The Green Man of Eshwood Hall by Jacob Kerr
I must be honest and say that my purchase of The Green Man of Eshwood Hall by Jacob Kerr was absolutely a case of judging a book by its cover (and perhaps also by its title) when I saw this slim hardback and its beautiful green and black dust jacket while browsing in an independent bookshop last autumn. I hadn't heard of the book or of the author, but the back cover flap tells me that this is the first in a series of folk horror novels Jacob Kerr is writing, set in an imagined version of Northumberland. Set in 1962, the story begins with the Whipper family arriving at Eshwood Hall, a crumbling 18th century manor house at which Ray Whipper has taken a live-in job as a driver and handyman for its elderly, largely bedbound owner. He's accompanied by his wife Gerry, his daughters Izzy and Annie, and his baby son Raymond, known as the Bairn. We're told by the omniscient narrator that this is to be the story of Izzy, aged 13, and Gerry, as well as the mysterious and nameless Gree
