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The Very Dead of Winter
Book by Hocking, M.
- GenresLiterary FictionFiction
183 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
18 people want to read
About the author
Mary Hocking
32 books8 followersBorn in in London in 1921, Mary was educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls School, Acton. During the Second World War she served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens) attached to the Fleet Air Arm Meteorology branch and then briefly with the Signal Section in Plymouth.
Writing was in her blood. Juggling her work as a local government officer in Middlesex Education Department with writing, at first short stories for magazines and pieces for The Times Educational Supplement, she then had her first book, The Winter City, published in 1961.
The book was a success and enabled Mary to relinquish her full time occupation to devote her time to writing. Even so, when she came to her beloved Lewes in 1961, she still took a part-time appointment, as a secretary, with the East Sussex Educational Psychology department.
Long before family sagas had become cult viewing, she had embarked upon the ‘Fairley Family’ trilogy, Good Daughters, Indifferent Heroes, and Welcome Strangers, books which give her readers a faithful, realistic and uncompromising portrayal of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times, between the years of 1933 and 1946.
For many years she was an active member of the ‘Monday Lit’, a Lewes-based group which brought in current writers and poets to speak about their work. Equally, she was an enthusiastic supporter of Lewes Little Theatre, where she found her role as ‘prompter’ the most satisfying, and worshipped at the town’s St Pancras RC Church.
* Source
Writing was in her blood. Juggling her work as a local government officer in Middlesex Education Department with writing, at first short stories for magazines and pieces for The Times Educational Supplement, she then had her first book, The Winter City, published in 1961.
The book was a success and enabled Mary to relinquish her full time occupation to devote her time to writing. Even so, when she came to her beloved Lewes in 1961, she still took a part-time appointment, as a secretary, with the East Sussex Educational Psychology department.
Long before family sagas had become cult viewing, she had embarked upon the ‘Fairley Family’ trilogy, Good Daughters, Indifferent Heroes, and Welcome Strangers, books which give her readers a faithful, realistic and uncompromising portrayal of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times, between the years of 1933 and 1946.
For many years she was an active member of the ‘Monday Lit’, a Lewes-based group which brought in current writers and poets to speak about their work. Equally, she was an enthusiastic supporter of Lewes Little Theatre, where she found her role as ‘prompter’ the most satisfying, and worshipped at the town’s St Pancras RC Church.
* Source
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 19, 2015
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 16, 2013
Mary Hocking has been a rather delightful discovery this year – and The Very Dead of Winter is the fourth novel I have read. She is the kind of writer that will be appreciated by fans of Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Pym, although she isn’t exactly like either of them – there are traits however – her canvases are small, and her observations of people and family life acute.
“The beginning of the journey had been enchanting. Porcelain blue sky and the sparkling white canopy transformed dingy streets into fantasies of unimagined purity and, passing out of the town, they came to broad fields where sunlight reflected a trellis of branches like veins across the snow.”
With the countryside and surrounding woodland deep in snow, a fractured family gather for Christmas at a remote country cottage. The cottage is where sisters Sophia and Florence spent childhood holidays and was once owned by their grandmother. Sophia – who now owns the cottage has not seen Florence in years. Florence her dying husband Konrad and their adult children Nick and Anita gather at Sophia’s cottage for the season and to ease Konrad’s passing. While Florence is dominating and confrontational, Sophia used to living alone, is unorthodox, guarding secrets and managing to keep herself somewhat distanced from the turmoil around her. It is only Sophia who is able to face the face that Konrad will die in the next few days. Nick, a traveller and explorer – is already contemplating his next trip, while Anita ten years into a disfunctional relationship seems to delight in going into combat with her mother on a regular basis. Anita’s partner sets out to join the family for Christmas – but running into trouble he ends up injured and marooned in another local house. Upstairs, Konrad is watched over by each member of the family in turn, Konrad originally from Germany is a painter, his painting never tolerated by his wife, who had never enquired where it was he would disappear to when he needed to paint.
“Konrad lay concentrating on his breathing, which required an effort he was less and less inclined to make. He heard the two sisters talking but could not make much sense of what was said. He had always had difficulty piecing things together. Now, lying here in this firelit room, the past came before him vividly, but disjointed.
He had been sent to England in 1937 when he was six years old. He never saw his parents again. He lived in Houndsditch with an aunt and uncle who had not wanted him but had not had the courage to refuse him. The experience had permanently disoriented him and he had great difficulty making a mental map of his environment – one street did not lead to another but existed in isolation. He was always getting lost. When the war came and the bombers broke up the patterns of streets he was cheered by the experience of a shared chaos.”
People from the local woodland community are invited to a party on Christmas Eve – a party that is not a great success, included in the invitation are another fragile family. Thomas Challoner; grieving the death of his wife and son, his damaged young grandson Andrew and Francis – their self-imposed carer and sister to Andrew’s absent mother live in another cottage deep in the woods. Francis is immediately attracted to Nick, whose selfishness doesn’t stop him from telling her she is wasting her life caring for these people she has come to love.
As the snow continues to fall and Christmas comes, Konrad does indeed die –causing the family to face up to certain truths.
The very Dead of Winter is an atmospheric novel about family and different kinds of love. Mary Hocking writes with feeling and deftly explores the emotional upheavals of family life and the conflicts of the past.
This was the first of my Christmas reads – I will probably intersperse them with non-Christmassy books – and although this novel is set at Christmas – it doesn’t ram the season down your throat – making it a great read for anytime of the year. The title is wonderfully apt and adds perfectly to the atmosphere of the novel – and is probably why I saved it to read now – and I must admit to rather loving the cover art.
“The beginning of the journey had been enchanting. Porcelain blue sky and the sparkling white canopy transformed dingy streets into fantasies of unimagined purity and, passing out of the town, they came to broad fields where sunlight reflected a trellis of branches like veins across the snow.”
With the countryside and surrounding woodland deep in snow, a fractured family gather for Christmas at a remote country cottage. The cottage is where sisters Sophia and Florence spent childhood holidays and was once owned by their grandmother. Sophia – who now owns the cottage has not seen Florence in years. Florence her dying husband Konrad and their adult children Nick and Anita gather at Sophia’s cottage for the season and to ease Konrad’s passing. While Florence is dominating and confrontational, Sophia used to living alone, is unorthodox, guarding secrets and managing to keep herself somewhat distanced from the turmoil around her. It is only Sophia who is able to face the face that Konrad will die in the next few days. Nick, a traveller and explorer – is already contemplating his next trip, while Anita ten years into a disfunctional relationship seems to delight in going into combat with her mother on a regular basis. Anita’s partner sets out to join the family for Christmas – but running into trouble he ends up injured and marooned in another local house. Upstairs, Konrad is watched over by each member of the family in turn, Konrad originally from Germany is a painter, his painting never tolerated by his wife, who had never enquired where it was he would disappear to when he needed to paint.
“Konrad lay concentrating on his breathing, which required an effort he was less and less inclined to make. He heard the two sisters talking but could not make much sense of what was said. He had always had difficulty piecing things together. Now, lying here in this firelit room, the past came before him vividly, but disjointed.
He had been sent to England in 1937 when he was six years old. He never saw his parents again. He lived in Houndsditch with an aunt and uncle who had not wanted him but had not had the courage to refuse him. The experience had permanently disoriented him and he had great difficulty making a mental map of his environment – one street did not lead to another but existed in isolation. He was always getting lost. When the war came and the bombers broke up the patterns of streets he was cheered by the experience of a shared chaos.”
People from the local woodland community are invited to a party on Christmas Eve – a party that is not a great success, included in the invitation are another fragile family. Thomas Challoner; grieving the death of his wife and son, his damaged young grandson Andrew and Francis – their self-imposed carer and sister to Andrew’s absent mother live in another cottage deep in the woods. Francis is immediately attracted to Nick, whose selfishness doesn’t stop him from telling her she is wasting her life caring for these people she has come to love.
As the snow continues to fall and Christmas comes, Konrad does indeed die –causing the family to face up to certain truths.
The very Dead of Winter is an atmospheric novel about family and different kinds of love. Mary Hocking writes with feeling and deftly explores the emotional upheavals of family life and the conflicts of the past.
This was the first of my Christmas reads – I will probably intersperse them with non-Christmassy books – and although this novel is set at Christmas – it doesn’t ram the season down your throat – making it a great read for anytime of the year. The title is wonderfully apt and adds perfectly to the atmosphere of the novel – and is probably why I saved it to read now – and I must admit to rather loving the cover art.
July 23, 2016
Like many other bloggers and readers, I first discovered Mary Hocking through Ali’s sterling efforts in championing her work over the past couple of years. While she seems very much her own writer, Hocking shares something in common with some of her forerunners and contemporaries – fellow British authors such as Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Taylor (possibly Beryl Bainbridge too, although I’m still relatively new to her work). In The Very Dead of Winter, she demonstrates a keen eye for social situations, especially those which highlight the tensions and mismatches that often emerge in family life. There is so much black humour in this novel too, but I’ll come back to that point a little later in my review.
As the novel opens, Florence and her grown-up daughter, Anita, are driving to a fairly isolated country cottage where they will be joining the rest of their family to spend Christmas in the snow. The cottage has been in the family for several years and is now owned by Sophia, Florence’s sister – the two sisters have rarely spoken to one another in the last thirty years, a point that becomes quite significant as their story unfolds. Also present at the cottage are Florence’s husband, Konrad, and the couple’s son, Nicholas. Konrad has been ill for some time, and it is clear from the start of the novel that he has only a few days left to live.
Florence and Anita are both rather self-centred; they attack one another at every opportunity and give very little thought to Konrad as he lies in bed upstairs. Florence, a domineering and manipulative woman at the best of times, seems unable to face up to the fact that her husband is dying. All her life she has occupied a central position in the family – first as a daughter and then as a wife and mother. Now she is fearful of a future on the margins, the lonely existence of a widow cut adrift from the activity of life. Sophia, on the other hand, is very different to Florence; a more insightful and sensitive woman than her sister, Sophia is much more attuned to Konrad’s needs, tending to him as passes through the final phase of his life. As the story moves forward, old grudges, resentments and family secrets come tumbling out of the closet, all of which add to the tension within the cottage.
As she looked at her sister, Florence was aware of anger always simmering inside her, an anger which sometimes boiled up unaccountably. Ever since she could remember, Sophia had looked as if she had started late for an appointment the purpose of which she had already forgotten. It astonished Florence that despite this she had never actually come to grief. […]
And yet, they were not unalike. There were times, brief flashes rather than occasions, when Florence was aware that at some level they understood each other perfectly. This was not a comforting insight. (pg. 102)
To read the rest of my review, please visit my blog:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2016...
As the novel opens, Florence and her grown-up daughter, Anita, are driving to a fairly isolated country cottage where they will be joining the rest of their family to spend Christmas in the snow. The cottage has been in the family for several years and is now owned by Sophia, Florence’s sister – the two sisters have rarely spoken to one another in the last thirty years, a point that becomes quite significant as their story unfolds. Also present at the cottage are Florence’s husband, Konrad, and the couple’s son, Nicholas. Konrad has been ill for some time, and it is clear from the start of the novel that he has only a few days left to live.
Florence and Anita are both rather self-centred; they attack one another at every opportunity and give very little thought to Konrad as he lies in bed upstairs. Florence, a domineering and manipulative woman at the best of times, seems unable to face up to the fact that her husband is dying. All her life she has occupied a central position in the family – first as a daughter and then as a wife and mother. Now she is fearful of a future on the margins, the lonely existence of a widow cut adrift from the activity of life. Sophia, on the other hand, is very different to Florence; a more insightful and sensitive woman than her sister, Sophia is much more attuned to Konrad’s needs, tending to him as passes through the final phase of his life. As the story moves forward, old grudges, resentments and family secrets come tumbling out of the closet, all of which add to the tension within the cottage.
As she looked at her sister, Florence was aware of anger always simmering inside her, an anger which sometimes boiled up unaccountably. Ever since she could remember, Sophia had looked as if she had started late for an appointment the purpose of which she had already forgotten. It astonished Florence that despite this she had never actually come to grief. […]
And yet, they were not unalike. There were times, brief flashes rather than occasions, when Florence was aware that at some level they understood each other perfectly. This was not a comforting insight. (pg. 102)
To read the rest of my review, please visit my blog:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2016...
August 8, 2018
(a re-read; somehow I end up reading this nearly annually & yes, it is that good)
A very appropriate title for this book; The Very Dead of Winter. Konrad is dying. His wife Florence wants to take him and have their two children, Nicholas & Anita, meet them at her sister, Sophia's home deep in the wood. The house belonged to the sisters' grandmother before them and they almost always spent the holidays there with all of the family. Sophia has never married and lives there with her nearly feral cat and a few neighbors scattered throughout the wood.
They all drive the dangerously icy roads to Aunt Sophia's and arrive safely except for Anita's boyfriend who comes on alone and is in an accident & taken to the nearest house with several bad breaks in his body. We don't see nor hear too much of him. But we do get to meet most of the neighbors as they are invited in supposedly to cheer up the younger siblings. It doesn't work. They remain grumpy throughout most of the time there.
Konrad is put to bed upstairs and is medicated and sleeps or drowses most of the time but there is always someone sitting with him for they know he is not going to get well and will most likely not live to return home. Sophie sees this before the others.
During their time there, the family comes to see that Konrad and Sophia know each other much better than was assumed. He is a painter and Florence has not appreciated his paintings. She thinks them too dark. So he went away much of the time to do his painting. She never asked him where he went. But while at Sophia's, she & the children soon realize that this is where he went to do his painting and that he and Sophia are indeed close.
This is called a "haunting novel" but I did not find it so. Neither did I find it to be mysterious. There is a lot of emotional interacting within the players in the story and I think it a marvelous story. It just wasn't what I was anticipating. I find Mary Hocking to be a lovely writer. She never disappoints.
A very appropriate title for this book; The Very Dead of Winter. Konrad is dying. His wife Florence wants to take him and have their two children, Nicholas & Anita, meet them at her sister, Sophia's home deep in the wood. The house belonged to the sisters' grandmother before them and they almost always spent the holidays there with all of the family. Sophia has never married and lives there with her nearly feral cat and a few neighbors scattered throughout the wood.
They all drive the dangerously icy roads to Aunt Sophia's and arrive safely except for Anita's boyfriend who comes on alone and is in an accident & taken to the nearest house with several bad breaks in his body. We don't see nor hear too much of him. But we do get to meet most of the neighbors as they are invited in supposedly to cheer up the younger siblings. It doesn't work. They remain grumpy throughout most of the time there.
Konrad is put to bed upstairs and is medicated and sleeps or drowses most of the time but there is always someone sitting with him for they know he is not going to get well and will most likely not live to return home. Sophie sees this before the others.
During their time there, the family comes to see that Konrad and Sophia know each other much better than was assumed. He is a painter and Florence has not appreciated his paintings. She thinks them too dark. So he went away much of the time to do his painting. She never asked him where he went. But while at Sophia's, she & the children soon realize that this is where he went to do his painting and that he and Sophia are indeed close.
This is called a "haunting novel" but I did not find it so. Neither did I find it to be mysterious. There is a lot of emotional interacting within the players in the story and I think it a marvelous story. It just wasn't what I was anticipating. I find Mary Hocking to be a lovely writer. She never disappoints.
November 14, 2013
This was my first Virago novel and first Mary Hocking. I enjoyed it. I think she did a great job of highlighting all the little nuances of each relationship within the family as well as a neighboring family that plays into the story. I was especially interested in the relationship between Florence and her daughter, Anita. They seemed to have a relationship similar to mine and my mother's. It gave me a little insight into where she might be coming from.
I liked the setting, a cottage in the wood with a terrible blizzard going on. Anita's boyfriend, Terence, gets stranded on his way and ends up in an odd accident. Anita and her mother find a half frozen pony in the wood and bring it home. All the neighbors come for a Christmas Eve party. Nicholas is finding himself attracted to the neighbor girl. And all the while Konrad is upstairs dying. In this short span of time so many things are happening and so many things are being realized. They will all leave the cottage changed people, for better or worse.
I liked the setting, a cottage in the wood with a terrible blizzard going on. Anita's boyfriend, Terence, gets stranded on his way and ends up in an odd accident. Anita and her mother find a half frozen pony in the wood and bring it home. All the neighbors come for a Christmas Eve party. Nicholas is finding himself attracted to the neighbor girl. And all the while Konrad is upstairs dying. In this short span of time so many things are happening and so many things are being realized. They will all leave the cottage changed people, for better or worse.
December 26, 2015
When I fist read this, can"t remember when I was obviously under the spell of Mary Hocking's seductive prose, returning to it in the days just before Christmas I found it tarnished and rather clumsy playing as it does with a rag bag of fairytale allusions in a snowy cottage on the edge of a forest where family gather to witness the quiet death of a husband and father. As two sisters confront their demons, the younger generation find love and freedom in fairytale like rituals which include the sacrifice of hair and the seduction by a wood nymph. Strange or is it sad how one"s tastes are transformed
August 22, 2023
One of the worst books I have read all year.
I liked the only other book I have read by her, ‘Good Daughters’ (3.5 stars) which is the first book of a trilogy. Maybe I should stick to reading the other two books of the trilogy, ‘Indifferent Heroes’ and ‘Welcome Stranger’.
Synopsis from back cover of my Virago Modern Classics re-issue:
• In this haunting novel, echoing mystery play and fairy tale, a family is forced to confront the grievances and emotional confusions of their shared past. In the very dead of winter they assemble at a remote country cottage enveloped by snow. Ostensibly they are celebrating Christmas, but festivities are marred by the presence of Konrad, who is dying. Florence, his manipulative wife, views Konrad’s imminent death with annoyance; their two grown-up children bear the scars of their imperfect union. At the heart of the novel is Sophia, Florence’s unorthodox sister and their host, who seems to stand aside from family combat, yet guards a secret that has relevance for them all. Here, with characteristic insight and compassion, Mary Hocking unravels different kinds of love and need.
Reviews (they all liked it; I’m glad it did something for them...):
• https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2016...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2013/...
• https://beautyisasleepingcat.com/2014...
I liked the only other book I have read by her, ‘Good Daughters’ (3.5 stars) which is the first book of a trilogy. Maybe I should stick to reading the other two books of the trilogy, ‘Indifferent Heroes’ and ‘Welcome Stranger’.
Synopsis from back cover of my Virago Modern Classics re-issue:
• In this haunting novel, echoing mystery play and fairy tale, a family is forced to confront the grievances and emotional confusions of their shared past. In the very dead of winter they assemble at a remote country cottage enveloped by snow. Ostensibly they are celebrating Christmas, but festivities are marred by the presence of Konrad, who is dying. Florence, his manipulative wife, views Konrad’s imminent death with annoyance; their two grown-up children bear the scars of their imperfect union. At the heart of the novel is Sophia, Florence’s unorthodox sister and their host, who seems to stand aside from family combat, yet guards a secret that has relevance for them all. Here, with characteristic insight and compassion, Mary Hocking unravels different kinds of love and need.
Reviews (they all liked it; I’m glad it did something for them...):
• https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2016...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2013/...
• https://beautyisasleepingcat.com/2014...
September 3, 2025
There is a lot of trudging through snow in this book. The author does an excellent job of making the reader feel like they are doing the same.
February 23, 2017
The Very Dead of Winter by Mary Hocking; (4*); Virago fiction; hardcopy; (for my personal challenge: A Year of Elizabeth Goudge & Mary Hocking;
A very appropriate title for this book; The Very Dead of Winter. Konrad is dying. His wife Florence wants to take him and have their two children, Nicholas & Anita, meet them at her sister, Sophia's home deep in the wood. The house belonged to the sisters' grandmother before them and they almost always spent the holidays there with all of the family. Sophia has never married and lives there with her nearly feral cat and a few neighbors scattered throughout the wood.
They all drive the dangerously icy roads to Aunt Sophia's and arrive safely except for Anita's boyfriend who comes on alone and is in an accident & taken to the nearest house with several bad breaks in his body. We don't see nor hear too much of him. But we do get to meet most of the neighbors as they are invited in supposedly to cheer up the younger siblings. It doesn't work. They remain grumpy throughout most of the time there.
Konrad is put to bed upstairs and is medicated and sleeps or drowses most of the time but there is always someone sitting with him for they know he is not going to get well and will most likely not live to return home. Sophie sees this before the others.
During their time there, the family comes to see that Konrad and Sophia know each other much better than was assumed. He is a painter and Florence has not appreciated his paintings. She thinks them too dark. So he went away much of the time to do his painting. She never asked him where he went. But while at Sophia's, she & the children soon realize that this is where he went to do his painting and that he and Sophia are indeed close.
This is called a "haunting novel" but I did not find it so. Neither did I find it to be mysterious. There is a lot of emotional interacting within the players in the story and I think it a marvelous story. It just wasn't what I was anticipating. I find Mary Hocking to be a lovely writer. She never disappoints.
A very appropriate title for this book; The Very Dead of Winter. Konrad is dying. His wife Florence wants to take him and have their two children, Nicholas & Anita, meet them at her sister, Sophia's home deep in the wood. The house belonged to the sisters' grandmother before them and they almost always spent the holidays there with all of the family. Sophia has never married and lives there with her nearly feral cat and a few neighbors scattered throughout the wood.
They all drive the dangerously icy roads to Aunt Sophia's and arrive safely except for Anita's boyfriend who comes on alone and is in an accident & taken to the nearest house with several bad breaks in his body. We don't see nor hear too much of him. But we do get to meet most of the neighbors as they are invited in supposedly to cheer up the younger siblings. It doesn't work. They remain grumpy throughout most of the time there.
Konrad is put to bed upstairs and is medicated and sleeps or drowses most of the time but there is always someone sitting with him for they know he is not going to get well and will most likely not live to return home. Sophie sees this before the others.
During their time there, the family comes to see that Konrad and Sophia know each other much better than was assumed. He is a painter and Florence has not appreciated his paintings. She thinks them too dark. So he went away much of the time to do his painting. She never asked him where he went. But while at Sophia's, she & the children soon realize that this is where he went to do his painting and that he and Sophia are indeed close.
This is called a "haunting novel" but I did not find it so. Neither did I find it to be mysterious. There is a lot of emotional interacting within the players in the story and I think it a marvelous story. It just wasn't what I was anticipating. I find Mary Hocking to be a lovely writer. She never disappoints.
June 5, 2011
Will do so shortly as it is not that easy to simplify x
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews