Snowbound

There’s a scene in my latest book, Aldo Moon and the Ghost at Gravewood Hall, where Aldo and his companions are marooned in a remote country house (the Gravewood Hall of the title) after a night of heavy snow. The book is set in the 1880s, and when I wrote that scene, I had to think about what it must be like to be without telephone or Internet connections, four-wheel drive cars or tarmac roads. In those days, being cut off meant exactly that. You might as well be adrift at sea. To add to the visitors’ discomfort, there are untoward happenings in the house – strange sounds and ghostly disturbances at night –and they must contend with the open hostility of their hostess’s son. The house itself is old, dilapidated and mildewy. This is not a place you would wish to be stuck in for any length of time.

The house I live in is not particularly old (when Aldo Moon was strutting his stuff, this corner of North London was mostly still forest). Neither is my dwelling dilapidated or especially mildewy. There are no spooky bumps in the night – though it does have quite eccentric plumbing, causing strange rattling sounds in the early hours of the morning. Nevertheless, I was reminded of this scene in my book as I looked out of the window at seven o’clock this morning and saw the giant snowflakes tumbling down all around us. My Internet connection was down again and I was cursing loudly because I had lots of work to do. I felt cut off from the world in an almost Victorian way. Of course I could have headed off to Starbucks with my laptop and done some work there. But my imagination took me in another direction…

I turned off the heat and light and switched off my phone and computer. I put on an extra jumper, lit a candle and took out an old fountain pen and a sheaf of paper. The snow muffled the sound of the cars in the street outside. The candle cast a cosy glow over my desk. It took a while to get used to writing longhand again, but gradually the words began to flow, and there was something magical about the soft, steady scratch of my pen amid all that silence.

After a few minutes, I consulted my pocket watch and discovered to my surprise that four hours had gone by. I wanted to continue, but hunger forced me from my desk. I went downstairs, where the noise of the kettle and the toaster soon brought me out of my spell. By now the Internet was restored, and I simply had to check Facebook and Twitter. It was time to reconnect with the world.

Aldo Moon and the Ghost of Gravewood Hall will be published by Scribo on 1 February 2013.