Brocken spectre: the magnified and detached shadow of an observer; typically on a mountain.
The peace of an isolated Lake District university campus is disturbed by the arrival of mature student, Hild. For Miriam and Ed, the newcomer brings darkness and disorder which reshapes every aspect of their lives, and strikes at the core of their relationship.
Miriam is determined to exorcise the shadow Hild has cast, but how? And can she justify keeping another woman out of the light, the education, she has enjoyed?
‘A powerful evocation of how shifting points of view can become fictions and unnervingly undermine a sense of identity.’
Jill Clough, Lakeland Book of the Year Prize for Fiction 2019.
‘This is a story of obsession … thoughtful and beautifully constructed … playing off the tensions between the two women against the backdrop of the campus and the nearby fells. The final confrontation when it comes is spectacular. An absolutely fascinating read, highly recommended.’
Anne Banks, This Place I Know, Handstand Press.
Brockenspectre was shortlisted for the Sceptre Prize.
Caroline Moir has had commissions from BBC Radio Leeds: Ripon Cathedral: St Wilfrid of Ripon, street theatre 2009; Kendal Community Theatre: A Passion for Kendal, street theatre 2012, Lady Anne Clifford ~ a woman cast out 2013, and The plot to kill Jesus 2015.
In 2016, she set up writing workshops with playwright Daragh Carrville and novelist Zosia Wand for Arts Council funded Kendal Yarns Festival of New Plays. In 2018 she commissioned writers for The Trouble with Women festival and the Women’s Suffrage Centenary funded Strong Women Street Theatre celebrating women’s suffrage.
She has just finished a novel, Hunting Jenet Nish, set in British Columbia, and is currently writing the first of two prequels, as well as a memoir in short stories, the swaying corridors of the wagon-lits, extracts from which have been published in print and online.
