The Woman In Black

Proud and solitary, Eel Marsh House surveys the windswept reaches of the salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway. Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the house's sole inhabitant, unaware of the tragic secrets which lie hidden behind the shuttered windows. It is not until he glimpses a pale young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black - and her terrible purpose.

Susan Hill's novels and short stories have won the Whitbread, Somerset Maugham and John Llewellyn Rhys Prizes and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her most recent publications are the much-praised collection of stories, The Boy Who Taught the Beekeeper to Read, and the best-selling Simon Serrailler crime novels, The Various Haunts of Men, The Pure in Heart, and The Risk of Darkness. She wrote Mrs de Winter, the sequel to Rebecca, and the ghost story, The Woman in Black, which was adopted for the stage and has been running in London since 1989.

Susan Hill was born in Scarborough and educated at King's College, London. She is married to the Shakespeare scholar, Stanley Wells, and they have two daughters. She lives in Gloucestershire, where she runs her own small publishing company, Long Barn Books.

Susan Hill's website is www.susan-hill.com