The Uninvited Guests - Sadie Jones

'It was true: a small group of people was emerging from the gloom of the drive...slowly and all together.'


I am a big admirer of this writer - I loved her last novel Small Wars, and for me and for very many other readers, her debut novel The Outcast is a real favourite. The book jacket for her latest novel, The Uninvited Guests', displays a sticker billing the story as a 'supernatural new drama', so we know straight away that we may expect some extraordinary events as the story unfolds, and that this book will offer something a little bit different. 

The story takes us back to 1912, to the day of Emerald Torrington's twentieth birthday, with preparations underway for her party that evening. Meanwhile, their country home, Sterne, is at risk of being lost, if stepfather Edward Swift cannot find some quick solution to their financial woes. His wife Charlotte still mourns her beloved first husband Horace, and children Emerald, Clovis and Imogen 'Smudge' all miss their father; Clovis in particular regards his stepfather Edward with disdain, and Emerald is in tears, realising 'that the resented step-parent was now her devoutly wished-for rescuer'. Edward sets off to Manchester to seek the necessary funds by whatever unhappy means he can. We learn though that the Torrington family has lived here and there, and that Sterne is not an ancestral estate at all. Then news filters to the house that there has been a rail disaster on a nearby branch line, and that survivors will need temporary shelter at Sterne. This unsettles the family and guests in place for the birthday supper, and much uncertainty ensues as the mysterious group of survivors arrives, and the family fails to deal adequately with the resulting situation at first, as their usually ordered, rigid existence is disrupted. 

I enjoyed this strange novel, a combination of an Edwardian country house drama and an unsettling ghost story. I loved the very witty and wry commentary and sharp observations from the author on the characters and their behaviour. The three children are all interesting though not particularly likeable, perhaps with the exception of young Smudge. Emerald wonders the garden talking to herself, and doesn't initially seem particularly fond of any the guests coming for her birthday. Clovis seems sulky, selfish and spoiled. Smudge is evidently used to entertaining herself much of the time; indeed 'Smudge was very often forgotten', and there are a couple of hilarious incidents of Smudge's own making involving Lady, the horse. 

Equally clever and entertaining are some of the descriptions, some real gems, in particular one about a 'low settee. This item of furniture was best suited to polite perching as the seat was broken entirely; it was but an empty promise of a seat.' I could often visualise scenes in the novel from the vivid descriptions. This tale takes a sinister, unsettling turn when the strange uninvited guests appear, seeming at first to be one huge mass, and appearing to increase in number. There is no word of assistance from the Railway, and then another man arrives, Charlie Traversham-Beechers, who immediately unsettles some of the birthday guests and his unsettling presence will bring about revelations and change the course of the night; ‘he was like a magnet, the air was thick with the pull of him’. For some of the members of the family, and some of the guests, there is a transformation or an insight into themselves and their true feelings by the end of the novel, a self-realisation which brings joy for some of them and instills a degree of acceptance and kindness into others, bringing about unexpected alliances. It's difficult to say more without spoiling the story for other readers. If you are open to a different style of novel, you might just find this one rewarding. 

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Published by Chatto & Windus on 22 March 2012. 


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