This is an extremely good and interesting question from Sophie. It shows really careful thought about the text.

I decided to empathise with Mrs Kingshaw in "I'm the King of the Castle" and consider her needs as a woman instead of critisize her dispassionately like the rest of the class, did you want her to come across as selfish and heartless, or hopeful with misplaced intentions? Does she love her son?

This one comes from Tom

I was wondering whether you feel that you have a particular genre preference? What kind of story do you like writing most? Would you say that this is affected by your background?

I have no preference other than I prefer the one I am writing in at the time ! I move between crime novels, literary fiction and ghost stories sometimes, and also now novels for children. I like to alternate and I follow my nose, as it were. I could never stick to just one, I have too many ideas. I have no idea why and I don`t quite know what you mean  by 'background.'

 

QUESTION

How important is the build-up of atmosphere to the story ? Thanks. MELANIE.

Hi, Melanie. Atmosphere is one of the most important 'ingredients' of the ghost story. The story aims to make the reader alarmed, to chill them, to make them anxious and the build-up of atmosphere is an essential part of this. Think of it as like the music to a frightening film - it builds slowly and surely by clever use of chords and keys (I`m not a musician !) and the writer of the ghost story is only doing the same thing with words. Some ofthe atmosphere of TWIB has to do with the weather - sudden fog, winds, a dreary dark dismal day, all of this. It is hard to define what atmosphere is - but it has to vary too. Think of the scene inside the Crithin Arms at lunch on market day; it`s cheerful, bustling, full of chat and good food. Nothing at all worrying or scary there. Then think of the atmosphere as Kipps stands in side the empty house on his own after the door has clanged behind him. Quite different. You are made more worried by contrast and the writer can`t turn the screw all the time, there has to be a release, then a bit more, and so on.

If you follow the book through making a list of scenes which have atmosphere which you find frightening you`ll see how it works - then list the other sort of atmosphere, cheerful, unalarming, ordinary, that goes between. It`s like a series of ascending steps.

Good question. Thanks. Susan

 

QUESTION.  Do you mind us doing your books for exams and course work ?  Cheers. Jake.

Hello Jake. First most obvioius answer I suppose is that it wouldn`t matter whether I did or I didn`t - they don`t ask my permission!

But more sensible answer is no. And then again yes. Let`s take the 'Yes' first. I mind in that I do wonder if the novels set for GCSE and A Level have enough substance ? I know times have changed and I never say 'when I was your age we had to read this or that Classic' because it is a pointless observation.

But otherwise, no, because someone has to be a 'set book' so it might as well be me. No, because I want young people to enjoy literature and a lot do seem to enjoy studying my books enough not to be put off by also having to dissect them and answer questions. I had to dissect frogs but it didn`t put me off them - I love frogs.

All the books we studied were by dead writers so we had no way of asking them questions about their work. I get hundreds of questions and many of them indicate that the senders are lazy and want me to do their work. But the rest show real intelligence and perception and it gives me feedback. Also, though I can`t and won`t do your work, I will always try and help clarify something and generally be a guide if I can.

One thing you need to remember - literature is not like maths. There is not one right answer which the author knows and may reveal so that the students will all get As. My opinion is not important. I can correct any actual mistakes but what you need to have is your own view based on a careful reading of the text. Your opinion is what counts not mine.

The other thing to remember is that all the novels of mine studied in school were written for the usual adult market, not for young people, even if young people now read them. I`m glad they do but they were not written with 12-18 year olds in mind.

 

My English teacher says that Arthur Kipps dies at the end of the book. I can`t find where it says this. Can you help me please ? Emma.

 

ANSWER.

Emma, I have no idea why your teacher should think this. It does not say anywhere that he dies and if you think about it, he could not die because he is the narrator of the story ! So no, he does not die at the end. I have never known anyone think this before.

QUESTION

i was wondering where I could find any critical analysis' of the way you build atmosphere prior to the supernatural happenings. It seems that you find it a key aspect of the story, I was surprised to find how difficult it is to hunt anything down on the net? from LIZZIE

 

The motto of this is don`t rely on the internet ! I doubt if you will find a lot there in detail about my work. You would find the following book useful. SUSAN HILL. THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE by MARGARET REYNOLDS AND JONATHAN NOAKES (Vintage 6.99)  You can get it from amazon (and no, I do not get any royalties from it !)

It is best if you work on this yourself. It`s true that atmosphere and sense of place are really important in this book. Go through the book and pick out each 'supernatural' incident. Then read the pages just before it and make notes on the suspense, sense of place, weather, feelings of the individual etc etc.. those things that make you know something is about to happen ( as in a film - you know when it is the music that is building up to something.) You will find the characters get a sense of impending horror, or the weather becomes very different - there is a sudden fog, for example, or we are in a graveyard or the door bangs in the empty house.  Any of these. Though of course sometimes you are tricked and nothing then happens ! This is the way to analyse.. go carefully through, section by section. It`s the best way to get to know the text too. If you can afford another copy of the book to mark with highlighter pen this helps. ( Amazon often have cheap 2nd hand copies.)

I hope this is generally useful. DO NOT RELY ON THE INTERNET TO DO YOUR WORK FOR YOU !

Why did you make Kingshaw commit suicide at the end of I`M THE  KING OF THE CASTLE ? I don`t think boys of eleven would do that. Thanks from Shelley.

ANSWER

But the sad truth is that boys of eleven and even younger, as well as teenagers HAVE done just that and it is becoming more common. They do it when others are unkind and cruel to them (I prefer the word 'unkindness' to the word 'bullying' because that is just what it is..) and when they feel they have no way out, no one to turn to for help. There are people to turn to of course but they do not know this or cannot find them or bring themselves to talk.

When a boy has been subjected to such a systematic campaign of unkindness as Kingshaw has and when he feels no one would listen to him or believe him and that there is no escape for him, this is - dreadful though it is - what he might do as a desperate way of escaping.

I have had many letters over the years from young people who feel like this. If anyone wants to write to me because this is happening to them please do so - I will try to help and of course I will not make your e-mail public.

THANKS FOR YOUR QUESTION, SHELLEY

I am often asked about this book in relation to the Gothic novel. I believe there are questions set for exams along these lines but this seems to me quite wrong. If you look up Gothic Novel on Wikipedia you will see that THE WOMAN IN BLACK contains very few of the traditional - though not all essential - elements of the gothic novel. It has a ghost. It has an isolated house. But really there is so much more to the gothic novel than this and mine does not in any way fit the brief. So - as far as I am concerned this is NOT a gothic novel. You could do a useful exercise by taking the ingredients the gothic novel is supposed to contain and explaining how few of them are in THE WOMAN IN BLACK and therefore demonstrating that it is not a gothic novel and explaining why.

What it definitely is is a ghost story, a traditional ghost story which contains many of the elements used by such authors as Dickens.  It has a ghost in the proper sense. I take a ghost to be the recognisable vision of a person who was alive and is known to have died. It is not a monster, a vampire, a werewolf - it is the spectre of a human being.

The ghost should have a point, a reason for haunting its old places and appearing to people. If there is no purpose then there is no story. If it just drifts up staircases or walks through walls endlessly, without any apparent reason, there is no story. But my ghost has a reason to return and her reason is revenge for the loss of her child. She cannot let go, cannot forgive, cannot 'move on.'  She must go on and on haunting to extract revenge for the death of her son. This is a terrible fate.

Strange weather phenomenon are not essential to the ghost story but they add terrifically to the atmosphere... fog, high moaning winds, winter darkness, even snow, are all more likely to unnerve us than a cheerful sunny day. The isolated house and the people who are afraid to say anything about the hauntings are also traditional ingredients, as is the narrator who refuses to believe but is a rational bluff man of common sense, but who gradually comes to be afraid and unnerved by what he experiences. So THE WOMAN IN BLACK owes a great deal to the great tradition of the ghost story.

But avoid the use of the word Gothic except to show that this novel is not a gothic one.

Whether you are a student or a teacher you will find it very useful to read the Afterword I wrote to the Penguin Books edition of I`m the King of the Castle. I am often asked questions which are answered in it and school offices should be able to photocopy it for you (subject to the usual charges ).

It is a long time since I wrote the book and a great many things have changed. Some of those things do not matter but small things make a difference - for example, the boys call one another by their surnames (last names) - Hooper, Kingshaw, Fielding. This is what boys in Private schools did until fairly recently. It has no meaning other than custom.

But human nature does not change and it is the characters of the two boys, Kingshaw and Hooper, which drive the story. The setting is very important as many of the things that happen do so because of where the boys find themselves. But if they had been in a quite different place there would still have been a story about two boys who clash because of their mutually antagonistic personalities.

I am often asked if the book was intended to be about 'bullying.' This is a word I dislike. I prefer the more plain and meaningful word 'unkindness' which highlights exactly what bullying IS. I certainly meant the story to be about one boy`s unkindness to the other. One boy, Hooper, is unkind by nature and intinct. He is mean, cunning, manipulative and sadistic. Yet no human being is like this, especially not an 11 year old boy, without a cause and a reason. One of the most important things for you to work out is WHY Hooper is like he is and behaves as he does.

I have heard Kingshaw called a wimp. Does this mean a coward ? He is certainly a passive boy. But remember, he has been brought to a strange house in which there is already a boy of the same age. Have you ever watched an animal on new and unfamiliar territory in which there is already another animal ? The newcomer will be wary and anxious and if the one who dominates the territory starts any sort of fight or hostility, the newcomer will react by turning tail.

So, there are reasons why Kingshaw behaves as he does. He is not by nature a fighter.  He has a very dominating mother. He is on strange new territory. He is faced with a mean, spiteful and unkind boy who is king of his own particular castle.

When their roles are reversed, you will Kingshaw in a new light; in the wood, which is strange territory to them both, he comes into his own and Hooper is unable to be so easily dominant because he, in his turn, is nervous and uncertain.

The book is about the two boys. There are many scenes in which the conflict between them is demonstrated. You can make a list or a flow-chart of each self-contained scene as it comes, which you may find helps you to understand the way the novel works.

Now, one important thing to understand.

I wrote the book. But I was writing a story, a novel, not writing a sermon or a series of examples. If you find a particular meaning in the book, or a part of it, and you can show why, then you are right. But because you can find a certain meaning does not mean that I consciously put it there or intended it to be there, like a hidden object. As every reader opens the book  and starts to read, in a way they re-create the story for themselves. YOUR mental image of Kingshaw or of the house called Warings, for example, will not be the same as mine, or the same as that of the person next to you. It is yours alone. That is why reading is always a creative act. You don`t just take in the story you help to make it. In a way it is therefore harder to answer questions about books than it is to do maths - because in Maths there is a right answer and a wrong answer. In literature it is by no means so clear-cut and straightforward. If you think Kingshaw is a total coward for whom there is nothing to be said, I may not agree with you but you can argue that you are right from the text and because that is the way the story and the character seem to YOU. You are right. I am right too. Obviously, you cannot say to you, Kingshaw is 4 years old. He is eleven. That is a fact stated in the book. Some things are right or wrong. The book is set in the English countryside. That is a fact. But if you think about it this story could  take place in another country at a different time. Much would change but the characters of the two boys and the conflict between them which is the heart of the book would be the same.

In posts to come I will look at some of the details in the book. But I hope this has been helpful and made you think. I also hope you will try and remember that this was written as a novel for adults and not as an exam text for school pupils. I know you have to study it as an exam / course-work text but don`t let this put you off reading for pleasure in general. I had to examine texts for my exams too but I still love reading more than anything. It`s possible !

 

 

I will be starting some posts on I`M THE KING OF THE CASTLE.. FAQs really, as so many students e-mail me with the same questions. I`ll try and answer any news ones  (but I do not reply to abuse and I don`t do your course work or essays for you !)

Have a great Christmas.

I have had so many begging e-mails from desperate students that I have restored the section for them. If you are studying any of my books for GCSE or AS or A Level click on this Category where there will be posts about the set books from time to time.