Part ghost story, part suspense, and all gothic novel, The Marsh House is Zoe Somerville's second book. Like The Night of the Flood, her first, this too is set in Norfolk, full of atmosphere and I absolutely loved it!

December, 1962. Desperate to create a happy Christmas for her young daughter, Franny, after a disastrous year, Malorie rents a remote house on the Norfolk coast. As Malorie digs for decorations in the attic, she discovers notebooks belonging to Rosemary, who lived in the house thirty years before. Trapped inside by a blizzard (The Big Freeze of 1963), Malorie starts reading . Although she knows she needs to focus on her daughter and the present, she finds herself relentlessly pulled into the past...

July, 1931. Rosemary lives in the Marsh House with her austere father, surrounded by unspoken family secrets and rumours. Once a glamorous family move to the village, she is easily charmed by the beautiful Hilda Lafferty and her rakish brother, Franklin, Rosemary fails to see the danger hiding behind their 'bright young things' facade.

As Malorie reads Rosemary's diary, past and present begin to blur in a story of mothers and daughters, daughters and their fathers, and the obligations and deeply buried secrets of family."

The Marsh House beautifully , conjures the North Norfolk coast, which is unsurprising due to the author's familiarity with the area. The novel is delicately unsettling rather than scary. It's deftly constructed with it's dual time line. It's not only a mystery novel, but also is full of suspense, crime, secrets and romance. Is it the effect of The Marsh House on Malorie or is it Malorie's state of mind which is easily affected?
As with all my favourite books it has a wonderful sense of place and time, full of period detail and it evokes a real sense of traditional folk and country law. Oh and there's also lots of books, particularly those by Agatha Christie!
Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for providing a digital ARC for review.

When I read that Zoe Somerville had been inspired by the 1960s book When Marnie Was There, I knew I had to read her latest novel, as Marnie was also one of my favourites as a child, In that spirit, The Marsh House has a bewitchingly nostalgic air, with strong voices from the 1930s and the 1960s (it has a dual timeline, introduced in an interesting way, through found diaries). The sense of both time and place are so strong and the characters stayed in my mind long after I'd finished.
I also felt this book had the air of a period film, the sort of old-fashioned 1940s classic you'd curl up and watch on a Sunday afternoon. It's every bit as enjoyable and escapist and, at times, unsettling as a Hitchcock classic. Yet it also brings in themes that resonate today, including coercive relationships, deeply ingrained class attitudes and a fear of 'otherness' in many forms.
And then there's the timeless, always compelling theme of how ghosts from the past can follow us, with certain patterns can be repeated through the ages. Zoe Somerville evokes such a strong sense of place that the East Anglian landscape is a presence as haunting and vivid as her characters. Recommended.

I had mixed feelings about this book. It certainly held my attention and kept me reading right until the end. It was atmospheric and spooky and the Marsh House itself was drawn vividly. The beginning especially was pacey and drew me in. I was a bit disappointed by the diary as a mechanism for bringing in Rosemary's story. I can see why the author used it but it felt a bit too convenient. I would rather Rosemary's story had emerged in a slightly less obvious manner. I also struggled a bit with some of the characterisation. Rosemary was so naive and unworldly that I wasn't convinced that she would have fitted in with the Laffertys or held her own at parties with Oswald Moseley and Diana Mitford. In the same way, her feelings for Frank seemed to wax and wane as it suited the story rather than propelling her narrative in any way and Frank himself didn't feel like a proper three-dimensional character. The introduction of Fascism and Moseley was an interesting theme which I didn't feel was explored enough. At the end I found the illness/delirium/death of the dog all a bit muddled and melodramatic. These are a lot of negatives though for a book which was interesting and compelling and I think will be very popular. It's a little more commercial than literary and I think that someone who reads more commercial fiction would absolutely love it.

Zoe Somerville's historical debut was an atmospheric exploration of a secret base in Norfolk and a tangled love story. This follow up book is also set in an atmospheric historical Norfolk and has spooky ghostly elements. It follows Malorie, who has fled London and her marriage one Christmas night to find refuge in The Marsh House, where she is convinced that she will uncover a family secret hinted at by her mother, before she died. Malorie, recently bereaved, and with a history of post-natal depression in a time when this was less understood than these days, has her daughter and her dog with her, but the Marsh House is gloomy, secretive and they are subsequently snowed in so unable to leave. Fortunately, there is help available from local villagers and a mysterious neighbour in a rundown cottage nearby.

The book is very good at keeping up the spooky atmosphere - I did have to stop reading it late at night, just in case it was too much for my overactive imagination - and she does also examine how attitudes towards women have been a really poisonous way of controlling spirited girls and women. I also found the references to Oswald Mosely and the English fascist movement interesting, but this wasn't the focus of the book.

I enjoyed this - it's a deftly written novel, perfect for dark cold nights.

What appears from the off to be a ghostly, haunting tale turns out to be a work of historical fiction with a hint of Agatha Christie suspense at its core. It is a spellbinding witches’ brew that had me gripped from start to finish. The author splendidly captures the characters and customs (part of me ached for the traditions of yesteryear), the provincial setting and the significant political and socio-economic changes of the interbellum period. A great read!
My thanks as ever to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for granting this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A very atmospheric ghost story. The setting was perfect for the tale with both timelines equally captivating (1930s & 1960s); in fact the 'past' characters were sometimes more vivid than the present ones. Perhaps the main character's behaviour seemed unbelievable at times, but it's fiction after all. I'll definitely keep an eye out for more Zoe Somerville.

Ideal for fans of novels with a historical setting, in this case 1930s and 1960s.
A few days before Christmas 1962, Malorie moves into a remote house in Norfolk, known as the Marsh House. As she searches the attic for Christmas decorations, hoping to make the place look festive for her young daughter, she comes across some exercise books - the memoir of Rosemary who writes about her time as an impressionable young girl living at the Marsh House in the early thirties.
As snow falls at the start of the Big Freeze, Malorie reads the pages and learns not only about Rosemary but also some life lessons for herself.
With thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

Set in a remote part of the North Norfolk coast in the great freeze of 1962 -1963, this is an atmospheric spooky tale of two lonely women. Malorie, has left her husband and taken her daughter from London to spend Christmas at Marsh House. There is some connection as her father left her a photograph of the house but no one in the area has heard of him. While looking in the attic for Christmas decorations, she discovers journals written by Rosemary who lived in the house in the 1930s.
The tale is told by both women as Malorie struggles to provide a happy Christmas for her daughter and we also hear Rosemary’s story through her journal entries. The eerie atmosphere is conveyed brilliantly by the author, even down to the fact that the house was built from the wreck of a ship which makes it an unhappy place. Both women are lonely and are at the mercy of the men in their lives. They both try to take control but in very different ways and with very different outcomes.
This is a great gothic mystery with a very strong sense of time and place. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I couldnt put this book down I really enjoyed it. It was gripping all the way through and written so well that it grabs hold of the reader and engages them the whole way through the novel. It was creppy and atmospheric with an almost gothic feel. A really good read.

Reading the Marsh House felt like reading a modern classic, and I was often transported into the world of Daphne du Maurier, who truly is, for me, the queen of atmospheric, suspenseful, spooky Gothic fiction. A ghost story with a twist, the Marsh House contains some genuinely creepy scenes and, for me, beautifully blended everything I love about the Gothic, romance, ghost stories, and haunted house stories. Some of these scenes and their themes were also heavy and dark, and I did find myself a bit disturbed and certainly very empathetic towards many of the characters, as I could relate to some of the situations and emotions.

Somerville creates such a stifling, oppressive atmosphere even in the space that is supposed to represent freedom for her protagonist. I loved watching the mother-daughter relationship develop between Malorie and Franny, while delving deeper through the narrative into themes of motherhood and the physical, mental, and emotional toll of becoming a mother, or parent in general. I think that the protagonist represents some of the struggles of postpartum depression and anxiety disorders so perfectly and I truly felt many of her emotions and thoughts resonated with me and my own experience.

Sometimes, the inclusion of a device such as a journal or letters to present another timeline can feel a bit contrived, but Somerville skillfully wove Rosemary's tale into the story both for Malorie and the reader. I never felt that her diary entries were forced or out of place, and I really enjoyed the experience of reading Rosemary's account alongside Malorie.

I absolutely loved the book and highly recommend it!

A great novel!
Full of detail, a spooky marsh house, a history in its walls and secrets waiting to be shared.
The writing is very atmospheric and I was drawn into this setting and story very early on. I was fascinated to learn about why this house was so important and what it meant to those who lived there, now and in the past.
I am definitely going to read whatever Zoe writes next as this is the kind of book you sink into and explore from within.

The Marsh House cleverly contrasts two eras, the troubled 1930s and the almost revolutionary 1960s.It also highlights the contrasting situations between rich and poor and men and women which still resonate today.

The discovery of a young girls journals in the attic of a remote atmospheric rental property triggers a powerful ghostly experience linked to traumatic events in the recent past.

Powerful ,descriptive and tense.Well done Zoe !!!

Very atmospheric and well written, I found the sense of time and place really moving and believable. I particularly liked the fact that both strands are 'historical' - it was a reminder of how close to the past we really are. It could have been pacier in the second half but overall a good spooky winter read.

"It might seem strange to other people, brought up in other ways, that I still clung to these beliefs and superstitions, even as the modern world was opening up for me. But time is different up there in a village like mine, on a forgotten bit of the coast, isolated from day trippers and city ways and the so-called march of progress. There are still people there who follow a different lore to those of commerce and man-made time. There are ways older than motor cars and electricity and telephones that persist, like the black layer of mud on the marsh, concealed beneath the top layer of rationality. I’m not saying those ways are better, but they are there, whether you like them or not."

The second novel from the author of “Night of the Flood” and like that book:

One with a strong sense of place on a small stretch of the North Norfolk coast (in this case the book is set in Stiffkey, just along from the Wells/Holkham setting of the first. Stiffkey may be better known to Booker fans as the inspiration for Rachel Cusk’s “Second Place” based on her own ex-house on the marshes there and to Farrow and Ball fans for the blue paint its cockles inspire – such cockles being included in the story)

One that has a storyline based around an extreme weather event – here the start of the terrible great freeze of 1962-3 as opposed to the 1953 floods

One that combines real world politics with a domestic tale – in this case the Fascist machinations of Oswald Mosley and his supporters (the Daily Mail comes off appropriately badly for its own support of facism in England and abroad) in the early-mid 1930s, rather than the early Cold War Spy plane intrigues of the first. Interestingly politics in the second 1960s storyline (for example the Cuban crisis) form more of a backdrop to a character preoccupied by her own issues.

One that is something of a combination of genres - whereas the first book was a kind of romance/thriller, this is very firmly a ghost book but with strong (and acknowledged by the characters) Agatha Christie elements and one inspired by (and taking its title directly) from a children’s book (“When Marine Was There” - a 1960s book which was later transposed to Japan and adapted for a Studio Ghibli anime).

The book is effectively set a few days before Christmas in 1962 – Malorie has fled on something of a whim to a rented house on the North Norfolk marshes after the death of her elderly mother and the increasingly imminent disintegration of her marriage and family (her husband a charming philander, her daughter Fanny sharing Malorie’s nerves but not much in the way of a bond with her). From some of her mother’s last words and some papers she has not read it seems that the house has some kind of link to her late father (who predeceased her mother by years) – Malorie herself always sensing a barrier with her parents.

When she gets there she is beset by snow and a feeling of haunting, not assisted by a mysterious cottage/hovel nearby which seems occupied when she walks past but not when she approaches it. Franny finds a trunk in the loft and Malorie in it discovers some journals of a girl who seems to have lived in the house in the 1930 – Rosemary. At least according to the diaries she lived there with her father, her mother’s true whereabouts (dead or in a madhouse) being only hinted at to her.

Everything changes for Rosemary when a rich family move to the (real-life) Stiffkey Hall – the family although fictional drawing something from the rather abysmal political stance of Henry (“Tarka the Otter”) Williamson who lived in the adjoining farm. Rosemary - something of an outcast, whose main friend is the local midwife come healer (who lives in a nearby cottage/hovel) – falls for the charming but rather dissolute son of the family – but we sense from the diaries that something much more tragic lead to her writing them.

Although ostensibly a two part book – a third party point of view 1960s section, interspersed with written copes of the detailed first person journal from the 1930s, the 1930s sections actively bleed into the 1960s via noises, visions, objects and sightings (which commonly turn out to be reflections). And the two parts are threaded through with brief and slightly mystical musings from someone who we quickly ascertain is Rosemary’s healer friend from the 1930s but observing Malorie in the 1960s.

The book finishes with both stories reaching a climatic resolution.

Overall another enjoyable read – again as with her first novel, the familiar local colour is what really made the book for me.

My thanks to Head of Zeus, Apollo for an ARC via NetGalley

I read this book over the Halloween weekend and it seems completely appropriate. Lives filled with ghosts and secrets, howling wind, drifts of snow, death, darkness - all consumed me as I forgot about food, chores and obligations, lost in the worlds of Malorie and Rosemary. If you read Somerville’s ‘Night of the Flood’ and loved it, I can guarantee, that her second book will exceed your expectations. I love the first book, but this felt like reading a modern classic with hints of Du Maurier as she weaves a sinister tale of two women and their lives in Norfolk. I can’t say too much as it would give away the tightly woven plot, but the writing is exquisite, the characters so engaging and the detail so perfect that I can’t recommend it highly enough. A really wonderful read and I hope it gets the recognition it so thoroughly deserves.

Zoë Somerville’s second novel, The Marsh House, switches between two timelines, both set against the backdrop of the eponymous house built in the North Norfolk coast.

The novel’s “present” is December 1962. Still nursing her wounds following a painful marriage breakdown, Malorie decides to spend Christmas with her little daughter Franny at a remote house in Norfolk. She chooses her destination on a whim, solely because, judging from a photo given to her before her mother’s death, it seems that the building has some mysterious connection with her parents’ past. In the old attic, Malorie discovers notebooks in which Rosemary, a woman who had lived at the house over three decades before, relates her tragic story. The second plot timeline is, in fact, provided by the content of these notebooks, which describe a local tragedy which unfolded in the politically charged period between the two great wars. As Malorie becomes more and more engrossed with Rosemary’s tale, she increasingly feels that she is being haunted by its protagonists.

The Marsh House borrows many Gothic and horror tropes, with the most obvious being the setting – a rundown mansion at the verge of the Norfolk marshes, redolent of Michelle Paver’s Wakenhyrst. As in the best supernatural tales, the novel plays on the element of doubt – are the Malorie’s visions otherworldly in nature, or simply the creation of an overworked, troubled, altered mind? The fluidity between past and present sometimes makes this more of a timeslip novel (that, and the Christmas context reminded me at times of Alison Littlewood’s Mistletoe.)

Atmospheric and creepy as The Marsh House is, I ultimately felt that it works best as a piece of vividly conceived historical fiction which can be read and enjoyed even without the supernatural trappings. This is a novel which looks into unsavoury aspects of the inter-war years, particularly the rise of pro-Nazi sentiment in Britain. Without any facile condemnations, Somerville depicts families falling under the spell of a hateful ideology and the cruel consequences of this, set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world which is turning its back on the rural wisdom of its elders.

A great read with the past and present timelines and how they interlink.
Some wonderfully gothic scenes. Shocking, dark, and some surprising reveals.

Told through an interesting mix of past and present, the story provides an insight into the challenges faced by women in the past. A slave to their husband’s will and only respected depending on their ability to produce children. The Marsh House is a ghost story with a difference. Malorie, the main character of present day is not very likeable and seems to be in constant battle with her daughter Franny, for what reason, I was still baffled by the end of the book.
The journals written by Rosemary documenting her trials with her new husband and the loss of her children were heart-wrenching and very well written. An interesting tale of two worlds coming together in an explosive finish of suffering and compassion from beyond the grave.

I’ve recently read a few gothic horror novels but none of them had me on the edge of my seat like The Marsh House. The latest book by Zoe Somerville, The Marsh House, is listed as a mystery and historical novel, which it is certainly. is However, Somerville successfully conjures up a menace and tension that many other books lack. I started reading this late at night and genuinely couldn’t put it down until I’d finally reached the end!

The story follows Malorie, a young woman who flees her failing marriage to spend Christmas in an isolated cottage on the Norfolk coast. Determined to make Christmas magical for her young daughter, Malorie goes into the attic to find decorations. However, whilst there, she finds the diary of a young girl, Marianne, who lived in the house thirty years before. Marianne is a shy and naive country girl but when the wealthy Lafferty family moves to the village, she becomes enchanted by their beauty and glamour...with disastrous consequences.

Isolated by a December storm, Malorie becomes fixated on the diary and determined to find out what really happened to Marianne.

Somerville skilfully evokes the bleak beauty of the Norfolk coast and the class tensions of the 1930s to create book that will have you on tenterhooks!