Rereading: TAMSIN by Peter S. Beagle

Cover art by Paul Youll

As the story opens, Jenny and her mother, a music teacher, are living in a New York City apartment with Jenny’s cat Mister Cat, and she is struggling with the challenges of adolescence, but their lives are about to change. Jenny’s mother Sally has fallen in love with Ewan, from Britain, and they plan to marry. Ewan and Sally want to relocate to London, which Jenny is dead set against, but eventually she has to comply, even though Mister Cat must spend six months in quarantine. Before they even settle in London, Ewan is offered a new well-paid job on an estate in Dorset, and the family, along with Ewan’s two sons Tony and Julian, are soon moving into a terribly run-down mansion on an equally run-down farm that Ewan, an agricultural specialist, has taken on to rehabilitate and make into a working business again.

At first Jenny finds little joy in Dorset, but becomes intrigued by local legends and things she sees and hears in the house and on the grounds, ancient creatures and spirits from pre-Christian times that have somehow survived in the Dorset night, from bogles to pookas to the wild hunt. Then things get more interesting when Jenny finds a secret room on the third floor that has a ghost. Tamsin is that ghost, daughter of the first owner of the house, and against all odds, Jenny and Tamsin become friends, and explore the farm nights together, as Tamsin gradually reveals her story. It’s a story with a dark side, and another ghost of a man that stalked her in life, and continues to do so in death.

I had completely forgotten this 1999 book, so it was like reading it for the first time, and as with most of Beagle’s work, it’s excellent. Great, very real characters, wonderfully imaginative plot and setting, fine writing. Highly recommended.

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