THE
MAGIC COTTAGE
by
JAMES
HERBERT
THE BLURB:
We thought we'd found our
haven, a cottage deep in the heart of the forest. Quaint charming,
maybe a little run-down, but so peaceful.
The animals and birds
couldn't have been more neighbourly. That was the first part of the
Magic. Midge's painting and my music soared to new heights of
creativity. That was another part of the Magic. But the cottage had
an alternative side.
The Bad Magic.
What happened to us there
was horrendous beyond belief. The miracles, the healings, the crazy
sect who wanted our home for themselves, the hideous creatures that
crawled from the nether regions, and the bats- oh God, the bats!
Even now those terrible things seem impossible to me.
Yet they happened...
THE REALITY:
Compelling and dramatic
blurb on the back of a book I'm reading for the third time around!
The first time would have been in the late 1980s, when the story was
serialised in my mother's Woman magazine, and the accompanying
sketch of the enchanted cottage was just beautiful- I think it was
the same as this one, which is by illustrator Julie Williams:-
I also love this
illustration, which is in the flyleaf of the book:-
But (and this has
happened before with me) I remember both as appearing transposed,
with the round part and the steps to the right. Hmmm. That's
just my mad head! The second reading was in the early 2000s when I
re-read the book, and that time I was inspired, I think, after
watching a TV programme with a roundhouse in it. This time I
insisted on having a copy which featured the cottage illustration on
the front (my previous book didn't) as this one is intended to be a
bookcase stayer.
Enough of the history!
Back to the story and this has artistic and relatable main
characters; he a musician, she an illustrator- and brilliant add-on
people such as down-to-earth, plain-speaking-yet-humerous musician
Bob, and equally as straightforward butch lesbian Val. Mycroft was
suitable creepy, Kinsella suitably fake and Sixsmythe- whose
old-worlde name kind of relates to the quaint village
atmosphere stressed throughout the novel- the epitome of a vicar.
The links with magic (always an interest of mine) kept me compelled,
as did the detailing of this lovely little cottage itself, and the
way the good magic began to evolve in terms of strengthening Midge
and Mike's relationship; and nurturing the local wildlife. It wasn't
spelled out, but I guessed that our successful main couple were in
their thirties, and quite modern (for the 1980s) in that they were
just co-habiting and didn't seem to plan on getting married, despite
their true love for one another. With mentions of crackly phone
lines (there was no internet or mobile phones!), this is very much a
novel of its time.
The bad magic was
interesting, but maybe (and this is only a maybe) a tad too
drawn out- some of the later chapters, where the couple visited
Mycroft and he came to wreck havoc within the cottage could perhaps
have been condensed (although I did like Mycroft's weird pyramid
room...) I loved the twist in the tale when deceased Flora Chaldean,
who owned the cottage before Mike and Midge, puts in an appearance
and tells Mike (spoiler alert!) that it's he who has the
magical powers rather than Midge, and I especially adored tame
squirrel Rumbo and am (another spoiler alert) so glad that he
returned back to life after being attacked by the bats (incidentally,
I didn't find the bats initially scary in the same way that Mike
did). I enjoyed the way drug use was explored, and certainly thought
the way Midge's parents died was tackled with balance; although there
was a purposeful amount of too-much-information that bordered on
gore; but then I believe that that's this authors style, and indeed,
this book is considered tame for James Herbert.
This is one atmospheric
novel, very much worth a read and yes, I would certainly love to live
in a cottage like this; only maybe one less remote and in a more
urban setting.
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