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Cold Harbour
Dr. Ronald Wake and his wife, Evelyn, have been though a horrifying personal experience, that has made a holiday in Italy necessary. There, under the serene Neopolitan sky, they relate the experience that has driven them to Italy seeking quiet and peace. Cold Harbour is horrible in its note of terror because it never strains credulity. The diabolical Humphrey Furnival, with his frustrated life and excessive energy, turned for outlet to abnormal practices, is quite within belief. Visible malice, invisable horrors, and goose-flesh are all in "Cold Harbour." It is a technical tour de force and, what is more, a good story.
210 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1925
2 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
About the author
Francis Brett Young
130 books21 followersFrancis Brett Young was born in 1884 at Hales Owen, Worcestershire, the eldest son of Dr Thomas Brett Young.
Educated at Iona Cottage High School, Sutton Coldfield and Epsom College, Francis read Medicine at Birmingham University before entering general practice at Brixham in 1907. The following year he married Jessie Hankinson whom he had met during his medical studies. She was a singer of some repute, having appeared as a soloist in Henry Wood's Promenade Concerts.
Francis based one of his earliest novels Deep Sea (1914) in Brixham but was soon to be caught up in the Great War. He served in the R.A.M.C. in East Africa, experiences recorded in Marching on Tanga.
After the war Francis and Jessie went to live in Capri where a number of novels with African as well as English backgrounds were produced. Popular success came in 1927 when Francis was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Portrait of Clare.
The Brett Youngs returned to England in 1929, staying for a while in the Lake District before settling at Craycombe House in Worcestershire in 1932. During this period Francis was at the height of his fame and his annually produced novels were eagerly awaited.
During the Second World War Francis laboured on his long poem covering the spread of English history from prehistoric times. Entitled The Island, it was published in 1944 and regarded by Francis as his greatest achievement.
Following a breakdown in his health Francis and Jessie moved to South Africa where he died in 1954. His ashes were brought back to this country and interred in Worcester Cathedral.
Educated at Iona Cottage High School, Sutton Coldfield and Epsom College, Francis read Medicine at Birmingham University before entering general practice at Brixham in 1907. The following year he married Jessie Hankinson whom he had met during his medical studies. She was a singer of some repute, having appeared as a soloist in Henry Wood's Promenade Concerts.
Francis based one of his earliest novels Deep Sea (1914) in Brixham but was soon to be caught up in the Great War. He served in the R.A.M.C. in East Africa, experiences recorded in Marching on Tanga.
After the war Francis and Jessie went to live in Capri where a number of novels with African as well as English backgrounds were produced. Popular success came in 1927 when Francis was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Portrait of Clare.
The Brett Youngs returned to England in 1929, staying for a while in the Lake District before settling at Craycombe House in Worcestershire in 1932. During this period Francis was at the height of his fame and his annually produced novels were eagerly awaited.
During the Second World War Francis laboured on his long poem covering the spread of English history from prehistoric times. Entitled The Island, it was published in 1944 and regarded by Francis as his greatest achievement.
Following a breakdown in his health Francis and Jessie moved to South Africa where he died in 1954. His ashes were brought back to this country and interred in Worcester Cathedral.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 11, 2010
COLD HARBOUR, written in 1924 by accomplished author Francis Brett Young, has an interesting structure in which a tale is told in Italy by a vactioning couple, just a few weeks after the events occur, and told in tandem since each only experienced part. This dynamic creates some interesting frission as far as revelation of character goes and overall the writing is very strong, especially in balancing dialogue and description. COLD HARBOR is primarily the story of an arrogant, profane, intellectually aggresive genius, one Humphrey Furnival, and an evening spent in his and his wife's company by a young couple, Ronald & Evelyn Wake. Furnival, a sharply drawn (rationalist medievalist) character, refuses to believe his wife and family's assertion that his archaic house, Cold Harbor (which is a notorious "bad place" that stands on the ruins of an ancient Roman Villa in the Black Country of industrialized England) is haunted (he experiences nothing out of the ordinary). And yet the place seems to be driving Mrs. Furnival mad and may have destroyed the lives of their children. The Wakes deliver their every impression of the evening to their friends, including a writer and priest, and then ask for their opinions of the matter before revealing its resolution. That resolution may strike some as anti-climactic (H.P. Lovecraft certainly thought so, loving everything else about the book) but I found it a powerful examination of the nature and extent of evil and the plotting really ratchets up the tension in the last few chapters as the Wakes move to prevent a tragedy. To say more would be a crime, but there are mysterious events and ghostly happening a plenty, mostly told in flashback, to entertain. Also, the descriptions of the countryside, especially the industry-blighted, pollution-scarred site of the house, are very powerful.
COLD HARBOUR may be worth an extra look for those who enjoy a good, gothic, strongly-woven tale.
COLD HARBOUR may be worth an extra look for those who enjoy a good, gothic, strongly-woven tale.
September 19, 2012
As I explored the novels of Francis Brett Young I found something I hadn’t expected at all. A story of a haunted house.
“Cold Harbour had once been a dower house of the Pomfrets, the family that once owned Mawne Hall. Before Mr Furnival came there fifteen years ago and spent a fortune on it Cold Harbour had been empty for years on end. They did say, of course, that the place was haunted; but folk always made up stories of that kind when a place was left empty for so long …”
But the story began a long way from that house, in a small hotel on the Mediterranean. The proprietor was expecting visitors from England: his old friend, Dr Ronald Wake, and his new wife, Evelyn.
They arrive safely and, once they have settled on the hotel terrace, they begin to tell their extraordinary story, husband and wife taking it in turns as they recount their experiences at Cold Harbour.
Their car had broken down on a quiet country road, and they sought shelter in a quiet inn. The landlady was talkative, eager to tell them much of the big house and the people who lived there. As they finally settled in their room they heard a visitor arrive, and they heard their landlady’s voice change. They realised that the visitor was Mr Furnival and, though after everything they had been told they had no wish to meet him, somehow he drew Evelyn towards him. She found it impossible not to accept his invitation to visit his home.
Their approach to Cold Harbour and their entry into the house allows Francis Brett Young free rein to exercise his descriptive powers and his ability to create an atmosphere.
“And then, suddenly, Cold Harbour. Although we were prepared for it, it took our breath away. There were only three buildings: the church, with the parsonage and the manor house on either side of it. They stood huddled together, as if for protection, on the brow of the hill, which fell away from them into the basin beneath; and about them, as though to perpetuate the reason of the hamlet’s name, ran a belt of magnificent beeches. All through the Cotswolds, on our drive westward, the beeches had shone like pyramids of flame. On those that surrounded Cold Harbour, not three days later, there was not a leaf left. The beeches in Cotswold had trunks that showed a sheen of steel and platinum; the trunks of Cold Harbour beeches were black and dull as soot. They stood up stark naked and motionless, as though they were dead, a complete circle, dipping over the brim of the ridge like a fairy ring; and as we passed within their circumference it seemed as though we were stepping out of this world and into another of ghostly silence. A fancy, of course. As a matter of fact, the deep felting of beech-mast and leaf-falls muffled our footfalls …”
And as they step inside the house his understanding of character and psychology comes into play.
Mrs Furnival, an invalid is eager to talk, and she tells Evelyn of events that her husband has attributed to a poltergeist. Small things that she seemed to accept, and yet she had urged her children to move away, had seen visitors flee …
And Mr Furnival was eager to show Ronald his house, his artefacts, his library of books about history, witchcraft, madness …
Ronald was drawn in by his host’s personality, and then he is repelled.
“… I lost consciousness of every blessed thing but an overpowering and murderous desire to destroy Furnival as he stood there,in front of the fireplace, toasting his calves. Before that I’d been puzzled by him; if I’d disliked him the dislike had been quite indefinite, but now my whole brain seemed to be swept up into a positive conflagration of hate …”
At that point the Wakes asked the company what they thought might explain what they had experienced. There had been interjections and explanations all along, as the narrative shifted between Dr and Mrs Wake. A discussion of witchcraft, theology, the paranormal, then began.
I’m really not sure if that worked or not. On one hand it made this book very different to any other haunted house story I have ever read, and it made me step back and think. But on the other hand it interrupted the flow of the story, and that, together with the knowledge that Dr and Mrs Wake had come through everything they had experienced, reduced the tension a little.
And after the symposium the Wakes had more to tell, and the story moved slowly towards a dramatic conclusion.
Those latter chapters were not as strong as the earlier part of the book. There the author had been able to use his skill at creating characters That was a story of people and places that played to his strengths.
The Wakes were an utterly believable couple. And the Furnivals were extraordinary creations: a woman on the brink of mental collapse and a man to chill the blood.
When the focus was on the characters this was a haunted house story as powerful as any, but when the focus moved elsewhere something was lost.
I suspect that what Francis Brett Young was trying to do - both tell a compelling story and step back and analyse that story – was nigh impossible. He didn’t quite pull it off.
But this is still a compelling, gothic tale; an utterly readable book with an unusual balance of atmosphere, intelligence and readability.
“Cold Harbour had once been a dower house of the Pomfrets, the family that once owned Mawne Hall. Before Mr Furnival came there fifteen years ago and spent a fortune on it Cold Harbour had been empty for years on end. They did say, of course, that the place was haunted; but folk always made up stories of that kind when a place was left empty for so long …”
But the story began a long way from that house, in a small hotel on the Mediterranean. The proprietor was expecting visitors from England: his old friend, Dr Ronald Wake, and his new wife, Evelyn.
They arrive safely and, once they have settled on the hotel terrace, they begin to tell their extraordinary story, husband and wife taking it in turns as they recount their experiences at Cold Harbour.
Their car had broken down on a quiet country road, and they sought shelter in a quiet inn. The landlady was talkative, eager to tell them much of the big house and the people who lived there. As they finally settled in their room they heard a visitor arrive, and they heard their landlady’s voice change. They realised that the visitor was Mr Furnival and, though after everything they had been told they had no wish to meet him, somehow he drew Evelyn towards him. She found it impossible not to accept his invitation to visit his home.
Their approach to Cold Harbour and their entry into the house allows Francis Brett Young free rein to exercise his descriptive powers and his ability to create an atmosphere.
“And then, suddenly, Cold Harbour. Although we were prepared for it, it took our breath away. There were only three buildings: the church, with the parsonage and the manor house on either side of it. They stood huddled together, as if for protection, on the brow of the hill, which fell away from them into the basin beneath; and about them, as though to perpetuate the reason of the hamlet’s name, ran a belt of magnificent beeches. All through the Cotswolds, on our drive westward, the beeches had shone like pyramids of flame. On those that surrounded Cold Harbour, not three days later, there was not a leaf left. The beeches in Cotswold had trunks that showed a sheen of steel and platinum; the trunks of Cold Harbour beeches were black and dull as soot. They stood up stark naked and motionless, as though they were dead, a complete circle, dipping over the brim of the ridge like a fairy ring; and as we passed within their circumference it seemed as though we were stepping out of this world and into another of ghostly silence. A fancy, of course. As a matter of fact, the deep felting of beech-mast and leaf-falls muffled our footfalls …”
And as they step inside the house his understanding of character and psychology comes into play.
Mrs Furnival, an invalid is eager to talk, and she tells Evelyn of events that her husband has attributed to a poltergeist. Small things that she seemed to accept, and yet she had urged her children to move away, had seen visitors flee …
And Mr Furnival was eager to show Ronald his house, his artefacts, his library of books about history, witchcraft, madness …
Ronald was drawn in by his host’s personality, and then he is repelled.
“… I lost consciousness of every blessed thing but an overpowering and murderous desire to destroy Furnival as he stood there,in front of the fireplace, toasting his calves. Before that I’d been puzzled by him; if I’d disliked him the dislike had been quite indefinite, but now my whole brain seemed to be swept up into a positive conflagration of hate …”
At that point the Wakes asked the company what they thought might explain what they had experienced. There had been interjections and explanations all along, as the narrative shifted between Dr and Mrs Wake. A discussion of witchcraft, theology, the paranormal, then began.
I’m really not sure if that worked or not. On one hand it made this book very different to any other haunted house story I have ever read, and it made me step back and think. But on the other hand it interrupted the flow of the story, and that, together with the knowledge that Dr and Mrs Wake had come through everything they had experienced, reduced the tension a little.
And after the symposium the Wakes had more to tell, and the story moved slowly towards a dramatic conclusion.
Those latter chapters were not as strong as the earlier part of the book. There the author had been able to use his skill at creating characters That was a story of people and places that played to his strengths.
The Wakes were an utterly believable couple. And the Furnivals were extraordinary creations: a woman on the brink of mental collapse and a man to chill the blood.
When the focus was on the characters this was a haunted house story as powerful as any, but when the focus moved elsewhere something was lost.
I suspect that what Francis Brett Young was trying to do - both tell a compelling story and step back and analyse that story – was nigh impossible. He didn’t quite pull it off.
But this is still a compelling, gothic tale; an utterly readable book with an unusual balance of atmosphere, intelligence and readability.
January 26, 2018
Francis Brett Young (1884~1954) was born in Halesowen (historically in Worcestershire, now in the West Midlands), the eldest son of Dr. Thomas Brett Young. He was educated at Iona Cottage High School, a small private school in Sutton Coldfield, and then Epsom College in Surrey, where he edited the Epsomian school magazine and won the Rosebery Prize for English Literature. He studied medicine at the University of Birmingham and went on to become a general practitioner in Brixham in 1907, but continued writing whilst working as a doctor. He achieved popular success in 1927, when he was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Portrait of Clare, and he was at the height of his fame during the 1930s. Brett Young wrote thirty novels, four short story collections, and three volumes of poetry. These days, however, he is all but forgotten by most readers.
Cold Harbour was published by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1924. The novel begins on the island of Capri, where a party of four is enjoying an evening on the terrace after dinner. There is the unnamed narrator, his old college friend Ronald Wake, who he hasn't seen for a long time, Ronald's wife Evelyn, and the clergyman Harley. As the topic of conversation turns to the existence of evil, the Wakes appear to be troubled by something and are encouraged to tell their story. The tale that follows is told in part by Ronald Wake, and in part by his wife, with the thread passing back and forth from one to the other as the story progresses.
A fortnight earlier, having been caught in a downpour on the way back home, with a flat tyre to boot, the Wakes stop at an inn for the night. Whilst there, Evelyn meets the strange Mr Humphrey Furnival, who invites her and her husband to his home, Cold Harbour, to view his manuscripts and Roman artefacts. And so they visit the following afternoon, but Ronald takes an instant dislike to both Mr Furnival and his house.
'There it stood, with its dark, grimy brick, a steely light reflected from its windows. It seemed to rise up in front of us monstrously, malignantly, as though it hated us. And God knows I hated it too. If this place were mine, I thought, I'd never rest till I'd got rid of it.'
Click here to read the rest of the review...
Cold Harbour was published by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1924. The novel begins on the island of Capri, where a party of four is enjoying an evening on the terrace after dinner. There is the unnamed narrator, his old college friend Ronald Wake, who he hasn't seen for a long time, Ronald's wife Evelyn, and the clergyman Harley. As the topic of conversation turns to the existence of evil, the Wakes appear to be troubled by something and are encouraged to tell their story. The tale that follows is told in part by Ronald Wake, and in part by his wife, with the thread passing back and forth from one to the other as the story progresses.
A fortnight earlier, having been caught in a downpour on the way back home, with a flat tyre to boot, the Wakes stop at an inn for the night. Whilst there, Evelyn meets the strange Mr Humphrey Furnival, who invites her and her husband to his home, Cold Harbour, to view his manuscripts and Roman artefacts. And so they visit the following afternoon, but Ronald takes an instant dislike to both Mr Furnival and his house.
'There it stood, with its dark, grimy brick, a steely light reflected from its windows. It seemed to rise up in front of us monstrously, malignantly, as though it hated us. And God knows I hated it too. If this place were mine, I thought, I'd never rest till I'd got rid of it.'
Click here to read the rest of the review...
August 5, 2025
Having been born and brought up in the same Black Country town as Francis Brett Young, I'm ashamed to admit that it's taken me a very long time to start reading his novels.
The first pleasure of this novel is recognising the disguised local places in it and being able to visualise them. Brett Young writes most evocatively about the Black Country environment of forges and furnaces: a place where the sky is "black by day and red by night." The second is that this is a genuinely rattling good story in which the reader is introduced to the mansion of Cold Harbour, built upon land that has many layers showing its past, ancient inhabitants. It also introduces us to Humphrey Furnival, a palpable villain, and his meek wife Jane.
No less an authority on the eerie than H.P. Lovecraft admired this story, and you can see why, with its sense of a dark, immeasurably ancient evil permeating the land upon which Cold Harbour is built. Told mostly through conversation, the book is very atmospheric, and I look forward to reading more of Brett Young's work.
The first pleasure of this novel is recognising the disguised local places in it and being able to visualise them. Brett Young writes most evocatively about the Black Country environment of forges and furnaces: a place where the sky is "black by day and red by night." The second is that this is a genuinely rattling good story in which the reader is introduced to the mansion of Cold Harbour, built upon land that has many layers showing its past, ancient inhabitants. It also introduces us to Humphrey Furnival, a palpable villain, and his meek wife Jane.
No less an authority on the eerie than H.P. Lovecraft admired this story, and you can see why, with its sense of a dark, immeasurably ancient evil permeating the land upon which Cold Harbour is built. Told mostly through conversation, the book is very atmospheric, and I look forward to reading more of Brett Young's work.
November 12, 2020
Horror from the 1920s which initially appears to be of the haunted house type, and turns out to be something not quite that. (I hesitate to say what because of spoilers, but suffice to say something dodgy is afoot.) It's not actually that long, less than 300 pages, but it's taken me ages to get through it. And the thing is I've been enjoying it, but every time I pick it up I want to go to sleep. In fairness to Young, I don't think it's him... I just don't have the concentration for reading this week, and this is more of a cerebral horror. Which is to say very little happens - or it least it happens at a remove, because all the action is in the past and this is a group of friends, on holiday, each telling parts of the story to the others in an attempt to figure out what's actually happened. And it's nicely written, if rather patronising in places (product of the times, I suspect) but it's only mildly creepy, and it's hampered by an end that's both abrupt and honestly pretty clumsy.
Interesting more for its place in the history of the genre - I haven't reach much from this period - than it is for itself. I'll keep the old second hand copy I have, though, as I suspect I'll reread it again one day when I've got more brain space for it and am in the mood for some really low key horror.
Interesting more for its place in the history of the genre - I haven't reach much from this period - than it is for itself. I'll keep the old second hand copy I have, though, as I suspect I'll reread it again one day when I've got more brain space for it and am in the mood for some really low key horror.
January 4, 2026
Bien entrado en la lectura de esta novela de fantasmas, tenía la impresión de que le faltaba chicha. Los supuestos fenómenos paranormales no eran tan terribles y las reacciones de los protagonistas me parecían exageradas, propias de su época.
Sin embargo, la lectura tenía también ese encanto clásico imposible de reproducir en la actualidad, y el desenlace me ha gustado mucho. En la novela tenemos el testimonio de una pareja, pero el personaje que destaca es el propietario de la mansión, enigmático e inquietante.
He leído "Cold Harbour" en la Colección Única de Críptica editorial, en un tomo de lujo con ilustraciones a color y un montón de detalles. Ahora será difícil de encontrar, pero si lo consigues y quieres una historia sobrenatural ligera, bien construida y sin exceso de terror, léetelo.
Sin embargo, la lectura tenía también ese encanto clásico imposible de reproducir en la actualidad, y el desenlace me ha gustado mucho. En la novela tenemos el testimonio de una pareja, pero el personaje que destaca es el propietario de la mansión, enigmático e inquietante.
He leído "Cold Harbour" en la Colección Única de Críptica editorial, en un tomo de lujo con ilustraciones a color y un montón de detalles. Ahora será difícil de encontrar, pero si lo consigues y quieres una historia sobrenatural ligera, bien construida y sin exceso de terror, léetelo.
December 29, 2025
Si me quedo con un libro que haya publicado este 2025 es este. Ha sido un inmenso placer trabajar en él y rescatar el texto para su lectura en español.
Si Lovecraft dijo «es una novela casi perfecta», no voy a venir yo a decir menos. Terror, tensión, suspense… Y lo que más me ha gustado que es coral, entonces la información la vas completando en tu cabeza según te la cuenta determinado personaje. Porque puede ser solo percepción de uno o sugestión de la otra, pero cuando juntas todo el puzle… Por compararlo con algo más moderno, no puedo evitar encontrarle parecido a El resplandor. Y ese final... 5 de 5.
Si Lovecraft dijo «es una novela casi perfecta», no voy a venir yo a decir menos. Terror, tensión, suspense… Y lo que más me ha gustado que es coral, entonces la información la vas completando en tu cabeza según te la cuenta determinado personaje. Porque puede ser solo percepción de uno o sugestión de la otra, pero cuando juntas todo el puzle… Por compararlo con algo más moderno, no puedo evitar encontrarle parecido a El resplandor. Y ese final... 5 de 5.
June 2, 2022
Two and a half stars: This was an "okay" book, certainly not the spine-tingling ghost story it was purported to be. Nothing much happens for pages and pages as a husband and wife relate their brief time in Cold Harbour (less than three hours) and how the atmosphere and their host affected their psyches. I skimmed some at the end as the tale went over territory already explored, but kept at it because some of the author's turns of phrase were clever. One of those unbelievable coincidences near the end mars it, though.
Want to read
November 11, 2024"[...] Cold Harbour, by Francis Brett Young, in which an ancient house of strange malignancy is powerfully delineated. The mocking and well-nigh omnipotent fiend Humphrey Furnival holds echoes of the Manfred-Montoni type of early Gothic "villain", but is redeemed from triteness by many clever individualities. Only the slight diffuseness of explanation at the close, and the somewhat too free use of divination as a plot factor, keep this tale from approaching absolute perfection." -HPL, Supernatural Horror in Literature
June 30, 2009
This is certainly very different from the other FBY books I have read. But I was anxious to read it for that reason. It reads like so many old fashioned gothic type stories of the past - and is therfore hard to put down, and very readable. Like other stories of this type, however you need to read it for what it is - and not take it too seriously. The novel opens with Evelyn and Ronald Wake sitting down on a terrace in Italy one evening, in the company of an unnamed author and clergyman. From here they tell their incredible story. Their listeners chip in from time to time with various theories of a theological or acedemic nature in a bid to understand exactly what did happen in Cold Harbour. A good read all in all, but it makes me wonder why FBY suddenly wrote such a different type of book. I may need to look back at the book I recently read about FBY to see if their are any clues - but I don't remember anything being mentioned about this departure from the norm.
July 16, 2016
I didn't enjoy this quite as much as I expected to. It was the third FBY book I've read and as he is so good at place and atmosphere, I expected a brilliant, creepy ghost story. But this book didn't quite work for me, I think because the tale is never told at first hand: you hear the story from the couple who are visiting friends in Italy and telling their hosts all about it. But they don't experience any ghostly happening themselves - they in turn relate accounts from other people. Mostly it is the hard done by mistress of the household who has suffered and recounts her experiences to her visitor. Even much of her story concerns things that have happened to other visitors and to her children. So every account is 3rd or 4th hand. I found this all rather distancing.
September 29, 2015
A couple tell friends of a recent trip to a place called Cold Harbour, a lonely house they stumbled across after stopping at a pub for the night.
The owner invites the couple over, but what is going on in the house, a story that seems quite benign and gradually becomes darker.
The owner invites the couple over, but what is going on in the house, a story that seems quite benign and gradually becomes darker.
December 22, 2017
Huh. My review is gone. Well, I'll leave this image as a placeholder.
Barren landscape, creepy dude, statuettes.
Barren landscape, creepy dude, statuettes.
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