![]() ![]() ‘A darkly humorous take on the enduring effects of childhood trauma,’ wrote Mslexia, while the Sunday Telegraph considered it to be ‘an intricately structured portrait of the secret dreads and desires of Middle England.’ It is any of these, and all of them: Beyond Black is both a mirror reflecting the reader back at themselves, and an indelible portrait of perfect eccentricity. What exactly is it? ‘One of the greatest ghost stories in the language,’ said Philip Pullman. ![]() But before all these – and earning her her first longlisting – came Beyond Black. The third volume, The Mirror and the Light, was longlisted in 2020. Hilary Mantel has become a Booker legend, one of a select bunch of authors to win the prize twice, for Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring up the Bodies (2012), two of her chronicles of Thomas Cromwell. It is funny, frightening and full of sadness. Alison is the hero, in every sense, of Hilary Mantel’s 2005 novel Beyond Black, a story of suburban dullness offset by dark magic. The thoughts are those of Alison Hart, a psychic who spends her life touring England’s commuter belt, circling London’s outskirts – ‘Orpington, Sevenoaks, Chertsey, Runnymede’ – and parking up in provincial halls in a glittery cocktail dress to deliver messages from the dead to people looking for answers. ![]()
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