I find it fascinating that Jackson describes the house for nearly two pages without ever physically describing it, other than to say it's 'enormous and dark' and has steps leading up to a veranda. I'd forgotten just what a genius description of the Hill House we're treated to when Eleanor first sees it. The interaction in the diner is classic Shirley Jackson-capturing the suspicion and unease and boredom of small town life. Again, it takes a few pages to get there, but it allows for wonderful scenes where her imagination takes flight or where she interacts, awkwardly, with the townsfolk in the nearest small town. Then we follow Eleanor, the main character, as she takes the car she shares with her sister and drives to Hill House.

A contemporary editor might have said: 'Cut this out and get right to the story,' but to me these opening pages are wonderful little character studies. I love the fact that the opening pages essentially replicate the clinical nature of the premise: here's the chief investigator, here are the three other characters, all described at a clinical remove before we get into the 'story' itself. The premise is that of a science experiment-an academic exercise to test the reality of house-haunting. A contemporary editor might have said: 'Cut this out and get right to the story,' but to I'm falling in love with this book all over again as I re-read it. I'm falling in love with this book all over again as I re-read it.

Hunted hill house