THE BEACON

By Susan Hill

Synopsis

A story full of suspense switching between past and present, it is about the emotional damage sustained by three siblings living with tainted memories of their childhood.

Sample Player

Narrator	Gill Wilsher
Length	3hrs 45mins
Catalogue No.	8194
Publisher	Chatto & Windus

Other audiobooks by Susan Hill

AIR AND ANGELS

Set in India and Cambridge before the outbreak of World War 1, this is the story of Thomas Cavendish, a man in his mid-fifties and the obvious choice to become Master of his college. One day, walking by the river, he sees a young girl on a bridge and falls irrevocably in love with her, but the consequences are both tragic and life-changing.

THE BATTLE FOR GULLYWITH

When Olly and his family move to Gullywith Farm it seems to be jinxed. Then there are the strange stones that keep appearing. Olly, and his new friend KK, soon find themselves in a magical world deep inside the surrounding hills.

THE BETRAYAL OF TRUST

Half of Lafferton is afloat after freak floods and a landslip on the Moor has closed the bypass. As the rain slowly drains away, a shallow grave and a skeleton are exposed; the remains of missing teenager, Harriet Lowther, last seen 16 years ago. Another case for Simon Serrailler.

THE BOY WHO TAUGHT THE BEEKEEPER TO READ

A collection of short stories including the tale of a young school boy who teaches a beekeeper to read during a visit to his aunt’s country house and another about a gang of boys planning a wicked deed on a beach.

A CHANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE

DCS Simon Serrailler has long regarded drugs ops in Lafferton as a waste of time. Small-time dealers are picked up outside the local secondary school, they don't have any information about those higher up the chain, they're given a fine or a suspended and away they go. And rinse and repeat. But when the body of a 22-year-old drug addict is found in neighbouring Starley, the case pulls Simon into a whole new way of running drugs. The foot soldiers? Vulnerable local kids like Brookie and Olivia, who will give Simon a bitter taste of this new landscape.

FROM THE HEART

You’re a young woman. You can choose; which career to pursue; who to marry and have children with - or not. This is now. But what if you are living in a time and place where the freedoms we now take for granted had the power to destroy...

HOWARDS END IS ON THE LANDING: A YEAR OF READING FROM HOME

Susan Hill's year-long voyage of discovery through her book collection. It is a memoir which includes fascinating insights into authors she has met during her life as a writer, as well as comments on many of her favourite volumes.

I'M THE KING OF THE CASTLE

Used to roaming alone through the large house in which he lives with his father, Edmund, aged 11, bitterly resents the arrival of the new housekeeper's son. It was his house; he was King here. So he sets about ridding himself of the intruder with malicious relentlessness.

A KIND MAN

Tommy Carr is a kind man; Eve had been able to tell that after half an hour of knowing him. The birth of a daughter, Jeannie Eliza, crowns the young couple's happiness - just as her shockingly early death casts them low. But what happens next is entirely unexpected, not least for the kind man.

THE MAGIC APPLE TREE: A COUNTRY YEAR

The Magic Apple Tree stands in the garden of Moon Cottage, in the small village of Barley, Oxfordshire. Susan Hill's book is an evocation of a year seen from that cottage, in which she and her family lived for thirteen years.

THE MAN IN THE PICTURE

The painting hangs on the wall in the ageing Don's room. It is a beautiful painting of a Venetian scene of partying and masks in the street. This is no ordinary painting however; it will not only imitate your life but take it forever.

THE MIST IN THE MIRROR

Orphaned at the age of five and sent away to Africa, Sir James Monmouth returns to England determined to unravel the mysteries of the past. But who is the mysterious little boy who haunts his every step, and why can only he hear the chilling scream and the desperate sobbing?

MRS DE WINTER

The sequel to Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca' (86); Manderley is burning and Maxim and Mrs de Winter are on their way to the Continent. Could the de Winters escape or did they ever return home to England to confront the past? The author has imagined what happens after the de Winters arrive back in England.

THE PURE IN HEART

A schoolboy is kidnapped as he waits for his lift to school. A handicapped young woman dies, but has someone helped her to her death? An ex-con finds it impossible to stay straight. They all inhabit a small community with terror and evil in their midst. Simon Serrailler investigates.

THE RISK OF DARKNESS

In the third Simon Serrailler novel, the DCI finds love at last in the form of a feisty red haired priest. The plot hinges on a grieving husband who descends into obsession and violence.

THE SERVICE OF CLOUDS

A novel about love, loyalty, friendship, growing up and growing old, set in the eerie landscape of the East Anglian marshes.

THE SHADOWS IN THE STREET

Simon Serrailler is recalled from a sabbatical to investigate the murders of two local prostitutes. The toll of missing women gradually increases and includes one of the Cathedral wives but the investigations all lead to dead ends.

THE SMALL HAND

Adam Snow, returning home late one evening, takes a wrong turning and stumbles across a derelict old house. Curiosity leads him to the door, where he feels the sensation of a child’s hand in his own. Gradually he begins to be plagued by bad dreams and the sensation of the hand in his own starts to recur.

STRANGE MEETING

John Hilliard, a subaltern, returns to the Western Front after a period of sick leave back in England. Blind to the horrors of the trenches, he finds his battalion tragically altered. His commanding officer finds escape in alcohol, there is a new adjutant and even Hilliard's batman has been killed.

THE TRAVELLING BAG AND OTHER GHOSTLY STORIES

From the foggy streets of Victorian London to the eerie perfection of 1950s' suburbia, the everyday is invaded by the evil otherworldly in this unforgettable collection of new ghost stories from the author of The Woman in Black. (9268)

THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN

When a woman disappears on 'the Hill', the police are not alarmed., but when a young girl, an old man and even a dog also disappear there is growing concern in the quiet cathedral town. Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler and constable Freya Graffham have to solve the mystery behind a gruesome sequence of events.

THE VOWS OF SILENCE

Simon Serrailler has to deal with with a number of apparently motiveless murders. Could the link be love and marriage?

THE WOMAN IN BLACK

Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor, tells the story of his stay at Eel Marsh House to administer the affairs of its former inhabitant Mrs Alice Drablow. As a series of nightmarish events unfold, he gradually uncovers the tragic secrets of his client and the identity of the woman in black.