Dear Hill

by Gwyneth Jones

It was a little red hill, with a wood and a stream, behind the row of condemned houses where the O'Hare family lived. Children didn't go there much—except the O'Hares, who were teased and mocked because their father was dead and they were poor.

It was here Maureen and Brdiget and Danny found the bones under the tree, and Danny found the stone with a hole in it. It was here they built their hut, weaving willow twigs very skilfully through stakes, so that it was invisible to anyone who didn't know about it. Here Maureen tried to make cups by coiling clay from the stream, an activity that would have been familiar to the prehistoric woman she was drawing as part of a project at school.

When Mrs Thomas at the corner shop accused Bridget of a hideous crime, the girls plotted revenge. This was brilliantly successful—too much so, in fact—and Maureen began to think there was something wrong.

187 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Gwyneth Jones is a writer and critic of genre fiction. She's won the Tiptree award, two World Fantasy awards, the Arthur C. Clarke award, the British Science Fiction Association short story award, the Dracula Society's Children of the Night award, the P.K.Dick award, and the SFRA Pilgrim award for lifetime achievement in sf criticism. She also writes for teenagers, usually as Ann Halam. She lives in Brighton, UK, with her husband and two cats called Ginger and Milo; curating assorted pondlife in season. She's a member of the Soil Association, the Sussex Wildlife Trust, Frack Free Sussex and the Green Party; and an Amnesty International volunteer.