The quiet river

by P.M. Hubbard

Steve and Helen Anderson move from their London flat into an isolated old house near the Lod River. Both are strangely drawn to the river, though stories circulate about its dangerously weak banks and powerful undertow. Helen is also drawn to neighbor Matthew Summers, the forbidding village squire and Casanova.They have moved from urbanity and movement to a silent and brooding landscape dominated by the almost invisible river that runs through it. It is this change that provides the catalyst to an inherently unstable relationship, and a final catastrophe . . .'He has the ability to achieve a mounting kind of tension that rivets the reader' New York Times Book Review

Genres: Fiction

181 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Philip Maitland Hubbard was an English writer. He was known principally for his crime and suspense stories although he wrote in other forms and genres as well, for example contributing short stories and poetry to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and articles, verse and parliamentary reports for Punch.

Hubbard was born in Reading in Berkshire, but was brought up in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. He was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey and at Jesus College, Oxford, where in 1933 he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry with "Ovid among the Goths". He served with the Indian Civil Service from 1934 until its disbandment in 1947 upon Indian independence, after which he worked for the British Council and as Deputy Director of the National Union of Manufacturers. From 1960 until shortly before his death he worked as a freelance writer. He lived in Dorset and in Scotland, and was married with three children, although separated at his death.

P. M. Hubbard's main output was sixteen full-length novels for adults. These are typically suspense stories which have their settings in the countryside or coastline of England or Scotland (although one, The Custom of the Country, is set mainly in Pakistan). Most of the novels feature a male protagonist (although in some, such as Flush as May and The Quiet River, the protagonist is a woman) and characters who in general are middle-class, articulate and strong-willed. Most of the novels draw extensively on one or more of the author's interests and preoccupations including country pursuits, small-boat sailing, folk religion and the works of William Shakespeare.

Hubbard's novel High Tide was adapted for television and broadcast in 1980 as part of the UK ITV network's Armchair Thriller series.

He was described in his obituary in The Times as a "most imaginative and distinguished practitioner", writing with an "assurance and individuality of style and tone." He died on 17 March 1980.

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

So a beautiful (of course) woman is drug by a cow (what) through a flooded field on a dark rainy night for pages and pages (way too long). Her arm that was held by a nylon rope is not even sore enough to earn an honorable mention, no bruises or cow kicks or wet manure can stop her from sex with a man she finds strange after they miraculously make it to his house. This wasn’t even a bad dream scenario; it was just a bad book not worth finishing.

[Debbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

WORST BOOK I EVER READ~! Terrible, boring writer. Long drawn out story. Very blah. Written like a grade schooler might.