A BIT OF SINGING AND DANCING and IN THE SPRINGTIME OF THE YEAR

by Susan Hill ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1984

The London publisher Hamish Hamilton is reissuing the novels and stories of Susan Hill, a gifted practitioner of chilly, starkly psychological fiction in the quiet English style. In the Springtime of the Year, like most of Hill's work, has already appeared in America--as a widely reviewed 1974 publication by Saturday Review Press/Dutton. (The current distributor's promotional material doesn't reveal Hill's US publishing history--so beware of mistaken reports about Hill being new to America.) A Bit of Singing and Dancing, however, is a 1973 short-story collection that was originally published only in Britain. And, like Hill's other stories (The Albatross, US 1975), these are tales of thwarted passions and odd couples--with the mixture of pathos and charm at its best in the title story: the relationship between a lonely, middle-aged landlady and her increasingly beloved (if somewhat embarrassing) boarder. Welcome arrivals, then, but many libraries will already have In the Springtime of the Year--$5.95 in 1974!--sitting on the shelf.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton--dist. by David & Charles

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION