Susan HillThe Service Of Clouds

As with the pretty basket of trims and ribbons used by Flora in her hat making phase, the indefatigable, magpie like brain of Susan Hill has gathered up all kinds of sparkly delights in this reflective, time mingling, saga. We have just a handful of folk here to get to know but, oh, in such a rich, deep way. My favourite kind of book; not too many people!Making the intriguing and instantly truthful point that sometimes houses mean more than people, Susan Hill touches a nerve. "They shelter us" and we fall in love with them. All our lives we can roam old homes in our minds, revisiting long lost stairways, attic rooms, gardens and treasured spaces. Regrets for left behind places, and wistfulness for the old lives carried on therein, are the most poignant of emotional strings to tug at. Can they mean more to us than the cast of our lives? How much would we bargain away to stay in them? That for me was the delicious point of `The Service of Clouds'.Serious, clever, lively Flora, we meet at all her ages; busy being moved forever on by art, stories and colour. Yearning for more than her prescribed little life; falling in love with a passion, beginning with a painting, then a house, then a man and finally her only child. Although at first it seems we are to get to know her son Hugh, the good doctor we meet in middle age with retirement pressing ever nearer, it is the remarkable figure of Flora who emerges into the spotlight.Hugh has a desire to be with the soon to die. He indulges his personal need to the benefit of his patients and himself. Such good company in one's last hours is to be wished for. All this generosity of spirit of course has a reason and that is the building point of the story.I absolutely loved this and will read it again, recommend it and lend it. A quite unusual work that once again demonstrates the tremendous versatility of Susan Hill, a writer I am so grateful to have got to know.

Susan Hill is my favourite writer, but I do feel the melancholy in this one. She constructs poetic prose like no other modern day author I've read, but this one I found drawn out, and it's hard to recall the story within days of having finished.

Not quite as clean as i hoped but prompt and acceptable.

Collecting some of Susan Hill's book to read during the winter months. So far I have a good collection and look forward to snuggling down when the wind is howling and the rain lashing down.

Book arrived perfectly packaged. no problems! Glad to add it to Susan hill collection. Hardback which has been well read and will continue to be so!