''The Secret of Crickley Hall'' is a 2006 supernatural thriller novel by the British writer

James Herbert James John Herbert, OBE (8 April 1943 – 20 March 2013) was an English horror writer. A full-time writer, he also designed his own book covers and publicity. His books have sold 54 million copies worldwide, and have been translated into 34 l ...

Synopsis

2006

Gabe Caleigh, his wife Eve, and their children, Loren, Cameron and Cally, live in London. One day Cameron goes missing when Eve falls asleep for a few seconds at a playground and he simply disappears. Eleven months later, Gabe is offered a short-term contract of employment on the coast. Anxious for his wife, he suggests that a relocation over the period of the anniversary could help the whole family. On arriving at Crickley Hall, they meet Percy Judd who worked there during the war; he seems concerned for their children. They start to settle in but before long, strange things start to happen at the house. They hear people, Cally claims to have been hit by a man with a cane and their dog runs away in terror. In the house Eve hears her missing son’s voice for the first time in a year. He says he is alive and the children can tell her where he is. After Loren suffers a terrifyingly real nightmare where she gets whipped by the man with the cane, Gabe wants them all to leave, but Eve can’t bear to abandon her son.

1943

Seventy years earlier, Crickley Hall is an orphanage for children evacuated from

the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

. Nancy is interviewed for the position of ‘tutor’ by Magda, sister of Augustus Cribben who runs the orphanage. Nancy meets the children, including six-year-old Stefan, a Polish refugee, and twelve-year-old Maurice, the class sneak. Cribben keeps in the shadows – he hasn’t been the same since he was injured in the Blitz. Nancy suspects the orphans are being mistreated, especially Stefan. When Nancy finally meets Cribben, she is appalled by a man who seems out of control. She tries to rescue the orphans but is fired, and no-one believes her apart from young Percy, who is about to be called up to war.

Setting

The village of Hollow Bay in ''The Secret Of Crickley Hall'' is based on

Lynmouth Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England, on the northern edge of Exmoor. The village straddles the confluence of the West Lyn and East Lyn rivers, in a gorge below Lynton, which was the only place to expand to once Lynmouth became as bu ...

Exmoor National Park Exmoor is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simonsbath. ...

, Devon; Devil's Cleave is the

East Lyn Valley East Lyn Valley is a valley of Exmoor, covering northern Devon and western Somerset, England. The East Lyn River is formed from several main tributaries including Hoar Oak Water beginning near Weir Water. Its mouth is at Lynmouth at the confluen ...

and Watersmeet. The book brings together two stories, child evacuees during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and the 1952 flood disaster that devastated Lynmouth.

Television adaptation

A three-part serial was broadcast weekly on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

from 18 November 2012.

References

2006 British novels British thriller novels British novels adapted into television shows Novels by James Herbert Pan Books books {{2000s-horror-novel-stub