AND THEN YOU CAME

by Ann Bridge ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 18, 1948

An ingenious story that will appeal to those who like ghost stories- stories where time is obliterated and two periods of history fuse. The story starts out as a pleasant, typically English (though in this case the people and the setting are Celtic, in the West Highlands) novel of the landed gentry. An engagement is being announced. Another may be in the offing, if Nora, niece of Mrs. Congreve, a young archeologist on a visit to investigate some ""digs"" of the Iron Age, can bring Jock to the point. There's the usual visiting to and from and chit chat (sometimes it grows a bit tedious, but always is friendly and casual). Then, into this scene comes a strange small yacht- a devastatingly lovely girl- a bearded, white haired man, and three superb youths -- and everyone is disturbed or entranced or repelled. Bit by bit, Professor Porlock, knowledgeable in the far reaches of history, identifies the group:- characters in the Deirdre legend -- and Merlin (this part is never quite convincing) weaving his web of evil. An accident, two more or less normal deaths, one violent death -- and the disappearance of the yacht and its crew. But Professor Porlock has found himself unwilling but fascinated observer of a bit of reenacted tragedy in that very period he has made his own.... A new vein for the author of Peking Picnic and Illyrian Spring.

Pub Date: Jan. 18, 1948

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1948

Categories: FICTION