hoped it to be.
I did like the story, I just did not love it. I found the premise of the story intriguing and it started off good. But, looking back to reading the book do I have to admit that I did not really fall for the story. I wonder if it had been better if it had been more to the story. It's not a thick book, it just takes a couple of hours to read the book. So, everything moved forward rather quickly, getting to know Isabel and the rest of the characters, meeting the ghost, learning the truth and then the end. And, sure, it's a tragic truth, but I never really got to know Alec, and I thought that was a miss. It would have been wonderful to have learned more about him through flashbacks. Rather than just the first chapter and then through ghostly recollections. I wanted to be moved by the book, but that never happened.
It's a so-so book. I liked it, but if feels like it had potential that never was achieved.
Read this review and others on A Bookaholic Swede
I did like the story, I just did not love it. I found the premise of the story intriguing and it started off good. But, looking back to reading the book do I have to admit that I did not really fall for the story. I wonder if it had been better if it had been more to the story. It's not a thick book, it just takes a couple of hours to read the book. So, everything moved forward rather quickly, getting to know Isabel and the rest of the characters, meeting the ghost, learning the truth and then the end. And, sure, it's a tragic truth, but I never really got to know Alec, and I thought that was a miss. It would have been wonderful to have learned more about him through flashbacks. Rather than just the first chapter and then through ghostly recollections. I wanted to be moved by the book, but that never happened.
It's a so-so book. I liked it, but if feels like it had potential that never was achieved.
Read this review and others on A Bookaholic Swede
February 6, 2017
What a haunting, chilling yet beautifully constructed ghost story. I had never heard of this before picking it up but I'm SO glad I took a chance on it (mostly I'll admit because of the cover)
I found this to be elegant and extremely atmospheric, I can't stop thinking about it now it's over.
I found this to be elegant and extremely atmospheric, I can't stop thinking about it now it's over.
December 5, 2012
SPOILERS
Set in post-war North England, a newly married couple settle into their first flat which is a cold and cramped place below their landlady whose footsteps resound above them as she paces constantly. The main character, Isabel, one night finds a greatcoat as worn by RAF officers in WW2 and, in a desperate bid to keep warm, she puts it on and soon falls asleep. But shortly after she begins wearing it there is a tapping on her window and a mysterious figure appears in the night. She becomes more confused as she realises it's someone she seems to know - or does she?
Hammer Horror have moved into publishing by commissioning horror novels to be written by literary writers, and then adapting them into movies. Sounds like a great idea, no? It is unless you hire writers who can write horror - and Helen Dunmore can't.
The book is quite short at just under 200 pages and can be read quickly as Dunmore can write well but most of the novel could’ve been cut down to little more than a short story. Most of the book is taken up with descriptions of life in post-war Britain with rationing still in force, as well as the trepidations of a young woman thrust into the role of homemaker and wife. Then there are the domestic details such as the nuances of being married to a country doctor's wife (very AJ Cronin) followed by descriptions of walks in the country. Scared yet?
The creepy factor begins once Isabel finds the greatcoat and starts wearing it daily but even then any shred of horror is dispelled with the overfamiliarity of the characters’ interactions almost immediately. The reader meanwhile is left puzzled with what this could mean - unless they've read horror before. Could the weird guy dressed in WW2 gear tapping on a window in the middle of the night talking about "flying out on a mission shortly" despite the war being over for years - could he be a g-g-g-g-ghost? Ding!
Dunmore thinks that having put this element into the story that this qualifies it as horror - except the ghost isn't scary. He's not out to kill or have revenge or anything really he just wants to spend time with Isabel. They drink, they talk, they share bike rides, and, inevitably, they fall in love. What's more frustrating is why Isabel accepts all of this without questioning it - why isn't she asking herself how this man knows her so well, why is he talking about flying missions over Germany, why is she going along with any of this nonsense?
Dunmore's lack of storytelling ability in this regard is why I think the book fails. She can't build tension, or even a strong ghost story, without leaving out elements that point strongly to the reveal at the end. There are no twists or turns - once the RAF man is introduced, it's all over, you know what's going to happen, it's just a matter of turning the pages until it's finished.
I was hoping for an imaginative horror novel and it didn't have to be a ghost story, but as it was, I expected more than was here. Anyone thinking of buying this should note, it's not a horror novel, there just happens to be a ghost in it. If Hammer do film this then it'll be a very dreary movie. It's essentially a love story where the guy happens to be a ghost - you know who would be great for the soundtrack? The Righteous Brothers. Hey,... wait...
Set in post-war North England, a newly married couple settle into their first flat which is a cold and cramped place below their landlady whose footsteps resound above them as she paces constantly. The main character, Isabel, one night finds a greatcoat as worn by RAF officers in WW2 and, in a desperate bid to keep warm, she puts it on and soon falls asleep. But shortly after she begins wearing it there is a tapping on her window and a mysterious figure appears in the night. She becomes more confused as she realises it's someone she seems to know - or does she?
Hammer Horror have moved into publishing by commissioning horror novels to be written by literary writers, and then adapting them into movies. Sounds like a great idea, no? It is unless you hire writers who can write horror - and Helen Dunmore can't.
The book is quite short at just under 200 pages and can be read quickly as Dunmore can write well but most of the novel could’ve been cut down to little more than a short story. Most of the book is taken up with descriptions of life in post-war Britain with rationing still in force, as well as the trepidations of a young woman thrust into the role of homemaker and wife. Then there are the domestic details such as the nuances of being married to a country doctor's wife (very AJ Cronin) followed by descriptions of walks in the country. Scared yet?
The creepy factor begins once Isabel finds the greatcoat and starts wearing it daily but even then any shred of horror is dispelled with the overfamiliarity of the characters’ interactions almost immediately. The reader meanwhile is left puzzled with what this could mean - unless they've read horror before. Could the weird guy dressed in WW2 gear tapping on a window in the middle of the night talking about "flying out on a mission shortly" despite the war being over for years - could he be a g-g-g-g-ghost? Ding!
Dunmore thinks that having put this element into the story that this qualifies it as horror - except the ghost isn't scary. He's not out to kill or have revenge or anything really he just wants to spend time with Isabel. They drink, they talk, they share bike rides, and, inevitably, they fall in love. What's more frustrating is why Isabel accepts all of this without questioning it - why isn't she asking herself how this man knows her so well, why is he talking about flying missions over Germany, why is she going along with any of this nonsense?
Dunmore's lack of storytelling ability in this regard is why I think the book fails. She can't build tension, or even a strong ghost story, without leaving out elements that point strongly to the reveal at the end. There are no twists or turns - once the RAF man is introduced, it's all over, you know what's going to happen, it's just a matter of turning the pages until it's finished.
I was hoping for an imaginative horror novel and it didn't have to be a ghost story, but as it was, I expected more than was here. Anyone thinking of buying this should note, it's not a horror novel, there just happens to be a ghost in it. If Hammer do film this then it'll be a very dreary movie. It's essentially a love story where the guy happens to be a ghost - you know who would be great for the soundtrack? The Righteous Brothers. Hey,... wait...
January 20, 2021
If we consider The Novella Club's definition that a novella has fewer than 200 pages, then The Greatcoat should certainly be viewed as one. And seen as novella rather than novel, it might be received better by readers for its slender but powerful story. Like James' great novella, Turn of the Screw, The Greatcoat is a ghost story, but it's also a romance, a story of new marriage and passion found not within but elsewhere. Dunmore creates a subtly haunting dreamy atmosphere that permeates the page and bleeds off, into our lives. At least it did in mine. Somehow she captures the dreamy state women and girls are especially prone to, an anticipation of romance, of sexual longing, of these two being very much intertwined. I remember being caught up in this state particularly in the summers when I was age 15 and 16, feasting on Thomas Hardy and Andrew Lang's editions of fairy tales...dreaming myself into these books and beyond their pages. Yet the novel is also very much grounded in a particular time and place, a Yorkshire small town in post-war 1954.
I had originally given the novel 3 stars but its lingering effect, the way that Dunmore is able to capture this dreamlike state so effectively, along with her convincing evocation of that time and place, made me rethink it and add another star.
I had originally given the novel 3 stars but its lingering effect, the way that Dunmore is able to capture this dreamlike state so effectively, along with her convincing evocation of that time and place, made me rethink it and add another star.
May 16, 2019
Abandoned wartime airfields, in quiet and lonely rural locations, retain a haunting sense of the past. Today the roar of bombers has been replaced by birdsong, and the concrete runways by harvest fields of waving corn, but many of the perimeter roads and buildings still exist today, in some shape or form. These sites don’t just provide moments of quiet reflection for countryside wayfarers but opportunities for writers to indulge their imaginations in wartime nostalgia, imagining exciting young lives filled with romance and conflict, love and tragedy. At the end of the war the airfields were abandoned and slowly given back to nature but for many people the dramas that had played out, lived on.
The story is told through Isabel who dreams of her childhood in rural Suffolk, where 'she had woken night after night to the thunder of Lancasters overhead as they took off from the airfield. The noise seemed to go on for hours before the last of the aircraft throbbed beyond her hearing.'
“They came over so low and heavy that it seemed they must lose their grip on the air and plunge down, loaded with bombs, onto the sleeping village. She stared up at the belly of the aircraft that was passing over, and then she could see through metal, too, and there were the men, the pilot like a coal hever at the controls, the flight engineer alongside him helping to push the throttles forward to get the laden beast into the night sky.”
During WW2 in excess of 400 new airfields were constructed, mainly in Eastern England, and at the height of the bombing campaign against Nazi Germany in 1942, a new airfield was opening every three days. These ‘aerodromes’ appeared like mushrooms overnight and within a matter of a few weeks as many as three thousand people, service personnel and civilian, had moved in. The air crews lived in very basic accommodation blocks and Nissen huts, and civilians were employed in the medical centres, parachute stores, mess halls and canteens, and ground crew and engineers in the workshops and hangars. Life on these airfields was hectic and adrenaline-fuelled, tense and nerve wracking for crews and dramatically exciting for the young people thrown together, determined to celebrate life whilst confronting the terrifying prospect of horrific death.
“The Greatcoat” is an absorbing story that so closely resembles my Mother’s own tragic experience of love and loss, and her bitter-sweet wartime romance, and a short lived marriage to an RAF airman, that I read the story in one sitting. And I have returned to it many times since, as the writing left such a deep powerful imprint. Helen Dunmore, who sadly died last year, was a master at recapturing the spirit of time and place and in this short novella she brilliantly evokes the nightmare of combat, seen largely through the eyes of the young women the aircrews left behind.
Being of the same age as the writer I understood from where this novel sprang. My parents had lived through World War Two and my grandparents World War One, so her childhood, like mine, reverberated with tales told by parents, friends and neighbours, all vivid memories, some utterly traumatic, of their own recent wartime experiences.
The setting is a wartime airfield in the East Riding of Yorkshire, where Alec, pilot officer of Lancaster, K-Katie and his crew are preparing for bombing mission number 27, which would leave just three remaining ‘sorties’ to complete their ‘tour of duty.’ Lancaster bomber crews had shorter life expectancy than almost any other servicemen, and Alec knew the stats were stacking against them. They had barely survived a previous perilous mission to Berlin, and now, in the final hours after briefing, Alec is doing all that he can to avoid dwelling on the mission ahead, knowing full well his flight path takes him along a treacherous route across Nazi Occupied Europe on the way to the target, Berlin, that will see him engulfed in a vortex of searchlights and anti-aircraft fire as they reach the Dutch coast with the threat of attack by Luftwaffe night-fighters along the way.
Once more Alec would be at the controls, and again he would have the lives of his other six crewmen in his hands. They were lucky to get this far. At the back of the plane his rear gunner had a life expectancy of forty hours, (which was about five sorties), while the bomb aimer, who lay prostrate in the Perspex nose blister, possibly had it even worse, not only being the most vulnerable and exposed to enemy ack-ack fire but also being traumatised by seeing the full horror of the in-coming flak, and the flames as other planes in the bomber stream were shot down, or exploded in mid air. The closer the crew came to the completion of their ‘tour’ so the more nervous and apprehensive they became, and the author captures the tension of the crew confronting these unpalatable hard facts.
This atmospheric novel is set in 1952, at a time when rationing was still in force, houses were cold and poorly heated by inadequate coal fires, and bedroom windows were iced over in the morning, and beds, damp to the touch, were covered in blankets and coats to provide extra warmth. Newly weds, Philip and Isabel Carey arrive in the Yorkshire village. Philp is an impressive hardworking young doctor who has joined the local practice, and in his methodical way gets straight down to work, and doesn’t notice that his young wife feels neglected and increasingly marginalised. The harder she tries to ‘fit in’ and get things right the more lonely she feels as the weight of expectation of a newly married woman bears down upon her.
Isabel had grown up, a lonely only child, brought up by her aunt as her parents had disappeared from Singapore to perish in a Japanese concentration camp. She had been an academic pupil, living in rural Suffolk and had lived through the war and remembers well the sight and sound, and the smell of aviation fuel on the air as the squadrons of bombers took off on their night time missions,
“She put her hands on the cold sill, ready to draw her head back inside, but a sound arrested her: a vibration, very far off, chafing the air. She listened for a long time but the sound wouldn’t come any closer and wouldn’t define itself. As it faded it pulled at her teasingly, like a memory that she couldn’t touch, until the town was silent.”
When Isabel finds an airman’s old greatcoat in the cupboard she throws it over the bed to keep her warm and is soon fantasising about the airman who wore the garment. Everything in this lightly nuanced story is left to the reader’s imagination. For instance when Philip, finally accepts that his wife is justified in complaining about the cold he sets off for York to buy her an eiderdown, which was garishly decorated with roses. The reader can see Isabel is not impressed at all. This scene compounds what the reader has felt all along, that the newly weds are not compatible. The story reveals the doctor to be loyal, hard working and conscientious but he doesn’t understand his wife's loneliness or lack of fulfilment. She is struggling to accept her new identity as ‘doctor’s wife’ and her mind is soon wandering, imagining intimacy with the brave airman.
This story deals with the legacy of war and its traumatising effects, of love and loss, betrayal and recrimination, both during the war and in its aftermath.
I love Helen Dunmore's sense of time and place in all her novels, and her characters are lightly, but vividly drawn, like Isabel's all seeing all knowing Aunt Jean, 'who knew everything because she was on the parish council.'
Aunt Jean didn't suffer fools gladly and spoke with authority as she 'wrestled every bit of knowledge to herself, and gave it out sparingly, to those who deserved it.' But she is not a busy body at all, but a lady with a warm heart and compassion, and she shows understanding at the high spirited pranks and boisterous antics of the young servicemen who now swamped the locals in the village when enjoying their free time,
"Soon the village was full of airmen... there was only our and everyone went there shouting and singing, and spilling out into the summer darkness with beer mugs in their hands....Some people in the village grumbled about this invasion, but not Aunt Jean. Strict as she usually was, she had endless tolerance for these young men, and would take to task those who complained about heavy drinking, shadowy couples enlaced by the walls of the village hall, or a young flight lieutenant tearing through the village on his motorbike."
So many wonderful scenes are graphically drawn, black night skies and black painted four engined Lancasters lumbering down runways, moonlit airfields, flare paths lit by Aldis Lamps, steam engines noisily pulling out of stations, and much, much more... a wonderfully atmospheric read.
The story is told through Isabel who dreams of her childhood in rural Suffolk, where 'she had woken night after night to the thunder of Lancasters overhead as they took off from the airfield. The noise seemed to go on for hours before the last of the aircraft throbbed beyond her hearing.'
“They came over so low and heavy that it seemed they must lose their grip on the air and plunge down, loaded with bombs, onto the sleeping village. She stared up at the belly of the aircraft that was passing over, and then she could see through metal, too, and there were the men, the pilot like a coal hever at the controls, the flight engineer alongside him helping to push the throttles forward to get the laden beast into the night sky.”
During WW2 in excess of 400 new airfields were constructed, mainly in Eastern England, and at the height of the bombing campaign against Nazi Germany in 1942, a new airfield was opening every three days. These ‘aerodromes’ appeared like mushrooms overnight and within a matter of a few weeks as many as three thousand people, service personnel and civilian, had moved in. The air crews lived in very basic accommodation blocks and Nissen huts, and civilians were employed in the medical centres, parachute stores, mess halls and canteens, and ground crew and engineers in the workshops and hangars. Life on these airfields was hectic and adrenaline-fuelled, tense and nerve wracking for crews and dramatically exciting for the young people thrown together, determined to celebrate life whilst confronting the terrifying prospect of horrific death.
“The Greatcoat” is an absorbing story that so closely resembles my Mother’s own tragic experience of love and loss, and her bitter-sweet wartime romance, and a short lived marriage to an RAF airman, that I read the story in one sitting. And I have returned to it many times since, as the writing left such a deep powerful imprint. Helen Dunmore, who sadly died last year, was a master at recapturing the spirit of time and place and in this short novella she brilliantly evokes the nightmare of combat, seen largely through the eyes of the young women the aircrews left behind.
Being of the same age as the writer I understood from where this novel sprang. My parents had lived through World War Two and my grandparents World War One, so her childhood, like mine, reverberated with tales told by parents, friends and neighbours, all vivid memories, some utterly traumatic, of their own recent wartime experiences.
The setting is a wartime airfield in the East Riding of Yorkshire, where Alec, pilot officer of Lancaster, K-Katie and his crew are preparing for bombing mission number 27, which would leave just three remaining ‘sorties’ to complete their ‘tour of duty.’ Lancaster bomber crews had shorter life expectancy than almost any other servicemen, and Alec knew the stats were stacking against them. They had barely survived a previous perilous mission to Berlin, and now, in the final hours after briefing, Alec is doing all that he can to avoid dwelling on the mission ahead, knowing full well his flight path takes him along a treacherous route across Nazi Occupied Europe on the way to the target, Berlin, that will see him engulfed in a vortex of searchlights and anti-aircraft fire as they reach the Dutch coast with the threat of attack by Luftwaffe night-fighters along the way.
Once more Alec would be at the controls, and again he would have the lives of his other six crewmen in his hands. They were lucky to get this far. At the back of the plane his rear gunner had a life expectancy of forty hours, (which was about five sorties), while the bomb aimer, who lay prostrate in the Perspex nose blister, possibly had it even worse, not only being the most vulnerable and exposed to enemy ack-ack fire but also being traumatised by seeing the full horror of the in-coming flak, and the flames as other planes in the bomber stream were shot down, or exploded in mid air. The closer the crew came to the completion of their ‘tour’ so the more nervous and apprehensive they became, and the author captures the tension of the crew confronting these unpalatable hard facts.
This atmospheric novel is set in 1952, at a time when rationing was still in force, houses were cold and poorly heated by inadequate coal fires, and bedroom windows were iced over in the morning, and beds, damp to the touch, were covered in blankets and coats to provide extra warmth. Newly weds, Philip and Isabel Carey arrive in the Yorkshire village. Philp is an impressive hardworking young doctor who has joined the local practice, and in his methodical way gets straight down to work, and doesn’t notice that his young wife feels neglected and increasingly marginalised. The harder she tries to ‘fit in’ and get things right the more lonely she feels as the weight of expectation of a newly married woman bears down upon her.
Isabel had grown up, a lonely only child, brought up by her aunt as her parents had disappeared from Singapore to perish in a Japanese concentration camp. She had been an academic pupil, living in rural Suffolk and had lived through the war and remembers well the sight and sound, and the smell of aviation fuel on the air as the squadrons of bombers took off on their night time missions,
“She put her hands on the cold sill, ready to draw her head back inside, but a sound arrested her: a vibration, very far off, chafing the air. She listened for a long time but the sound wouldn’t come any closer and wouldn’t define itself. As it faded it pulled at her teasingly, like a memory that she couldn’t touch, until the town was silent.”
When Isabel finds an airman’s old greatcoat in the cupboard she throws it over the bed to keep her warm and is soon fantasising about the airman who wore the garment. Everything in this lightly nuanced story is left to the reader’s imagination. For instance when Philip, finally accepts that his wife is justified in complaining about the cold he sets off for York to buy her an eiderdown, which was garishly decorated with roses. The reader can see Isabel is not impressed at all. This scene compounds what the reader has felt all along, that the newly weds are not compatible. The story reveals the doctor to be loyal, hard working and conscientious but he doesn’t understand his wife's loneliness or lack of fulfilment. She is struggling to accept her new identity as ‘doctor’s wife’ and her mind is soon wandering, imagining intimacy with the brave airman.
This story deals with the legacy of war and its traumatising effects, of love and loss, betrayal and recrimination, both during the war and in its aftermath.
I love Helen Dunmore's sense of time and place in all her novels, and her characters are lightly, but vividly drawn, like Isabel's all seeing all knowing Aunt Jean, 'who knew everything because she was on the parish council.'
Aunt Jean didn't suffer fools gladly and spoke with authority as she 'wrestled every bit of knowledge to herself, and gave it out sparingly, to those who deserved it.' But she is not a busy body at all, but a lady with a warm heart and compassion, and she shows understanding at the high spirited pranks and boisterous antics of the young servicemen who now swamped the locals in the village when enjoying their free time,
"Soon the village was full of airmen... there was only our and everyone went there shouting and singing, and spilling out into the summer darkness with beer mugs in their hands....Some people in the village grumbled about this invasion, but not Aunt Jean. Strict as she usually was, she had endless tolerance for these young men, and would take to task those who complained about heavy drinking, shadowy couples enlaced by the walls of the village hall, or a young flight lieutenant tearing through the village on his motorbike."
So many wonderful scenes are graphically drawn, black night skies and black painted four engined Lancasters lumbering down runways, moonlit airfields, flare paths lit by Aldis Lamps, steam engines noisily pulling out of stations, and much, much more... a wonderfully atmospheric read.
September 27, 2020
Set in the early 1950’s, Isabel is a newlywed whose husband takes a position as a doctor in a small English village. Because of his long hours and frequent absences, Isabel finds herself becoming more and more lonely.
One night when her husband is called out on an emergency, Isabel hears a tapping noise on her window. Outside she sees an RAF officer who wants to come in. He had been stationed there during the war, and it seems that he is still living during that time.
Gradually Isabel begins an intense affair with the pilot, and it becomes difficult for her to separate reality from another place and time. Although she loves her husband, she is intensely attracted to the pilot.
As her situation becomes increasingly complicated, she realizes that she must choose the direction her life must take.
This is an interesting novel of time travel, but it’s one that just didn’t really appeal to me. At times I found it to be somewhat confusing, and I also think the characters needed to be more fully developed.
One night when her husband is called out on an emergency, Isabel hears a tapping noise on her window. Outside she sees an RAF officer who wants to come in. He had been stationed there during the war, and it seems that he is still living during that time.
Gradually Isabel begins an intense affair with the pilot, and it becomes difficult for her to separate reality from another place and time. Although she loves her husband, she is intensely attracted to the pilot.
As her situation becomes increasingly complicated, she realizes that she must choose the direction her life must take.
This is an interesting novel of time travel, but it’s one that just didn’t really appeal to me. At times I found it to be somewhat confusing, and I also think the characters needed to be more fully developed.
March 26, 2015
As you all know, I love a ghost story, and The Greatcoat started off as a very good example of the genre - perfect for those times when you want a book you can instantly get stuck into and devour in one sitting. It centres on Isabel, a young woman who has recently married and moved to an unfamiliar Yorkshire town with her husband Philip, a doctor. Struggling with the boredom and loneliness of her new role as a housewife, Isabel is repeatedly drawn to an abandoned airfield just outside the town. Then she finds an old RAF greatcoat at the back of a cupboard, and on the same night, a mysterious - but strangely fascinating - man knocks on the kitchen window while Philip is sleeping. So begins a very strange affair and a series of haunting events which seem to have no rational explanation. Dunmore's writing is excellent throughout, creating a cold, tense atmosphere and making you sympathise with Isabel. I was sucked into the story and all set to give the book a four-star review. But then... then I came to the ending, and it's safe to say I was left frustrated and confused.
I would nevertheless still recommend this book if short, atmospheric, spooky stories with a historical setting are your kind of thing. I really liked Dunmore's style and found the characters well-rounded and believable. Just don't expect the ending to answer any questions you might have about how all of this came to happen!
I would nevertheless still recommend this book if short, atmospheric, spooky stories with a historical setting are your kind of thing. I really liked Dunmore's style and found the characters well-rounded and believable. Just don't expect the ending to answer any questions you might have about how all of this came to happen!
August 29, 2022
If you are wondering, I didn't read this book quickly because it was good or gripping or had me racing to the end because of anticipation and sheer horror. No, I finished it quickly because the writing was so simplistic I slipped through it in a rush and reached the end thinking.
"Really...is that....it?"
It didn't feel like the ending of a book, it felt like the ending of a chapter. This beautiful quote-
"The most elegant flesh-creeper since The Woman in Black"
from the Times really misled me. So did the pages of other quotes, that I really wish I spent more time reading, then again what book tells people about it's criticisms.
Elegant? Maybe, ok you earned a star for that....
Flesh-creeper? Seriously, that is how you describe this book? Just having the presence of a ghost in a book, does not make a book creepy, really let down on the scare factor.
Here's the summary for you: This book isn't good and took up a day of my life that I really wish I had back now...
"Really...is that....it?"
It didn't feel like the ending of a book, it felt like the ending of a chapter. This beautiful quote-
"The most elegant flesh-creeper since The Woman in Black"
from the Times really misled me. So did the pages of other quotes, that I really wish I spent more time reading, then again what book tells people about it's criticisms.
Elegant? Maybe, ok you earned a star for that....
Flesh-creeper? Seriously, that is how you describe this book? Just having the presence of a ghost in a book, does not make a book creepy, really let down on the scare factor.
Here's the summary for you: This book isn't good and took up a day of my life that I really wish I had back now...
March 8, 2012
This is the first book I have read by this author and I really enjoyed it.
A very atmospheric book with great descriptive writing that allowed me to imagine the scene the author was setting and because I live in the County the book was set in imagine I did!.
Although it is meant to be a ghost story it isn't in the slightest scary but then they don't have to be do they?. Dunmore writes so simplistic so it was easy to keep wanting to pick this book up as I didn't have to think too much or get bogged down with too many characters which is nice sometimes if life is busy.
I didn't give the full five stars because I felt a little disappointed with the ending it just felt a bit abrupt and sudden for me.
I can see why members of my bookclub enjoy her books and I would like to read some more of her work.
Overall a very enjoyable read. :0)
A very atmospheric book with great descriptive writing that allowed me to imagine the scene the author was setting and because I live in the County the book was set in imagine I did!.
Although it is meant to be a ghost story it isn't in the slightest scary but then they don't have to be do they?. Dunmore writes so simplistic so it was easy to keep wanting to pick this book up as I didn't have to think too much or get bogged down with too many characters which is nice sometimes if life is busy.
I didn't give the full five stars because I felt a little disappointed with the ending it just felt a bit abrupt and sudden for me.
I can see why members of my bookclub enjoy her books and I would like to read some more of her work.
Overall a very enjoyable read. :0)
October 19, 2012
Chose this one for my ghost story for October and was not disappointed. Have a rather love, hate relationship with Dunmore, some of her novels are brilliant and others not so much. This one is a solid ghost story, set in Yorkshire, about 6 years after the end of the war. Not everyone seems to know the war has ended though and while this is was not a terrifying read, it was chilling enough for me. Some people just cannot seem to move on.
May 11, 2021
I’ve given The Greatcoat three stars as I did enjoy and fly through it! But it was a little too romantic for me and not as spooky as I would of liked, a good story.
October 18, 2015
Right I will start by saying that there are some great reviews of this book which go in to greater detail on the book. This as usually is more my thoughts and musing after completing reading the book.
I will admit that I have heard a lot about this book both from the fact it was from Helen Dunmore an established and renowned author to the fact it was published under the HAMMER name - yes the relaunched brand which has also re-spawned the film line of the same name. This is a book from a larger and varied selection of titles all published under the HAMMER brand. SO as you can imagine I was both eager and a little cautious on reading this book especially when it was presented as a ghost story.
The story itself is very British (not maybe as much as the Christmas Ghost stories of MR James and the like) since it was based actually in the year of Helen Dunmore's birth but also the fact it was based during the years immediately after the Second World War a time my parents have told me many a story from.
There is a lot that can be said about the book but unfortunately it references to the storyline but what I can say is that I agree with some of the reviewers who felt that the ending was rather ambiguous - for me I think it was intentionally so however it is easy to see how it could have left frustration in that you don't quite know what actually happened (I know the supernatural is not meant to be explained away but its never a good idea to leave confusion in the void that leaves behind).
One thing I would say is that although it was incredibly atmospheric I am not sure how chilling a ghost story it was - I have read a good few of them and I didn't feel that chill as I have with others. It seemed at times Isobel was more concerned about fitting in to the local women of her town than she was explaining all the strange goings on.
That said the premise is a beautiful one and one I have seen used before (the events linked to physically item) so if you are looking at a period drama linked to a ghost story then for the 50s I think this story works. I am glad I read it now but I am not sure how quickly I would return to read it again.
I will admit that I have heard a lot about this book both from the fact it was from Helen Dunmore an established and renowned author to the fact it was published under the HAMMER name - yes the relaunched brand which has also re-spawned the film line of the same name. This is a book from a larger and varied selection of titles all published under the HAMMER brand. SO as you can imagine I was both eager and a little cautious on reading this book especially when it was presented as a ghost story.
The story itself is very British (not maybe as much as the Christmas Ghost stories of MR James and the like) since it was based actually in the year of Helen Dunmore's birth but also the fact it was based during the years immediately after the Second World War a time my parents have told me many a story from.
There is a lot that can be said about the book but unfortunately it references to the storyline but what I can say is that I agree with some of the reviewers who felt that the ending was rather ambiguous - for me I think it was intentionally so however it is easy to see how it could have left frustration in that you don't quite know what actually happened (I know the supernatural is not meant to be explained away but its never a good idea to leave confusion in the void that leaves behind).
One thing I would say is that although it was incredibly atmospheric I am not sure how chilling a ghost story it was - I have read a good few of them and I didn't feel that chill as I have with others. It seemed at times Isobel was more concerned about fitting in to the local women of her town than she was explaining all the strange goings on.
That said the premise is a beautiful one and one I have seen used before (the events linked to physically item) so if you are looking at a period drama linked to a ghost story then for the 50s I think this story works. I am glad I read it now but I am not sure how quickly I would return to read it again.
November 28, 2020
I’ve really enjoyed this atmospheric read by Helen Dunmore. I love her writing at the best of times & her style is a really good fit for this eerie, yet romantic, tale. She was apparently approached by Hammer to write something for them & was inspired by a couple of incidents in her childhood for the plot. It’s not a traditional ‘ghost’ story but very realistic & beautifully done. The landlady in the attic added an extra sinister layer & I’d love to see it on screen.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2012
New direction from Helen Dunmore with a ghost story. It is 1952 and Isabel and Philip Carey move into their new home together - a ground floor flat with a creepy landlady. As Isabel struggles with becoming a wife, and Philip is busy with his job as a doctor, they begin to lose touch. When Isabel discovers an old RAF greatcoat in a cupboard, she begins to have memories - but are they hers? Then someone comes tapping on the window... Not a scary story, but moving and atmospheric.
January 9, 2013
I love Helen Dunsmore's novels, but this did not pull together. A young 1950s housewife, by accounts easily intimidated in her new town, hears a rapping on her window, sees a strange man and let's him in - no motive! This is a ghost story, and the characters felt dead.
October 10, 2021
A clever ghost story that plods on.
More a gothic story then chills and spills but well written and characters you can relate to and believe in.
Eerie not spooky ghosts in this tale....
More a gothic story then chills and spills but well written and characters you can relate to and believe in.
Eerie not spooky ghosts in this tale....
April 27, 2022
A haunting ghost story executed with skill.
September 19, 2015
2.5 Stars
I was really looking forward to reading "The Greatcoat". I was hoping it would be an atmospheric, romantic ghost story, and although very different, written with the same richness and depth as 'The woman in Black' by Susan Hill (my favourite ghost story of all time). Unfortunately, it didn't really deliver.
"The Greatcoat" is a ghost story set in Yorkshire during the Second World War and the 1950s. It's a strange little novella in that to me it didn't have much of an atmosphere at all, which is what I expect from a ghost story. It wasn't eerie or creepy. I did, however, think the author managed to capture the essence of Yorkshire quite well and I could visualise the house and street where Isabel and Phillip lived.
Isabel and Phillip are married and move into a house with a rather grouchy landlady. Phillip is a doctor and is working long hours, leaving Isabel alone for long periods of time. The house is cold and one evening Isabel finds an old greatcoat, which she uses to keep warm, and thus begins the ghost story...
I felt that all the characters were very superficial, especially Isabel. They didn't have any depth to them and I didn't get to know them at all. Isabel's husband Philip and her lover (and ghost) Alec, were also a bit on the flat side and rather uninteresting. I didn't care about them, which made the reading of this novel slightly hard going. The character that did pique my interest was Mrs Atkinson, the landlady.
The romance between Isabel and Alec just didn't capture my imagination or my heart and unfortunately I didn't become emotionally attached to either of them. Half the time I didn't know who Isabel was and so I couldn't fully invest in their relationship.
Isabel's narrative was difficult to follow as it alternates between her true self and someone else entirely. I think I have an idea what the author was getting at, but ambiguity is not to my taste. There's also a fair amount of repetitiveness with Isabel doing and saying the same things again and again. The structure of the story is also irritating as it jumps about far too much, which made it feel disjointed.
Although I didn't particularly enjoy "The Greatcoat" I continued reading with the hope that the ending would make all the preceding pages worth while, but sadly the ending was abrupt and obscure.
VERDICT:
Unfortunately "The Greatcoat" wasn't what I expected, which was disappointing, and the writing style wasn't to my taste. I couldn't connect with the characters or their relationships with each other. However, this is just my personal opinion - you may love it!
I was really looking forward to reading "The Greatcoat". I was hoping it would be an atmospheric, romantic ghost story, and although very different, written with the same richness and depth as 'The woman in Black' by Susan Hill (my favourite ghost story of all time). Unfortunately, it didn't really deliver.
"The Greatcoat" is a ghost story set in Yorkshire during the Second World War and the 1950s. It's a strange little novella in that to me it didn't have much of an atmosphere at all, which is what I expect from a ghost story. It wasn't eerie or creepy. I did, however, think the author managed to capture the essence of Yorkshire quite well and I could visualise the house and street where Isabel and Phillip lived.
Isabel and Phillip are married and move into a house with a rather grouchy landlady. Phillip is a doctor and is working long hours, leaving Isabel alone for long periods of time. The house is cold and one evening Isabel finds an old greatcoat, which she uses to keep warm, and thus begins the ghost story...
I felt that all the characters were very superficial, especially Isabel. They didn't have any depth to them and I didn't get to know them at all. Isabel's husband Philip and her lover (and ghost) Alec, were also a bit on the flat side and rather uninteresting. I didn't care about them, which made the reading of this novel slightly hard going. The character that did pique my interest was Mrs Atkinson, the landlady.
The romance between Isabel and Alec just didn't capture my imagination or my heart and unfortunately I didn't become emotionally attached to either of them. Half the time I didn't know who Isabel was and so I couldn't fully invest in their relationship.
Isabel's narrative was difficult to follow as it alternates between her true self and someone else entirely. I think I have an idea what the author was getting at, but ambiguity is not to my taste. There's also a fair amount of repetitiveness with Isabel doing and saying the same things again and again. The structure of the story is also irritating as it jumps about far too much, which made it feel disjointed.
Although I didn't particularly enjoy "The Greatcoat" I continued reading with the hope that the ending would make all the preceding pages worth while, but sadly the ending was abrupt and obscure.
VERDICT:
Unfortunately "The Greatcoat" wasn't what I expected, which was disappointing, and the writing style wasn't to my taste. I couldn't connect with the characters or their relationships with each other. However, this is just my personal opinion - you may love it!
June 17, 2019
Slighter compared to the other Dunmores I've read, but extremely atmospheric. It had a strong emotional pull, even if the ghost story didn't quite make sense to me (do they ever?). She really has a way with creating memorable characters, and the postwar atmosphere of deprivation is rendered beautifully.
September 13, 2022
Any of y'all remember that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation when Dr. Crusher gets her ghost boyfriend?
Because same vibes, frankly.
Because same vibes, frankly.
May 11, 2018
Helen Dunmore, a prolific author, died in June 2017; The Greatcoat was published in 2012. Reviews from critics have been largely positive - for instance, The Times calls the novel 'the most elegant flesh-creeper since The Woman in Black', and the Independent on Sunday 'a perfect ghost story' - but those from readers have been rather mixed. Regardless, one has to admire Dunmore for writing about such a wealth of different time periods and characters, from Second World War Russia in The Siege, to D.H. Lawrence's experiences in Cornwall in Zennor in Darkness, and children's books about an underwater land named Ingo, which is peopled by mermaids.
The Greatcoat is set in the East Riding of Yorkshire during the winter of 1952, the year and place in which Dunmore herself was born. Protagonist Isabel Carey, married for just two months to her largely absent doctor husband Philip, is 'struggling to adjust to the realities' of her new life. One night, when cold, she rummages in a cupboard in their rented flat, and finds an old World War Two greatcoat, which she covers herself with. The knock which comes at the window startles her; there is a pilot outside, wanting to come in. She is frightened on the first night, and hides; when it happens again, 'She could still hear the tapping sound that had woken her. It must be her dream still turning, like a record after the needle had been lifted off. Tap, tap, tap. Soft, insistent, determined. It was a real sound. It was coming from the living room.'
Whilst, in their new home, Isabel and Philip have managed to escape the 'narrow house where bed springs cracked like whips and the flush of the lavatory was the bellow of a caged water-dragon' in which his parents live, conditions are little better. Their situation, from the very beginning, is far from ideal: 'Upstairs, the landlady laughed. Too close, thought Isabel. They had divided the house into flats but they couldn't quite separate the lives within it.' The constant walking around of the landlady becomes rather a disturbing noise for Isabel, who feels trapped within their walls, and is openly scrutinised by the townspeople whenever she ventures outdoors. She feels out of her depth; she 'looked all wrong. Too young, too soft, too southern.'
Throughout, we as readers are party to Isabel's experiences only; she is an unmoving focal point for Dunmore. The first time she speaks to the airman, Alec, he comes into her house during the day. At this point, 'her thoughts moved strangely, down paths that were foreign and yet entirely familiar. They were paths that had revealed themselves quite suddenly, as if a light had been shone inside her. She was Isabel Carey, and yet these were thoughts that Isabel Carey had never had. She knew what he meant, and she ought not to know it.' Later, Dunmore writes: 'He was a stranger, but she knew him. Every word he spoke and every shadow of his expression fitted patterns she had never seen before but which had always been there, beneath the skin of her life.' Isabel begins to lose herself; real memories and those which feature the airman, which she is sure she never lived, converge and blur.
The Greatcoat is a slight book, but a thoughtful one, and the pacing works well. The story which Dunmore has woven has familiar elements to it. Whilst it has been categorised as a ghost story, it is rather unusual in some ways. I found myself pulled in rather early on, caring about Isabel and her plight, and wondering what would happen to her with the increased visits of Alec. The third person perspective which has been used throughout works well, particularly when Dunmore is building tension.
However, whilst the novel is a little chilling in places, it feels as though opportunities have been missed; at no point did I find it at all scary, and when it all came together, it feels quite obvious. Whilst the psychological impact of experiences upon Isabel are touched upon, they are not always shown with as much depth as they should have been. The Greatcoat is an easy book to read; perhaps too easy at times, for the darker elements of the novel can be missed.
The Greatcoat is set in the East Riding of Yorkshire during the winter of 1952, the year and place in which Dunmore herself was born. Protagonist Isabel Carey, married for just two months to her largely absent doctor husband Philip, is 'struggling to adjust to the realities' of her new life. One night, when cold, she rummages in a cupboard in their rented flat, and finds an old World War Two greatcoat, which she covers herself with. The knock which comes at the window startles her; there is a pilot outside, wanting to come in. She is frightened on the first night, and hides; when it happens again, 'She could still hear the tapping sound that had woken her. It must be her dream still turning, like a record after the needle had been lifted off. Tap, tap, tap. Soft, insistent, determined. It was a real sound. It was coming from the living room.'
Whilst, in their new home, Isabel and Philip have managed to escape the 'narrow house where bed springs cracked like whips and the flush of the lavatory was the bellow of a caged water-dragon' in which his parents live, conditions are little better. Their situation, from the very beginning, is far from ideal: 'Upstairs, the landlady laughed. Too close, thought Isabel. They had divided the house into flats but they couldn't quite separate the lives within it.' The constant walking around of the landlady becomes rather a disturbing noise for Isabel, who feels trapped within their walls, and is openly scrutinised by the townspeople whenever she ventures outdoors. She feels out of her depth; she 'looked all wrong. Too young, too soft, too southern.'
Throughout, we as readers are party to Isabel's experiences only; she is an unmoving focal point for Dunmore. The first time she speaks to the airman, Alec, he comes into her house during the day. At this point, 'her thoughts moved strangely, down paths that were foreign and yet entirely familiar. They were paths that had revealed themselves quite suddenly, as if a light had been shone inside her. She was Isabel Carey, and yet these were thoughts that Isabel Carey had never had. She knew what he meant, and she ought not to know it.' Later, Dunmore writes: 'He was a stranger, but she knew him. Every word he spoke and every shadow of his expression fitted patterns she had never seen before but which had always been there, beneath the skin of her life.' Isabel begins to lose herself; real memories and those which feature the airman, which she is sure she never lived, converge and blur.
The Greatcoat is a slight book, but a thoughtful one, and the pacing works well. The story which Dunmore has woven has familiar elements to it. Whilst it has been categorised as a ghost story, it is rather unusual in some ways. I found myself pulled in rather early on, caring about Isabel and her plight, and wondering what would happen to her with the increased visits of Alec. The third person perspective which has been used throughout works well, particularly when Dunmore is building tension.
However, whilst the novel is a little chilling in places, it feels as though opportunities have been missed; at no point did I find it at all scary, and when it all came together, it feels quite obvious. Whilst the psychological impact of experiences upon Isabel are touched upon, they are not always shown with as much depth as they should have been. The Greatcoat is an easy book to read; perhaps too easy at times, for the darker elements of the novel can be missed.
October 18, 2012
There is something so elemental about a ghost story, something that speaks to one’s deepest fears and desires, that a reader can’t help being drawn in. The Greatcoat, by Helen Dunmore, is exactly that kind of a ghost story. I couldn’t put it down from the moment I read the first page (okay, I had one night of sleep in between) and finished it in two days. This is a simple, well-written story about a ghost, manifested through a Royal Air Force standard issue coat, who links himself to the life of newlywed Isabel Carey in post-war Britain.
Isabel, who has just wed Philip Carey, struggles to fit into the mould of a respectable, middle-class, country doctor’s wife and navigate through all that a new marriage brings. When ex-RAF pilot Alec comes knocking on her window, Isabel finds him to be a welcome presence, as she gives in to another’s memories. What really manifests through their relationship is the reality of the deeply buried trauma of a country that couldn’t really mourn its huge loss of life during the second world war and rushed instead to bury its dead and rebuild. But, can history be so easily forgotten?
Isabel’s own haunted past is remembered through the presence of Alec as she struggles with her own history, identity and sense of belonging. Alec is a ghost of the past, clinging desperately to any sense of life that he can, trapped in a nether world by one of his personal effects and an overpowering sense of loss. As I was drawn in to Isabel and Alec’s world the story became less about other beings and more about the past’s inability to ever remain silent.
This rich, evocative offering by Dunmore will titillate all your senses and keep you hooked, as much as bring you into shadowy life of post-war Britain, trying to maintain a stiff upper lip after surviving so much death, destruction and loss.
I don't think its fair to compare this book to 'The Turn of the Screw' or 'The Woman in Black' although it is of the same genre.
Yes, it's a ghost story and is full of the techniques that create a good ghost story, titillating all the senses. What I liked about it was that it makes the reader question the link between the ghost and the haunted. There were many abstractions that made me wonder what was going through Isabel Carey (the haunted one's) mind and even the end is left open, in my opinion. Its more of a novella than a novel and should be read as such - ideally in one, long go. I was in the mood for a good ghost story and Helen Dunmore delivered.
Isabel, who has just wed Philip Carey, struggles to fit into the mould of a respectable, middle-class, country doctor’s wife and navigate through all that a new marriage brings. When ex-RAF pilot Alec comes knocking on her window, Isabel finds him to be a welcome presence, as she gives in to another’s memories. What really manifests through their relationship is the reality of the deeply buried trauma of a country that couldn’t really mourn its huge loss of life during the second world war and rushed instead to bury its dead and rebuild. But, can history be so easily forgotten?
Isabel’s own haunted past is remembered through the presence of Alec as she struggles with her own history, identity and sense of belonging. Alec is a ghost of the past, clinging desperately to any sense of life that he can, trapped in a nether world by one of his personal effects and an overpowering sense of loss. As I was drawn in to Isabel and Alec’s world the story became less about other beings and more about the past’s inability to ever remain silent.
This rich, evocative offering by Dunmore will titillate all your senses and keep you hooked, as much as bring you into shadowy life of post-war Britain, trying to maintain a stiff upper lip after surviving so much death, destruction and loss.
I don't think its fair to compare this book to 'The Turn of the Screw' or 'The Woman in Black' although it is of the same genre.
Yes, it's a ghost story and is full of the techniques that create a good ghost story, titillating all the senses. What I liked about it was that it makes the reader question the link between the ghost and the haunted. There were many abstractions that made me wonder what was going through Isabel Carey (the haunted one's) mind and even the end is left open, in my opinion. Its more of a novella than a novel and should be read as such - ideally in one, long go. I was in the mood for a good ghost story and Helen Dunmore delivered.
April 7, 2013
For me The Greatcoat grabbed me from the dust jacket. It had three very interesting elements. It was a ghost story (not a cheap horror sort of ghost story, I could tell), the ghost was from WWII and the novel itself was set in that interesting decade the 1950s. Straightaway in the Prologue the reader is hooked. Three short sentences delineate the ghost’s world and how can you put a book down after that?
In Chapter one it’s 1952 in England and I particularly love how deftly, again, Dunmore sets the scene and adds original touches. In just one paragraph below we are not only reminded of the stringency of those times but we are given insights into two of the main characters:
“They had been children of wartime and all they asked of food was that it should fill them. Isabel was a poor cook. Fortunately Philip’s mother was no better; and after years of national service and medical school, he was hardened. He never complained, and he was as proud as Isabel when she brought her watery stews and dense cakes to the table.”
I really enjoyed the times she goes walking in the countryside around East Riding and her discovery of the airfield is intense as are her encounters with the enigmatic and tragic pilot. My only criticism is a decision that Dunmore makes at the end of the novel. In a film it would work beautifully but on the page it was a little confusing and this took away a bit of my delight in the book. Otherwise a good read!
In Chapter one it’s 1952 in England and I particularly love how deftly, again, Dunmore sets the scene and adds original touches. In just one paragraph below we are not only reminded of the stringency of those times but we are given insights into two of the main characters:
“They had been children of wartime and all they asked of food was that it should fill them. Isabel was a poor cook. Fortunately Philip’s mother was no better; and after years of national service and medical school, he was hardened. He never complained, and he was as proud as Isabel when she brought her watery stews and dense cakes to the table.”
I really enjoyed the times she goes walking in the countryside around East Riding and her discovery of the airfield is intense as are her encounters with the enigmatic and tragic pilot. My only criticism is a decision that Dunmore makes at the end of the novel. In a film it would work beautifully but on the page it was a little confusing and this took away a bit of my delight in the book. Otherwise a good read!
October 15, 2015
Isabel and her husband move to the East Riding where she's left alone while he's off doctoring. One day she finds an old RAF greatcoat in a cupboard and when she uses it to keep warm, an airman appears in her life. Is he real, a ghost or a time-traveller? This was quite gentle even if it was about a haunting. Very readable and easy to whizz through.
November 19, 2012
I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this book. It was short, had huge holes in the plot and was generally a little weak. Not Helen Dunmore's best.
May 5, 2023
3.5 stars. An interesting, short historical fiction ghost story set in the winter of 1952 in a Yorkshire village near an airport.
Isabel and Philip Carey, newly weds, move to a Yorkshire town where Philip accepts the position as the town’s new doctor. Philip expects Isabel to stay at home, discouraging her from seeking employment. One night Isabel finds a R.A.F. greatcoat at the back of a cupboard and uses it as a blanket. Soon after, Isabel receives visits from Alec, a Lancaster bomber airman. Alec is a ghost and his connection to Isabel’s house is slowly revealed. The nosey landlady who paces up and down in the room above, from whom Isabel and Philip are renting their residential quarters, is also an important character in this novel.
This novel is not ‘’spooky’’ but rather an engaging story about four characters.
This book was first published in 2012.
Isabel and Philip Carey, newly weds, move to a Yorkshire town where Philip accepts the position as the town’s new doctor. Philip expects Isabel to stay at home, discouraging her from seeking employment. One night Isabel finds a R.A.F. greatcoat at the back of a cupboard and uses it as a blanket. Soon after, Isabel receives visits from Alec, a Lancaster bomber airman. Alec is a ghost and his connection to Isabel’s house is slowly revealed. The nosey landlady who paces up and down in the room above, from whom Isabel and Philip are renting their residential quarters, is also an important character in this novel.
This novel is not ‘’spooky’’ but rather an engaging story about four characters.
This book was first published in 2012.
April 11, 2018
Creepy ghost story indeed! My first read by Dunmore and I already am a fan of her writing style. It moves fast and as for this story, it was just the right amount of info, detail, and length for what she wanted to convey to the reader. I was drawn to Isabel's character from the beginning and liked how she was depicted - she was believable and honest in the newness of being a Drs wife. Her husband, Phillip, seems absent in many ways thus the arrival of the greatcoat and its stranger were quite a distraction for Isabel. I had no idea where that would all end up and even when I did, it kept weaving a bit more till the very end. Really good - more of 3.5 stars for me but would recommend if you like a touch of supernatural in your reading.
September 13, 2018
It has been ages since I last read a truly atmospheric ghost story as this.
Dunmore manages to evoke a dual setting with the 50's as dull contemporary times and the 40's as the haunting yet not-at-all distant past. I especially enjoyed the way that Alec seems to keep coming in from the cold even if Isabel is outside in the warm and how she comes to slip into their uncanny relationship without showing any apparent realisation or discomfort.
I must express a curiosity to feel the weight of a greatcoat now though I doubt it will be anywhere near as heavy as it must for the characters in the book. And yet, as Dunmore herself expresses in the afterword, sometimes we want to be haunted to take us away from a more silently distressing present.
That last visitation was perhaps the one with the highest tension for me.
Similarly I think the eerie memory of this book will keep visiting me for a while...
Dunmore manages to evoke a dual setting with the 50's as dull contemporary times and the 40's as the haunting yet not-at-all distant past. I especially enjoyed the way that Alec seems to keep coming in from the cold even if Isabel is outside in the warm and how she comes to slip into their uncanny relationship without showing any apparent realisation or discomfort.
I must express a curiosity to feel the weight of a greatcoat now though I doubt it will be anywhere near as heavy as it must for the characters in the book. And yet, as Dunmore herself expresses in the afterword, sometimes we want to be haunted to take us away from a more silently distressing present.
That last visitation was perhaps the one with the highest tension for me.
Similarly I think the eerie memory of this book will keep visiting me for a while...
September 12, 2018
Ghost stories are not everyone's cup of tea, I know, but this is pretty awesome. Not that those who dislike ghost stories will find this any different; on the contrary, this is pretty much in the same vein as Henry James and his ilk. For me, that's the attraction. This is classic ghost story. People dislike them, I think, because of the apparent lack of action. The thing is, it's all about mood and atmosphere. You need a vivid imagination to read them as well as write them. This is beautifully written and mercifully short. Treat yourself. Give it a go!
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