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Foul Matter
"I have been on nodding terms with death since age nineteen. Death holds precious little mystery for me. During the last sixteen years I have eaten death for breakfast…"
For accomplished writer and chef Clytie Churchill suffering and love come hand in hand. The life of each person she loves seems to come to a desperate end—sickness, suicide, death by drowning, orphan and widow Clytie has grieved through it all. During a long night reminiscing in a remote French Chateau she resolves to throw out all this Foul Matter—like the old proofs of a finished book.
But there is still one mystery to solve—when she learns there is a chance that little Finn, her dead husband’s son, could have survived the sinking of his father’s boat Clytie seeks out lawyer and ex-lover Anthony to help her track him down.
Award-winning author Joan Aiken touches upon love and death with a thoughtfulness and courage that makes Foul Matter a romantic suspense novel like no other.
For accomplished writer and chef Clytie Churchill suffering and love come hand in hand. The life of each person she loves seems to come to a desperate end—sickness, suicide, death by drowning, orphan and widow Clytie has grieved through it all. During a long night reminiscing in a remote French Chateau she resolves to throw out all this Foul Matter—like the old proofs of a finished book.
But there is still one mystery to solve—when she learns there is a chance that little Finn, her dead husband’s son, could have survived the sinking of his father’s boat Clytie seeks out lawyer and ex-lover Anthony to help her track him down.
Award-winning author Joan Aiken touches upon love and death with a thoughtfulness and courage that makes Foul Matter a romantic suspense novel like no other.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1983
3 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Joan Aiken
333 books602 followersJoan Aiken was a much loved English writer who received the MBE for services to Children's Literature. She was known as a writer of wild fantasy, Gothic novels and short stories.
She was born in Rye, East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father, Conrad Aiken (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry), and her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge. She worked for the United Nations Information Office during the second world war, and then as an editor and freelance on Argosy magazine before she started writing full time, mainly children's books and thrillers. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972).
Her most popular series, the "Wolves Chronicles" which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was set in an elaborate alternate period of history in a Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution,and so supporters of the House of Hanover continually plot to overthrow the Stuart Kings. These books also feature cockney urchin heroine Dido Twite and her adventures and travels all over the world.
Another series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Others including the much loved Necklace of Raindrops and award winning Kingdom Under the Sea are illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski.
Her many novels for adults include several that continue or complement novels by Jane Austen. These include Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax.
Aiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories. She set her adult supernatural novel The Haunting of Lamb House at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. F. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories. Aiken's father, Conrad Aiken, also authored a small number of notable ghost stories.
She was born in Rye, East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father, Conrad Aiken (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry), and her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge. She worked for the United Nations Information Office during the second world war, and then as an editor and freelance on Argosy magazine before she started writing full time, mainly children's books and thrillers. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972).
Her most popular series, the "Wolves Chronicles" which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was set in an elaborate alternate period of history in a Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution,and so supporters of the House of Hanover continually plot to overthrow the Stuart Kings. These books also feature cockney urchin heroine Dido Twite and her adventures and travels all over the world.
Another series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Others including the much loved Necklace of Raindrops and award winning Kingdom Under the Sea are illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski.
Her many novels for adults include several that continue or complement novels by Jane Austen. These include Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax.
Aiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories. She set her adult supernatural novel The Haunting of Lamb House at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. F. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories. Aiken's father, Conrad Aiken, also authored a small number of notable ghost stories.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 30, 2009
Foul Matter is somewhat of a sequel to The Crystal Crow, as it deals with the life of one of that book's major characters years afterward, but it could easily be read on its own and I liked it much more. Clytie Churchill is a woman with a past, and when she starts receiving anonymous letters, it's clear that someone from her past hates her and is out to get her. Through a series of odd circumstances, she is imprisoned for a time in a French chateau with a sympathetic doctor, to whom she tells her life story, which is mainly the romantic history of her many love affairs and their often tragic endings. The anonymous letter plot does get resolved at the end, but really, it's much more a psychological novel than a thriller, just exploring Clytie's life and relationships, which are tangled and fascinating.
October 29, 2023
Creepy and unsettling - despite a prosaic, chatty, cheerful heroine. I'm sure there's a prequel to this I read a million years ago - what the hell is it? Aiken has a very unique, downright peculiar mind, judging by this novel.
ETA: I do like the remark about 'you can always feed people. At least there's that.', if I'm remembering it correctly.
ETA: I do like the remark about 'you can always feed people. At least there's that.', if I'm remembering it correctly.
December 31, 2013
One of my favourite books ever, certainly in my top 5, and I am not certain that I can tell you why... On one level, it's but a typical modern-damsel-in-distress quasi-potboiler... But dig a bit deeper and one finds a sweet and fulfilling complexity--engaging characterisations and a narrative voice which never fails to be life-affirming even in the midst of death and disaster, without ever descending to a banal "glad game" viewpoint.
I re-read this book at least once a year, and certainly whenever I've experienced a loss or (heaven forbid) a death... Because it leaves me changed, renewed...refreshed, somehow. And every time I read it, I thank Joan Aiken''s memory and wish I could have met her.
I re-read this book at least once a year, and certainly whenever I've experienced a loss or (heaven forbid) a death... Because it leaves me changed, renewed...refreshed, somehow. And every time I read it, I thank Joan Aiken''s memory and wish I could have met her.
June 20, 2008
The gothic mystery/thriller (if the bookcover has a woman in a white nightie in front of a brooding mansion it´s a gothic) is a subgenre which seems to have become almost extinct, it was huge in the 60s/70s. For that reason probably a lot of it trickled into the 90s to be around when I was just looking for books, books of any kind ( before fnac and internet, it was a whole different century) and I ended up reading enough of those to get an interest and appreciation for the genre.
Foul Matter was written and is set in the early 80s, probably when the genre was starting to become extinct ( maybe it was the bodice rippers coming up or the sagas), its main character seems taken from another novel. Browsing around the internet it seems that the main character Clytie Churchill, after vaguely explained name change was a character, Aulis in Aiken´s novel Crystal Crow. Aiken must obviously have liked writing about the character. The plot of Crystal Crow, as described in Foul Matter, sounds ridiculously over the top.
I am no good at writing reviews ( think of all my entries as notes), so I will get to the point, I found this to be really awful, but maybe so awful it is interesting ( if not quite good). It almost works to read it as satyre to the gothic genre, some of the details here would make for a brilliant sort of Cold Comfort Farm of the gothic genre. I am not sure how satirical the author meant it to be, on the hand the plot and details surely must be meant as a partial joke, on the other the characters and their rambling ones about poetry ( up to quoting the author´s father!) feel like they really are meant seriously. I could not take them seriously nor like them, they feel stuck in 70s literature ( I know, published in the 80s, but it feels like 70s literature, trust me), not quite like real people, so sure of themselves and of their broad-mindedness ( on sexual liberation as thought of in the 70s mainly) and their middle class intellectual status and so frozen and stiff. There is a twist to the story which adds to the feeling of satire but which I am not quite sure is meant seriously or not. It´s somewhat similar to what Ruth Rendell did (earlier and much much better) in Vanity Dies Hard.
It still makes me giggle to think of some plot details. Since I think details are not spoilers here goes: the ability to smell emotions, people dying of "losing the will to live" while supposedly having bad hearts and showing major cognitive disfunctions, the dogs and eccentric millionaires, trappist monks. The food, oh 70s food! It could have all been such brilliant satire, if only I was sure it was all meant like that.
Foul Matter was written and is set in the early 80s, probably when the genre was starting to become extinct ( maybe it was the bodice rippers coming up or the sagas), its main character seems taken from another novel. Browsing around the internet it seems that the main character Clytie Churchill, after vaguely explained name change was a character, Aulis in Aiken´s novel Crystal Crow. Aiken must obviously have liked writing about the character. The plot of Crystal Crow, as described in Foul Matter, sounds ridiculously over the top.
I am no good at writing reviews ( think of all my entries as notes), so I will get to the point, I found this to be really awful, but maybe so awful it is interesting ( if not quite good). It almost works to read it as satyre to the gothic genre, some of the details here would make for a brilliant sort of Cold Comfort Farm of the gothic genre. I am not sure how satirical the author meant it to be, on the hand the plot and details surely must be meant as a partial joke, on the other the characters and their rambling ones about poetry ( up to quoting the author´s father!) feel like they really are meant seriously. I could not take them seriously nor like them, they feel stuck in 70s literature ( I know, published in the 80s, but it feels like 70s literature, trust me), not quite like real people, so sure of themselves and of their broad-mindedness ( on sexual liberation as thought of in the 70s mainly) and their middle class intellectual status and so frozen and stiff. There is a twist to the story which adds to the feeling of satire but which I am not quite sure is meant seriously or not. It´s somewhat similar to what Ruth Rendell did (earlier and much much better) in Vanity Dies Hard.
It still makes me giggle to think of some plot details. Since I think details are not spoilers here goes: the ability to smell emotions, people dying of "losing the will to live" while supposedly having bad hearts and showing major cognitive disfunctions, the dogs and eccentric millionaires, trappist monks. The food, oh 70s food! It could have all been such brilliant satire, if only I was sure it was all meant like that.
September 11, 2008
I read this at Skyler's suggestion when my husband was knee deep in another woman. I ended the marriage not long after. At least the woman in this book wasn't married.
March 3, 2020
Clytie is a successful TV cook whose personal life is full of disaster. Thirteen years earlier, her husband, Dan, committed suicide on their wedding day, apparently taking Finn, his baby son from his first marriage, with him(his first wife, Ingrid, also committed suicide). Then something suddenly happens which convinces Clytie that Finn may still be alive. At this point I thought the book was going to be about Clytie’s search for Finn, but instead it is mostly about her reliving her extremely tedious and frankly bizarre personal life since Dan’s death. It looks as if things might get interesting when she is accidentally trapped in a French chateau belonging to an eccentric self made millionaire, but no, all we get is more tedious reminiscences of her rather sordid personal life, some of which is not only repulsive but frankly unbelievable. People she is fond of continue to die at an alarming rate, one person, mysteriously, because he has apparently lost the will to live(no medical intervention is thought necessary) . I did not like Clytie or any of the other characters in the book, and although I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened to Finn, I rather wish I hadn’t bothered.
March 21, 2019
Another well told tale with the central character flawed, but real and likeable. It definitely has elements of the gothic in it with one day marriages and suicide and homicidal mother in laws and lovers dying from "being tired of living".
However it moves along at a goodly pace, the settings are well realised and it does resolve the issues without being too traditional about it.
One odd thing thing: the line "he'd rather be dragged over the Alps with his tongue" is also said by the character Gideon in her novel Morningquest. Why the repeat I wonder?
However it moves along at a goodly pace, the settings are well realised and it does resolve the issues without being too traditional about it.
One odd thing thing: the line "he'd rather be dragged over the Alps with his tongue" is also said by the character Gideon in her novel Morningquest. Why the repeat I wonder?
August 28, 2023
This is the weirdest book that reads like a fever dream with one of the most unlikable main characters I've ever encountered and yet there were strange insights scattered throughout it, like "When you are lonely, recognition from a stranger can assume undue importance." Every time I finish one of Ms. Aiken's books I always feel dissatisfied, as though the ending were incomplete... yet I keep reading them hoping for a different outcome!
June 19, 2018
3.5 A fun introduction to adult fiction of Aiken's, as I loved Wolves of Willoughby Chase. I am not sure I need to read any further...
September 29, 2024
I did not finish this book; it just could not hold my attention. Weird, disturbing, but not interesting.
February 18, 2018
This was one of my all time favourite novels. I read it in the 70s and then reread it in 1985.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews