The Darkest Part Of The Woods by Ramsey Campbell
01/12/2003 . Source: Pauline Morgan 

pub: TOR. 364 page hardback. Price: $24.95 (US), $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-30766-9.

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This book, already nominated for the British Fantasy Award, is currently only available as a limited edition from PS Publishing in the UK (June 2002), but as a mass market hardcover from the USA. The fact that British authors are frequently told that the Americans find our writing too English and parochial shows the high esteem that Campbell is held in the States.

The setting for 'The Darkest Part Of The Woods' is rural Britain in the Severn valley between Bristol and London. The Price family live in the village of Goodmanswood, near Brichester. Lennox Price and his artist wife, Margo, came many years ago to investigate and solve a problem of mass hallucination in the village.

The discovery that chemicals produced by a moss growing on a mound in the centre of the local wood was made at a cost. Affected by the moss, Lennox now lives in The Arbour, a care home overlooking the wood.

The problem was initially solved by cutting down the trees in the affected area, but the wood itself is still regarded with deep suspicion by the local people. With him are five other people also affected by the properties of the moss. His daughter and grandson live on the opposite side of the wood. Heather is repeatedly being told she does not have any imagination and Sam walks with a limp, having fallen out of a tree trying to protect the trees from a bypass.

The situation is in equilibrium until Heather's younger sister, Sylvia, returns home. Within a short time, the local children are telling tales of stick-like men coming out of the woods, Sylvia finds she is pregnant, Margo's exhibition literally disintegrates, Lennox is killed in a road accident and Sam finds he is unable to leave Goodmanswood. Sylvia begins to research the history of the wood and she and Sam explore it, finding a deep cellar at its centre.

This a good example of supernatural novel. The cause of the problem has its roots in the very distant past but it is the arrogance of mankind that has allowed it to gain a foothold. The Price family are both its tools and guard. Dimly, Lennox knows that the threat he curtailed twenty years ago is only sleeping. He and his friends are watching to prevent the next attempt of the malicious spirit of the wood to spread. There is a sense that all this has happened before, perhaps many times.

Many of the classic supernatural stories have this underlying theme of recurring horror. The challenge develop an original abomination to inflict on well developed characters. Within the bounds of the genre, Campbell succeeds. The novel is subtle and unsettling. There are no bloodbaths though there are deaths.

Woods in the dark can be creepy places especially as the year fades and the leaves fall leaving skeletons. In a lowering afternoon sun, shadows cast by the twiggy branches can easily seem sinister. The mind can be tricked into seeing things that are not there, but when the wood really is out to ensnare you...

Campbell plays on deep-seated fears in a modern setting that should be reassuring with its motorways and mobile phones. Instead, there is a small pocket of primeval forest that menaces.

Even with the richness of the English language, you would think that there were a limited number of ways to describe branches waving and shadows lengthening but such is Campbell's skill that the descriptions do not feel repetitious no matter how many times the characters wander the woods in twilight. Each time he manages to create a spooky atmosphere, building towards a climax.

Horror is not dead. Campbell proves it.

A word should also be said about the wonderful cover created by David Bowers. It fits the mood and the contents perfectly.

Pauline Morgan