Why are country houses so often the perfect settings for horror novels? Might it be that they are big, with lots of dusty rooms, isolated from their neighbours and with a long history of past owners? Well, yes, when you write it like that the answer seems pretty obvious. But that's just one of the reasons, as Louise Davidson, author of the Gothic novel The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond, explains.
From Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto to the modern day, the Gothic novel has long captured our imaginations and preyed on our fears, especially at this, the spookiest time of year. We associate so much of horror with the screen these days, so it was fascinating to look behind the scenes of horror in fiction, to discover the craft behind unsettling and scaring a reader.
- Listen to Country Life podcast on Apple Podcasts
- Listen to Country Life podcast on Spotify
- Listen to Country Life podcast on Audible
Louise herself is no stranger to the supernatural. Growing up in Northern Ireland with an aunt who was — and had been since childhood — possessed of supernatural gifts made the idea of thinking, talking and writing about ghosts second nature to Louise. But there's far more to our obsession with haunted houses than just the ghost stories which we tell, as she explains.
But most of all, Louise is just a great person to have a chat with, ghosts and various country-house horrors aside. I learned a lot just from listening to her, and I'm sure you will too.
You can follow Louise Davidson on X and Instagram, or see more about The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond.
Episode credits
- Host: James Fisher
- Guest: Louise Davidson
- Editor and Producer: Toby Keel
- Music: JuliusH via Pixabay
'We talk about life's big questions with people who probably thought they were just coming in to discuss the redecoration of their house': Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham on the Country Life Podcast
Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham of Salvesen Graham join James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast.
Poems about pies, the foul-mouthed parrot upstaging Margaret Atwood and starting World War III via Desert Island Discs: Ian McMillan on the Country Life Podcast
Poet, broadcaster and writer Ian McMillan joins the Country Life Podcast.
Podcast: Britain's best architects, interior designers, craftspeople and garden designers
Giles Kime joins James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast to explain how he and the team come up with
Norman Foster on the Country Life podcast: 'The Green Belt is one of our greatest inventions'
Lord Norman Foster, one of Britain's great architects, joins the Country Life podcast.
Credit: Country Life Picture Library
'The best job in the world': Listen to Mark Hedges on The Country Life Podcast
Country Life has launched a podcast, and for the first episode we're pulling back the curtain on the making of
-
Country Life Quiz of the Day: Houses, volcanoes and a bullseye10 questions to test your memory, nous and instinct for a wild guess.
-
'We’re still using the garden gates from Far from the Madding Crowd': How homes of all shapes and sizes can become stars of the screenRenting your house out for filming can be fun, occasionally alarming, a good revenue stream and might even increase its value.
