Simon Baker
Phantom Farm
The Gate of Air: A Ghost Story
By James Buchan
MacLehose Press 224pp £12.99
When Jim Smith buys Paradise Farm, he hopes that a deep engagement with nature will help him to forget his recent London woes. Jim floated his company on the stock market but then found himself marginalised and forced to sell his shares; he enters rural life determined to salve his wounded pride. He inherits John, the ubiquitous surly old local who has worked on the land for countless years, and together they fill the place with livestock.
While Jim enjoys the occasional moment of arcadian bliss, his new life is hampered by a ghost who visits him in his dreams. Jim becomes convinced it is the spirit of Jean Thinne, a 1960s starlet who once lived at Paradise Farm with her entrepreneur husband, Charles Lampard. Jean went
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
When @djbduncan notices the text for a literary jigsaw puzzle had been written by a former colleague, his head spins. A wild surmise. Are jigsaws REF-able?
Dennis Duncan - The W Factor
Dennis Duncan: The W Factor
literaryreview.co.uk
In an effort to scold drinkers, Victorian temperance societies furiously marked every drinking establishment with a red X on city maps. It was a spectacular case of propaganda backfiring.
@foxtosser explores the history of drink maps
Edward Brooke-Hitching - From Beer Street to Gin Lane
Edward Brooke-Hitching: From Beer Street to Gin Lane - Drink Maps in Victorian Britain by Kris Butler
literaryreview.co.uk
How did a workers’ insurance agent who died of tuberculosis at the age of forty become a global literary icon?
@MortenHoiJensen on Kafka's metamorphosis
Morten Høi Jensen - Paranoid Humanoid
Morten Høi Jensen: Paranoid Humanoid - Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka by Karolina Watroba; Kafka: Making o...
literaryreview.co.uk