From the Heart (Hill novel)

2017 novel by Susan Hill

From the Heart

First edition

Author| Susan Hill
Cover artist| "Keys", printed hair cloth, 1954 by Ruth Adler Schnee
Language| English
Publisher| Chatto and Windus[1]

Publication date

| 2 March 2017[1]
Publication place| United Kingdom
Media type| Print
Pages| 224[1]
ISBN| 1-78474-164-7

From the Heart, is a coming of age - and coming out novel[2] by Susan Hill, published in March 2017 by Chatto and Windus.[1]

## Plot introduction

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Set in mid 1950s[2] England the novel follows Olive Piper as she leaves school and attends Bedford College, London to study English Literature. The Drama Society puts a production of Dr Faustus where she meets Malcolm Crowley who is studying Dentistry at King's College London. Not being married, nor able to prove she was going to be married, she was unable to obtain contraception and falls pregnant. She is forced to give up her course and rejecting marriage she moves to a home for unmarried mothers where she gives up her baby for adoption. Unable to return to Bedford College she resumes her studies at Keele. Her first teaching job is at a girls school in Salisbury where she falls in love with an older teacher, Thea...

## Reception

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Reviews were mixed:

Kirsty McLuckie in The Scotsman comments on the gentleness with which Olive’s choices are handled, "here even Olive’s more traumatic experiences – the death of her parents, the sudden end of a deeply felt love affair – are portrayed as merely a part of life. Olive’s reaction to them is of her time. Stoic, she deals with inner turmoil with a measured control which is reflected in Hill’s pared back writing. The descriptions of her intense feelings, when they come, are therefore all the more powerful."[3] Malcolm Forbes in The Herald is also full of praise for Hill, "So well drawn is her heroine, and so keenly realized her predicaments and misfortunes, that we feel for her at every turn. With trademark crisp, poised prose, Hill expertly articulates Olives, panic, fear and pain.[4]

In contrast Julie Myerson writing in The Guardian is unimpressed, "The prose is clompingly euphemistic, chattily cliche-ridden and bafflingly – for a writer who has given us so many satisfyingly subtle ghost stories – lacking in any attempt at subtext or ambiguity...The result is that the protagonist, for all her supposed truth and tact, never once springs to life, while peripheral characters – fumbling, dry-lipped boyfriend, sternly patronising male doctor – seem to have arrived straight from central casting."[2] Melissa Katsoulis of The Times writes "the brief section where Olive experiences that tragedy in the punishing confines of a home for unmarried mothers is unbearably sad and will make parents feel sick. Fortunately for any fainthearted readers, this is the only stirring part of an otherwise bland narrative."[5]

## External links

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* A Waterstones Exclusive Q & A with Susan Hill | Waterstones.com Blog

## References

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1. ^ a b c d www.amazon.co.uk Retrieved 2010-05-04.
2. ^ a b c From the Heart by Susan Hill review – closeted coming-out tale | Books | The Guardian Retrieved 2019-05-04.
3. ^ Book review: From the Heart, by Susan Hill - The Scotsman Retrieved 2019-05-04.
4. ^ Book review: From The Heart by Susan Hill | HeraldScotland Retrieved 2019-05-04.
5. ^ From the Heart by Susan Hill | Saturday Review | The Times Retrieved 2019-05-04.

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Works by Susan Hill

Novels|

* The Enclosure (1961)
* Do Me a Favour (1963)
* Gentleman and Ladies (1968)
* A Change for the Better (1969)
* I'm the King of the Castle (1970)
* Strange Meeting (1971)
* The Bird of Night (1972)
* In the Springtime of the Year (1973)
* The Woman in Black (1983)
* Air and Angels (1991)
* The Mist in the Mirror (1992)
* Mrs de Winter (1993)
* The Service of Clouds (1998)
* The Man in the Picture (2007)
* The Beacon (2008)
* The Small Hand (2010)
* A Kind Man (2011)
* Dolly: A Ghost Story (2012)
* Black Sheep (2013)
* From the Heart (2017)

| Simon Serrailler crime novels|

* The Various Haunts of Men (2004)
* The Pure in Heart (2005)
* The Risk of Darkness (2006)
* The Vows of Silence (2008)
* Shadows in the Streets (2010)
* The Betrayal of Trust (2011)
* A Question of Identity (2012)
* The Soul of Discretion (2014)
* The Comforts of Home (2018)
* The Benefit of Hindsight (2019)

|

Short story collections|

* The Albatross and Other Stories (1970)
* A Bit of Singing and Dancing (1973)
* Listening to the Orchestra (1997)
* The Boy Who Taught the Beekeeper to Read (2003)
* Farthing House (2006)
* The Travelling Bag and Other Ghostly Stories (2016)

Adaptations|

* The Woman in Black (1989 film)
* Je suis le seigneur du château (1989)
* The Woman in Black (2012 film)
* The Woman in Black: Angel of Death (2014)
* Susan Hill's Ghost Story (2019)

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