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Black Sheep
A searing family story from one of our most beloved writers.
The village is called Mount of Zeal. It's built in a bowl like an amphitheatre, with the winding gear where the stage would be. The pit lies below. Ted Howker's school is on the edge of Lower Terrace next to the chapel. Upper Terrace -- in a thunderous echo of the Bible so loved by Ted's grandfather -- is Paradise. Ted and his father and his brothers live in Middle. In the a household of men, all of whom work in the pit. Susan Hill is an exceptional writer at the height of her powers. Every word is precisely the descriptions of the village and the pit, the people and the farm are exact and true; the heartbreak is inevitable yet new; and the imagery and imagination take your breath away.
The village is called Mount of Zeal. It's built in a bowl like an amphitheatre, with the winding gear where the stage would be. The pit lies below. Ted Howker's school is on the edge of Lower Terrace next to the chapel. Upper Terrace -- in a thunderous echo of the Bible so loved by Ted's grandfather -- is Paradise. Ted and his father and his brothers live in Middle. In the a household of men, all of whom work in the pit. Susan Hill is an exceptional writer at the height of her powers. Every word is precisely the descriptions of the village and the pit, the people and the farm are exact and true; the heartbreak is inevitable yet new; and the imagery and imagination take your breath away.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
33 people are currently reading
262 people want to read
About the author
Susan Hill
180 books2,273 followersSusan Hill was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1942. Her hometown was later referred to in her novel A Change for the Better (1969) and some short stories especially "Cockles and Mussels".
She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre and literature. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry where her father worked in car and aircraft factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".
Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle, The Albatross and other stories, Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, A Bit of Singing and Dancing and In the Springtime of Year, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.
In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon. Their first daughter, Jessica, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.
Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name.
She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre and literature. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry where her father worked in car and aircraft factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".
Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle, The Albatross and other stories, Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, A Bit of Singing and Dancing and In the Springtime of Year, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.
In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon. Their first daughter, Jessica, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.
Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 152 reviews
February 15, 2015
4.5stars. I love Susan Hill as I have said before! She draws you in from the first page and I felt as though as though I was there, on the hill, watching these characters. Would have given it 5 stars but it was so very sad. A mining village and a particular family, it seems plagued by bad luck. I so felt for the women, Evie and Rose, both holding the family together. Also loved Ted who followed his heart only to return to the family and pit when he had no other choice. Really powerful story that made me cry.
February 26, 2014
I've heard a lot about Susan Hill which is why I decided to start with this one. What can I say about it? It is told in a very matter of fact style and skips huge chunks of the character's lives at a time, so the style takes a bit of getting used to. It is as spare and bleak as the mining pit community and the life associated with it that it portrays.
I like my books to at least have some sort of hope. There is none in this short novel.
I like my books to at least have some sort of hope. There is none in this short novel.
February 25, 2018
A good novella. The story revolves around a mining family and there lives. Rosie the daughter of Evie and John is the only girl with four brothers. One of her brothers Ted is different and does not want to be a miner. This is a bleak book and the family is plagued with bad luck. The setting is well described although the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more. Rosie marries but not happily and sets off a chain of events which will haunt her.
November 2, 2019
Susan Hill is possibly best known for her unsettling supernatural tales squarely in the tradition of the “English ghost story”, stronger on suggestion than on gore. Her series of crime novels featuring Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler also rely hugely on setting and description for their effect. Black Sheep is a very different work – a miniature “family saga” set in a fictional mining village. However, Hill’s skills at building a haunting atmosphere are equally evident. Her style is deceptively simple, and yet it evokes Thomas Hardy in its bleak fatalism and D.H. Lawrence in its portrait of a community simultaneously shaped and crushed by the mining industry.
One of the more intriguing characters in the novella is Reuben, the grandfather in the Howker family, who spends the day quoting fire-and-brimstone passages from his black-covered Bible. Perhaps therein lies one of the keys to appreciating this book. Indeed, for all its gritty realism, the novella often reads like a Biblical parable or allegory. The village where it is set is named “Mount of Zeal” and is described as a series of concentric terraces leading down to the mining pits at its heart. In an interview with the Guardian, Hill claimed to have been inspired by a 19th century engraving showing just such a village. However, given that the upper terraces are named “Paradise”, it does not take much imagination to recall Dante’s circles of hell. The date of the events described are also left vague, though there are suggestions that Hill might have the early 20th century in mind – this lends the book a timeless quality. And the characters seem quite set in their ways, coming across as symbolic figures in a latter-day morality play.
Whatever you think about the book, there’s certainly no questioning Susan Hill’s versatility.
One of the more intriguing characters in the novella is Reuben, the grandfather in the Howker family, who spends the day quoting fire-and-brimstone passages from his black-covered Bible. Perhaps therein lies one of the keys to appreciating this book. Indeed, for all its gritty realism, the novella often reads like a Biblical parable or allegory. The village where it is set is named “Mount of Zeal” and is described as a series of concentric terraces leading down to the mining pits at its heart. In an interview with the Guardian, Hill claimed to have been inspired by a 19th century engraving showing just such a village. However, given that the upper terraces are named “Paradise”, it does not take much imagination to recall Dante’s circles of hell. The date of the events described are also left vague, though there are suggestions that Hill might have the early 20th century in mind – this lends the book a timeless quality. And the characters seem quite set in their ways, coming across as symbolic figures in a latter-day morality play.
Whatever you think about the book, there’s certainly no questioning Susan Hill’s versatility.
October 10, 2019
Short, intense and bleak story.
November 11, 2014
This must be the worst book I've read in a long time. It's so miserable, a true 'harda lucka' with nothing positive. You certainly wouldn't want to read this if you were feeling down or depressed.
The only good point is that it's quick to read, I would have been even more fed up if I'd wasted any more time reading it.
The only good point is that it's quick to read, I would have been even more fed up if I'd wasted any more time reading it.
January 31, 2016
This is a sparse, sad story. It tells the inevitable tale of a boy trying to leave the mines. His brother succeeds by anonymity and utter escape. Ted tries a tamer route and ultimately fails.
Susan Hill is a very good writer and this story is well-written. It is probably too sad for many people but I continue to deeply admire Susan Hill. I feel almost like we are friends.
Susan Hill is a very good writer and this story is well-written. It is probably too sad for many people but I continue to deeply admire Susan Hill. I feel almost like we are friends.
February 10, 2014
I've read and enjoyed several of Susan Hill's books, but found this one bland and depressing. Maybe I was just in the wrong frame of mind for something so bleak!
November 7, 2016
I came across this purely by chance while browsing in the local library. Brilliantly bleak, I loved it.
November 7, 2016
This book by Susan Hill I'm unashamed to say, made my bottom lip quiver, brought tears to my eyes and brought a lump to my throat.
Basically this is a simple tale of a family just going about the daily business of living.
It has the feel of Catherine Cookson to it (the trials and tribulations of generations living together in close proximity and the angst of youth trying to make their own path).
Centered around three generations of the same family and the community they live in, there are some pretty harrowing and heartbreaking scenes and not many uplifting escapes.
I was under the impression Susan Hill was a thriller/chiller horror writer, but this is a fictional and dramatic departure from that genre.
Definitely worth a read in my opinion.
Basically this is a simple tale of a family just going about the daily business of living.
It has the feel of Catherine Cookson to it (the trials and tribulations of generations living together in close proximity and the angst of youth trying to make their own path).
Centered around three generations of the same family and the community they live in, there are some pretty harrowing and heartbreaking scenes and not many uplifting escapes.
I was under the impression Susan Hill was a thriller/chiller horror writer, but this is a fictional and dramatic departure from that genre.
Definitely worth a read in my opinion.
January 11, 2017
I was a little hesitant to pick up another Susan Hill novella, as I was underwhelmed by The Small Hand, A Ghost Story. But Black Sheep was an entirely different reading experience for me.
Black Sheep is beautifully written. Every word in every sentence holds its place; there is not a wasted word within the novella. Although spare in its prose, it is packed with emotion until its heartbreaking ending. I was blown away by the power of Hill's writing, and Black Sheep is a story that will resonate with me for a long time.
Highly recommended.
Black Sheep is beautifully written. Every word in every sentence holds its place; there is not a wasted word within the novella. Although spare in its prose, it is packed with emotion until its heartbreaking ending. I was blown away by the power of Hill's writing, and Black Sheep is a story that will resonate with me for a long time.
Highly recommended.
September 7, 2015
Oh this was such intense, powerful writing. such a strong sense of the family and the village, so claustrophobic, like the mine. such brief freedom and then the inevitable punishment.
July 29, 2015
I read Susan Hill's work for her insight into family dynamics and realistic sense of time and place. Her spare use of language is always excellent and her talent lies in creating much from little. Black Sheep is a really good example of an unexciting (Welsh?) mining family's grim reality, and the everyday drama of the pit and its all consuming grasp on the community. The only reason this isn't a five-star review is because of that ending -- necessary as it might be (I read the final chapters before going to sleep and it really left me feeling uneasy).
February 20, 2018
I picked this up about 5 hours ago from the library on a whim as was drawn by the front cover. I devoured it in one sitting. This novella proves that a book doesn’t need to be long, it doesn’t need a hundred plot twists. It proves that good writing is all you need. An emotional and devastating read, my heart was torn along with Roker’s and the conclusion will stay with me long after I return this book to the library.
November 8, 2013
Beautifully written little book. The life of the small mining village and of one family within it is well portrayed
March 18, 2014
Beautifully written but oh so sad and depressing.
May 22, 2015
Oh this was so bleak. Beautifully written but unrelenting pure sorrow from start to finish. Need something to cheer me up now.
August 16, 2016
slow to start, and too short for me to really understand the characters overall, but all the same a powerful and emotional end that was not expected.
June 8, 2018
A very atmospheric novella concerning a a brother and sister in a mining community.
Very grim and dark, it’s was too bleak for me.
Very grim and dark, it’s was too bleak for me.
May 25, 2017
Why write a book that's just a succession of sad events? Giving it 2 stars regardless of the writing being decent as rebellion against it. I have no idea if any of the events depicted in the book are realistic (is this what a mining village was really like? who knows!) but it's just a cavalcade of misery happening to a single family who are apparently ridiculously unlucky in every way. They have some choice over their fate but they always make the bad decision. The thing is the writing is pretty solid - it doesn't go in for florid descriptions, there's no deep conversations, but the 2 main characters still feel reasonably fleshed given the short length of the book. Yet at the same time I didn't feel much emotional connection to them: I think I just tuned out after a certain point when I realised they exist just to have bad things happen to them. I don't know if there's anything to take away from it either. That life is cruel and you're screwed whether you stay within the pattern set or if you try and get out of it? I think I'm being too harsh here. Maybe I'm just really not in the mood for fiction right now. I don't know.
Re the ending You can't say for sure cause there's 0 indication of when this book is set. Oh well
Re the ending You can't say for sure cause there's 0 indication of when this book is set. Oh well
October 3, 2023
This was an acutely uncomfortable picture of the horrifying realities of life in a mining village - How Black and Depressing Was My Valley - and a pretty picture it was not. The fictional Mount of Zeal was a place where tradition, superstition, and iron-clad social rules were far more important than family ties or personal survival. I stuck with the story through horrible deaths, betrayals, and repetitive writing (someone was constantly clambering over something and it got old fast) to an ending that makes this the Feel-Bad Book of the Year for me. This author’s books have always been surprising and entertaining for me, but this one goes to the bottom of my literary compost pile. 2 stars.
December 15, 2017
The story of the Howker family; a pit family. Brother and sister, Ted and Rose; living in Mount of Zeal, a mining village blackened by coal. Both wish for something different but know nothing other than the ways of their village.
A sad and moving short novel. Susan Black tells the tale beautifully and hauntingly well. From its bleak beginning to the tragic conclusion Black gives an edge of innocence to the tale.
A sad and moving short novel. Susan Black tells the tale beautifully and hauntingly well. From its bleak beginning to the tragic conclusion Black gives an edge of innocence to the tale.
June 26, 2022
Sometimes I really enjoy a good old bleak novel. I used to love Hardy. This was very black and full of the stench of wrongful death and despair. Maybe because of the current times, I didn’t relish it like I used to. There’s too much injustice and tragedy in the real world..
March 18, 2022
An intense and relentless novella that I finished in a few hours, partly because of its brevity and spareness and partly because of the terrible inevitability of the tragedy that engulfs this family like a mountain sliding down inexorably on top of them.
September 14, 2025
This is a short book but the depth of characters and glimpse into the life/story of those people is brilliant. I was shocked by the ending and initially disappointed - I wanted it all tied up in a pretty bow, but it dawned on me that actually, this was the only ending the book could have and was glad the author was brave enough to do so rather than making it look pretty at the end.
August 15, 2024
Susan Hill is one of my favourite authors - I love her ghost stories so was looking forward to reading something else by her.
As with many of her other stories, Black Sheep is going to take up quite a bit of space in my head. It starts off badly for the characters and doesn’t get any better.
It’s brilliantly written, but it has got to be one of the bleakest stories I’ve ever read.
As with many of her other stories, Black Sheep is going to take up quite a bit of space in my head. It starts off badly for the characters and doesn’t get any better.
It’s brilliantly written, but it has got to be one of the bleakest stories I’ve ever read.
November 30, 2021
Whenever he clambered down the steep track home he felt the walls closing in on him and his spirit shrivel and darken.
Unremittingly bleak, Susan Hill’s novella set in a fictional pit village focuses on the Howker family, sometime in the 1930s. Villages built up around collieries exist only for the colliery’s needs, with the miners’ day based on the progression of shift, meal, sleep and return to work, the chapel or the weekend dance at the Institute bringing some scant variety, and the woman’s role confined purely to servicing the requirements of their menfolk’s work.
Life beyond the pit village of Mount of Zeal can scarcely be imagined by its inhabitants, but at least two and maybe three of the Howker family dream of escaping the misery of the daily treadmill. When they make the attempt, one to try his hand at sheep farming, say, or another to marry outside of the workforce, they run the risk of being regarded as the black sheep of the family.
Will they make their own way in life or will circumstances force them to return to the fold?
He could not make sense of it and for the first time in his adult life, in the darkness, he wept and then sat, simply waiting for the morning.
Misery memoirs, which were a literary thing at one stage, never appealed to me, nor fiction that seems akin to it: I know that as a genre so-called misery porn can inform, even inspire some people, but I couldn’t imagine I’d find it uplifting. At first sight I thought Black Sheep wasn’t a novella I would admire, especially as I’d previously been disappointed by the author’s Printer’s Devil Court, a confusing supernatural tale that simply made no sense. But I found it doesn’t do to prejudge a fiction before reading it, and unlike the character in this fiction who at the end sat in a field weeping because “he could make no sense” of what was happening I started to get an inkling of what Susan Hill might have been trying to accomplish in this tragic tale.
The extended Howker family are stuck in a way of life that they can’t or won’t get out of. The father and two of the sons accept the hellish life they seem born to, working at the coal face, breathing in coal dust, vaguely conscious that underground explosions can and do happen. A third son disappears without warning, and without trace. In the terrace of houses called Paradise the grandmother is dying, a grandfather reads his Old Testament all day; meanwhile the mother skivvies all the hours she’s awake.
Rose, the only girl, feels friendless most of the time, but still dreams of escaping from the drudgery by marrying above her station. Ted, the youngest brother, tries to make sense of the adult world, and when the time comes rather than joining the men down the mine he wanders further afield and surprises himself by working for a sheep farmer.
Despite one or two hints (swing music on the radio, for example) that we’re in the twentieth century, the author has conjured up a microcosm reminiscent of the visions of John Bunyan and William Blake. Bible texts punctuate the text, pastoral pursuits are held up as more fulfilling than entering Sheol, even the name of the village seems to echo Isaiah’s taunt aimed at the Assyrian king Sennacherib:
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.
To Rose and Ted the Mount of Zeal is like a prison, and they long to be the remnant that escape it. But there are walls which are more than metaphorical, from which there is only one exit.
Hill’s writing is spare yet realistic: I didn’t feel she made a wrong step in depicting the period details, the working environment and colliery family lives. I believed in her characters and I think I understood what she was trying to get across: a simmering anger against the inhumanity the industry engendered, a sadness at the closed minds that couldn’t accept those who sought a way out, and a deep sympathy for all who felt trapped for life. This novella started revealing to me the writer who deservedly wins literary awards and began banishing the disappointment I’d had with her 2013 novella.
January 30, 2020
Love this book. Read a few Susan Hill books now and she always draws you in with precise description, characterisation and detail. Give it a go.
September 3, 2016
Susan Hill, what a gem! She must be as old as me, which is pretty ancient, and this novella is like an antique. It tells of a Britain with capital punishment, handed out easily by upper-class judges, of hopelessly oppressed womenfolk and of drudge-like mining slave-men. Hill weaves a tale about a little mining town, living under a cloud of coke-smoke in a magnificent country setting, its residents terrified to venture out. The protagonist, Ted, the youngest child of a coal-mining family, whose nearest brother Angus has totally disappeared, rebels and moves up to a local farm to tend sheep. He is quiet and reserved, and is driven to distraction by his loose sister and her casual boy-friend, Lem, who boasts about his (innocent) relationship with her. When Ted sticks up for her, his assault accidentally causes Lem's death, hence the brutal sentence. It's a story that begins tenderly and ends on a note of deep anguish. Beautifully told and highly recommended.
February 4, 2014
In the village of Mount of Zeal, the Howker family live a hard life, the menfolk tied to working in the local pit whilst the women struggle to make ends meet and keep food on the table. Efforts by some members of the family to spread their wings meet varying success but, inevitably, events beyond their control conspire to thwart their ambitions. The youngest son, Ted, in particular escapes life down the pit for an idyllic life on a farm only to be dragged back by a tragedy in the community. Perhaps it is his disappointment that manifests itself in a 'spur of the moment' act that has tragic repercussions. The author uses superb imagery and descriptions to paint a gripping and involved picture of the community and the people in it - no easy task in such a short novel. 9/10.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 152 reviews