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Barred Window
Thomas Penmarsh has always lived at Finisterre, by the sea. He sleeps in the room with the barred window and looks down on the cats in the garden. He is 48, but he has been an old man since 1967 when he lost everything he valued. Then cousin Esmond came back and rescued him from despair.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published March 29, 1994
About the author
Andrew Taylor
58 books755 followersAndrew Taylor (b. 1951) is a British author of mysteries. Born in East Anglia, he attended university at Cambridge before getting an MA in library sciences from University College London. His first novel, Caroline Miniscule (1982), a modern-day treasure hunt starring history student William Dougal, began an eight-book series and won Taylor wide critical acclaim. He has written several other thriller series, most notably the eight Lydmouthbooks, which begin with An Air That Kills (1994).
His other novels include The Office of the Dead (2000) and The American Boy (2003), both of which won the Crime Writers’ Association of Britain’s Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award, making Taylor the only author to receive the prize twice. His Roth trilogy, which has been published in omnibus form as Requiem for an Angel (2002), was adapted by the UK’s ITV for its television show Fallen Angel. Taylor’s most recent novel is the historical thriller The Scent of Death (2013).
His other novels include The Office of the Dead (2000) and The American Boy (2003), both of which won the Crime Writers’ Association of Britain’s Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award, making Taylor the only author to receive the prize twice. His Roth trilogy, which has been published in omnibus form as Requiem for an Angel (2002), was adapted by the UK’s ITV for its television show Fallen Angel. Taylor’s most recent novel is the historical thriller The Scent of Death (2013).
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 11, 2009
It is a strange thing that Andrew Taylor can coexist in this world with Beatrix Potter. No, never mind Beatrix Potter; even in their childrens' books the English display an acerbic edge, which is why most Americans have never really understood the true Mary Poppins, preferring to visualize her as the syrupy version presented by Walt Disney rather than the ambiguous and even vaguely threatening persona she actually is. So let's say, coexist in the same world as Mary Louise Alcott, where humankind, while not perfect, strides unequivocally for good. In Andrew Taylor's world, it is a given that humankind is fatally flawed, selfish and self-interested, and it is those who part from that ethos who are unusual.
I have a feeling that this view is particularly prevalent in Taylor's early books like The Barred Window. The barred window is a metaphor for the barred person -- the child, manipulated and deprived, who grows up stunted and blocked, and, finally, very, very twisted. Thomas Penmarsh, unloved by his hypocritical, church-going mother, forms an unhealthy dependence on his domineering cousin, a big-time user of anyone who can get him what he needs, solely because this cousin, Esmond, has always "taken care of him". I won't go into the details of the plot except to say that save for one person, there is not a decent character in the book, including the narrator, whose entire life consists of the avoidance of "unpleasantness". And yet Taylor's voice is so chillingly compelling, his characters are so rivetingly real that I could no more turn away than a snake can from a snake charmer. And the ending brought about that combination of surprise, inevitability and satisfaction that is to be found in the best books.
It is fascinating, though, to consider the general difference between english and american authors. I could get into trouble here because this is a thought I'm developing on the fly, but it seems to me that although American literature abounds with bad parents, the fact of their badness or inadequacy is always presented as an anomaly, as something to properly rage against, seek therapy to overcome, because of its intrisic wrongness. In Taylor's world (also Kate Atkinson's, P.D. James', etc.) bad parenting seems an accepted fact of life, no more notable than getting vanilla rather than chocolate at the ice cream store. One seeks to BLOCK the evil, but one doesn't spend a lot of time inveighing AGAINST it. Okay, so there are probably dozens of examples where this sweeping generality falls by the wayside, but it just seems to me that the English, and maybe the Europeans, are simply much more cynical and stoic about the vagaries of life.
So, back to the book. Not one of my favorites, glad this wasn't my first Andrew Taylor as I might have found it off-putting, but well written and psychologized like all his work. I continue to find him a fascinating author.
I have a feeling that this view is particularly prevalent in Taylor's early books like The Barred Window. The barred window is a metaphor for the barred person -- the child, manipulated and deprived, who grows up stunted and blocked, and, finally, very, very twisted. Thomas Penmarsh, unloved by his hypocritical, church-going mother, forms an unhealthy dependence on his domineering cousin, a big-time user of anyone who can get him what he needs, solely because this cousin, Esmond, has always "taken care of him". I won't go into the details of the plot except to say that save for one person, there is not a decent character in the book, including the narrator, whose entire life consists of the avoidance of "unpleasantness". And yet Taylor's voice is so chillingly compelling, his characters are so rivetingly real that I could no more turn away than a snake can from a snake charmer. And the ending brought about that combination of surprise, inevitability and satisfaction that is to be found in the best books.
It is fascinating, though, to consider the general difference between english and american authors. I could get into trouble here because this is a thought I'm developing on the fly, but it seems to me that although American literature abounds with bad parents, the fact of their badness or inadequacy is always presented as an anomaly, as something to properly rage against, seek therapy to overcome, because of its intrisic wrongness. In Taylor's world (also Kate Atkinson's, P.D. James', etc.) bad parenting seems an accepted fact of life, no more notable than getting vanilla rather than chocolate at the ice cream store. One seeks to BLOCK the evil, but one doesn't spend a lot of time inveighing AGAINST it. Okay, so there are probably dozens of examples where this sweeping generality falls by the wayside, but it just seems to me that the English, and maybe the Europeans, are simply much more cynical and stoic about the vagaries of life.
So, back to the book. Not one of my favorites, glad this wasn't my first Andrew Taylor as I might have found it off-putting, but well written and psychologized like all his work. I continue to find him a fascinating author.
Read
February 8, 2009The Barred Window, by Andrew Taylor, A. Narrated by Simon Shepherd, produced by BBC-WW, downloaded from audible.com.
Thomas Penmarsh has lived in the estate house Fenisterre by the sea all of his life. His cousin Cousin Esmond is staying with him and his mother when Esmond’s mother commits suicide, so Esmond moves in with Thomas and his mother and is part of the family. Thomas meets Isabelle, has sex with her one night when they were drugged on LSD and she becomes pregnant. They marry and have a daughter. Then, through mysterious circumstances which Thomas never totally explains to us, Isabelle falls down the tairs and dies, and the baby, Alice, is adopted by someone else. Esmond ultimately comes back with his girl friend to move in with Thomas to take care of him after Thomas’ mother dies. Then Alice, whom neither of them has seen for 26 years, decides to come for a visit. Things get very tense, as Esmond is trying to convince Thomas to sell the house, whereas Alice wants him to keep it so she can inherit it. Finally things come to a climax and something happens. We aren’t quite sure what. And that is the beauty of the story and of other Taylor stand-alones. You think you know the family involved, but do you really? Highly recommended.
Thomas Penmarsh has lived in the estate house Fenisterre by the sea all of his life. His cousin Cousin Esmond is staying with him and his mother when Esmond’s mother commits suicide, so Esmond moves in with Thomas and his mother and is part of the family. Thomas meets Isabelle, has sex with her one night when they were drugged on LSD and she becomes pregnant. They marry and have a daughter. Then, through mysterious circumstances which Thomas never totally explains to us, Isabelle falls down the tairs and dies, and the baby, Alice, is adopted by someone else. Esmond ultimately comes back with his girl friend to move in with Thomas to take care of him after Thomas’ mother dies. Then Alice, whom neither of them has seen for 26 years, decides to come for a visit. Things get very tense, as Esmond is trying to convince Thomas to sell the house, whereas Alice wants him to keep it so she can inherit it. Finally things come to a climax and something happens. We aren’t quite sure what. And that is the beauty of the story and of other Taylor stand-alones. You think you know the family involved, but do you really? Highly recommended.
January 7, 2015
A seriously creepy book -- with a twist near the end (which I did guess -- though I'm still not sure what happened right at the end!)
Very different from his Lydmouth series.
Very different from his Lydmouth series.
October 11, 2024
I love Andrew Taylor but this novel...is a tad on the boring side....
I kept on expecting the story to pick up in intensity or take some unexpected turn, but it never did. While the style of writing is very good,which is Taylors trade mark....
I think most people would still nonetheless give up on this one part way through.
DNF..
Ps. His Lydmouth Series is first Class....do not miss.
I kept on expecting the story to pick up in intensity or take some unexpected turn, but it never did. While the style of writing is very good,which is Taylors trade mark....
I think most people would still nonetheless give up on this one part way through.
DNF..
Ps. His Lydmouth Series is first Class....do not miss.
March 29, 2020
It had a good build up, but the ending was disappointing.
September 23, 2016
This novel was originally published in 1993. This and two of the author’s other three stand-alone novels, The Raven on the Water and A Stain on the Silence, were republished in 2007 by Penguin. I have read all three of these Penguin reprints now and I have to say that this one is the least engaging of the three. Having read the “one-line” reviews on the book’s cover indicating what a suspense-filled thriller this is, I kept on expecting the story to pick up in intensity or take some unexpected turn, but it never did. The story isn’t exactly boring, but it’s pretty unimaginative throughout and has a non-surprise ending. While the style of writing is very good, I think most people would nonetheless give up on this one part way through.
If you haven’t read Andrew Taylor before, don’t start with this one. The Raven on the Water is definitely more interesting. This author also has two British detective series.
If you haven’t read Andrew Taylor before, don’t start with this one. The Raven on the Water is definitely more interesting. This author also has two British detective series.
November 7, 2011
"Is there a spell on this place?" I remember asking my mother. "Don't be so stupid, Thomas," she said. `Magic isn't real."
Thomas Penmarsh has always lived at Finisterre, the house by the sea. He sleeps in the room with the barred window and looks down on the cats in the garden. He is 48: but he has been an old man since one evening in 1967 when he lost everything he valued. Then Cousin Esmond came back and rescued him from despair and the cats; Esmond always looks after Thomas.
But now Alice wants to come home too. Alice will spoil it all if she returns, because she brings the past with her. From the moment of her conception, she has been a child of enchantment, madness and death.
Ohh I loved this...a lovely slow burning, suspenseful gothic novel with more than a touch of the Daphne du Mauriers. Beautifully written with a gripping plot and one of my favourite fiction devices; the possible unreliable narrator. Subtle, disturbing, beautifully paced with memorable characters and a story that creeps along with a whispering dread to the shocking denouement.
Fab!
Thomas Penmarsh has always lived at Finisterre, the house by the sea. He sleeps in the room with the barred window and looks down on the cats in the garden. He is 48: but he has been an old man since one evening in 1967 when he lost everything he valued. Then Cousin Esmond came back and rescued him from despair and the cats; Esmond always looks after Thomas.
But now Alice wants to come home too. Alice will spoil it all if she returns, because she brings the past with her. From the moment of her conception, she has been a child of enchantment, madness and death.
Ohh I loved this...a lovely slow burning, suspenseful gothic novel with more than a touch of the Daphne du Mauriers. Beautifully written with a gripping plot and one of my favourite fiction devices; the possible unreliable narrator. Subtle, disturbing, beautifully paced with memorable characters and a story that creeps along with a whispering dread to the shocking denouement.
Fab!
December 7, 2010
Riding on the back of Taylor's recent successes (Richard & Judy books and TV adaptions) his publishers seem to have decided to reprint a couple of his old books. Which is good news for me as I've been hunting round second hand bookshops for his books for the past couple of years.
I loved this story. There's a quote on the back cover comparing it to Daphne du Maurier which isn't far off the mark. It's a very moody sort of story with an odd narrator, Thomas Penmarsh, who has lived all his life in the same house. He tells of his childhood with his cousin Esmond whilst in the present day he & Esmond are preparing for a visit from his daughter Alice. The story unfolds very slowly and atmospherically with some very sinister twists.
Highly recommended.
September 9, 2011
Another excellent read from the ever-dependable Andrew Taylor. Complex relationships in an isolated community, caught up in unresolved conflicts from childhood, make this a claustrophobic and unsettling read. Taylor is one of the best when it comes to effectively combining believable characters and a compelling plot.
I've said it before: Andrew Taylor is under-rated and he should be much better known than he is. Streets ahead of authors like Val McDermid and Henning Mankell, but mysteriously they are always in the spotlight, while Taylor is rarely mentioned. Try his stuff, you won't be disappointed.
© Koplowitz 2011
I've said it before: Andrew Taylor is under-rated and he should be much better known than he is. Streets ahead of authors like Val McDermid and Henning Mankell, but mysteriously they are always in the spotlight, while Taylor is rarely mentioned. Try his stuff, you won't be disappointed.
© Koplowitz 2011
September 15, 2014
Nicely written as a psychological thriller....the book does transport you to a different world...
but the suspense wasn't suspenseful enough
but the suspense wasn't suspenseful enough
April 24, 2016
Slow. Tedious. Uninteresting.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews