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    The Greatcoat
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    The Greatcoat
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    The Greatcoat
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Greatcoat

    Written by Helen Dunmore

    Narrated by Gabrielle Glaister

    3/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to Yorkshire with her husband Philip, a GP. With Philip spending long hours on call, Isabel finds herself isolated and lonely. Woken by intense cold one night, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under it for warmth, she starts to dream. And not long afterwards, she is startled by a knock at her window…

    A chilling and atmospheric ghost story by the Orange Prize winning Helen Dunmore
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateApr 1, 2012
    ISBN9781407499444
    Unavailable
    The Greatcoat
    Author

    Helen Dunmore

    HELEN DUNMORE is a novelist, short story writer and poet. She has written twenty-two children’s books, including Brother Brother, Sister Sister; The Lilac Tree; The Seal Cove; and the bestselling Ingo series. She has written nine adult books including A Spell of Winter, which won the 1996 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her poetry collections have won the Poetry Society’s Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize and the Signal Poetry Award. Helen Dunmore was born in Yorkshire, England, and now lives in Bristol with her husband and children.

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    Reviews for The Greatcoat

    3/5

    112 ratings14 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This was not bad. It was very readable, but didn't really live up to my expectations, as it had come highly recommended. The concept was very good and so was the writing, but I never really felt the horror of the situation and it didn't work as a spooky romance either. I did like that my brain seemed to process it in black and white and directed by Hitchcock, the husband probably played by David Niven... yeah, maybe I'll read it again. Sometimes your mood can dictate how you read a story.
    • 2/5
      Isabel Carey is a newly married doctors wife living in Yorkshire. It's 1952 and the war is not long over. Her husband is not at home very much and Issy becomes lonely. In the back of a cupboard she finds a greatcoat and when she uses it for warmth there is a knock at the window.Outside is a young pilot who wants to come in.When I first started this book I thought I was reading a childrens book, the writing and descriptions are really basic. The book is a ghost story and I have to say not very creepy at all. At times I was quite confused with what was going on. I did think is there a bit of time travel too but it comes clear later on.The story is not engrossing and although it is only a short book it seemed like it was not going to end. I tried very hard to like this book but as the story progressed I was getting more bored. I was hoping for something to happen to make the read worthwhile. What did happen I guessed early on and the story was predictable.A very poor attempt at a ghost story. I haven't read any books by this author before so I can't compare it to her other books. There are a lot better ghost stories out there with James Herbets Haunted being a good one to read.
    • 4/5
      This is a story of Issy, who one day finds an old army greatcoat, in a cupboard, in the rooms they are renting.She uses the coat on her, and husband's bed, to keep herself warm. One night, she hears a tap on the window, and looking out, sees the face of a young airforce man, beckoning her to come.I really enjoyed this book, because it told the story of two young people, one living in the present, and one living in the past, and how across the ages, they spent time together, caught up in an incident, that continued to happen day after, through using the greatcoat.
    • 3/5
      Strangely low-key. Not clear if it's a story of lonely depression or a haunting, which is maybe the point. Heroine's husband is really a bore, the "ghost" only slightly less so, with cheery bookishness and an enthusiasm for motorbikes.. The sinister figure is the landlady on whom the plot turns.
    • 4/5
      World War 2 ghost story, set in 1952By sally tarbox on 18 June 2017Format: Kindle EditionMaybe 3.5* for this very readable ghost story. It's 1952, winter, and newly-wed Isabel Carey is living in unlovely digs with her preoccupied GP husband and a landlady she dislikes. When she unearths an old greatcoat stashed in a cupboard, she uses it as an additional blanket in bed. And suddenly, and mysteriously, she starts getting visits from a WW2 airman..."There was a man outside the window. She saw the pallor of his face first, as it seemed to bob against the glass, too high up to belong to a man who had his feet on the ground...The level of the ground there was higher than the floor inside. That was why he seemed to float in mid-air. A man in a greatcoat..."The 'wrinkle in time' means that the local airbase, a ruin in 1952, is once again a hub of activity. Isabel seems to be morphing into the woman whom Alec the airman was seeing back in the War. It's a slightly confusing plotline, but one that Helen Dunmore manages to handle.Read in one sitting; it's a short novel so I didn't get particularly wrapped up in the characters, but the plotline keeps you reading.
    • 3/5
      It’s just after WWII; rations are still in place, food and fuel shortages are still the norm, decent housing is hard to come by, blackout curtains still hang in some windows, the bombings are still a fresh memory and some don’t realize it’s all over. Newlyweds Isabel and Philip Carey have moved in to a small rental flat in Yorkshire, where Philip is beginning his medical practice. More often than not Isabel finds herself alone in the tiny, cold flat. Looking for more blankets that she is sure the stingy landlady has hidden away, Isabel discovers a “Greatcoat” tucked into the back of a cupboard. Although it is not a blanket Isabel decides the heavy wool coat will suit just fine to keep her warm through the night. Soon enough Isabel becomes aware that the coat brings with it more than warmth and learns that sometimes people are not exactly as they appear.

      This was a short book, a simple story and, easily read. The scene Ms. Dunmore sets is contained; a small flat in a small village and, down the road, a deserted airfield. As far as the characters go, there are four main ones and everyone else is pretty much a walk-on. The limited cast and venue of the book aid in building the mystery and the suspense because it is clear to the reader that nothing goes unnoticed (almost). The mystery and suspense carry through to a very satisfying ending that I really didn’t see coming until, well … until the very end.
    • 3/5
      I bought this book on the strength of some of Helen Dunmore's other historical fiction. [The Siege], shortlisted for the Orange Prize, was a compelling story set during the siege of Leningrad. It's sequel, [The Betrayal], was also quite good and covered the fictitious Doctor's Plot, the last purge before Stalin's death.[The Greatcoat] is also historical fiction set in World War II, but it is much shorter than the other two, and it is a ghost story of sorts. Normally I don't read paranormal fiction, but the setting and the strength of the author's other works convinced me to try it. Although I enjoyed the bits about the pilots flying sorties from England, I didn't care much for the main plot. A young newlywed and her doctor husband move into a shabby apartment, where the woman discovers a WWII greatcoat and uses it to stay warm. The owner of the coat then beings to make his appearance. A short read, it made for a diverting hour or two, but the book is not one that will stay with me long.
    • 3/5
      This is the first novel by Helen Dunmore that I've read and I gather she's capable of better than this, if the other reviews are anything to go by. I thought The Greatcoat was quite atmospheric with a real sense of time and place, but found the characters slightly irritating and I drifted out of the book around halfway through, reaching the end with a sense of relief. An adequate time-passer, probably quite forgettable.
    • 4/5
      a charming, chilling little ghost story. More internal than extrernal, as all the best hauntings should be. Wonderful description. No big scares, but a pervading sense of creepiness and sadness.
    • 3/5
      The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore is a 'ghost story' set in the 1950s English countryside. It's told by Is, newly married to a young GP who finds an old RAF uniform greatcoat hidden away in a cupboard at the flat they are renting from the reclusive and enigmatic landlady, Mrs Atkinson. The coat transmits some kind of other-world energy to Is, who begins a love affair with its former owner. This short book has all the trademark Dunmore touches - slightly disconnected female protagonist, off-kilter relationships and a progressive disintegration of normality. In a way, her natural style lends itself to the creation of an atmosphere conducive to developing a ghost story. For me though, The Greatcoat just wasn't frightening enough (not that all ghost stories have to be frightening, although I think that's a must), and if it hadn't been billed as such, I wouldn't automatically of categorised it as one. The writing's up to Dunmore's usual high standard,and I didn't dislike the book, but I can't rave about its ghost story credentials. © Koplowitz 2013
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written ghost story set in 1950s rural England that centers around an RAF WWII greatcoat. This is my introduction to Helen Dunmore. I'm already looking for more titles.
    • 3/5
      Chose this one for my ghost story for October and was not disappointed. Have a rather love, hate relationship with Dunmore, some of her novels are brilliant and others not so much. This one is a solid ghost story, set in Yorkshire, about 6 years after the end of the war. Not everyone seems to know the war has ended though and while this is was not a terrifying read, it was chilling enough for me. Some people just cannot seem to move on.
    • 3/5
      I was a little disappointed about the whole story and, in particular, the ending. However, I did enjoy the haunted feeling that the author evoked when writing about Alec.
    • 4/5
      As you know, Helen Dunmore is one of my favourite authors. The GreatCoat was a disappointment to me though. It's the story of a young, recently married woman, Isabel Carey. She and her physician husband, Phillip live as renters in a cold basement apartment of Yorkshire. She is quite lonely and her husband, though very attentive, is busy with his new practise. Because the apartment is so cold, one night she digs up an old "Great Coat" from a former RAF to keep her warm. Via this greacoat, she is visited by a now dead RAF flier named Alec. The novel alternates between Isabel's life in 1952 with her husband, and back during WW11.I found the story to be somewhat disjointed and truthfully, somewhat silly. I really wanted Isabel to adapt to her life as young wife and spend more time in the present, rather than the past. I guess I am not good with ghost stories.3.25 stars. I want to note that I have read many books by Helen Dunmore and loved them! This was an exception