User:GrahamHardy/Sandpit

In Plain Sight is non-fiction book with the strapline 'an investigation into UFOs and impossible science' by Australian investigative journalist Ross Coulthard published by HarperCollins in 2021.

Plot introduction
The narrative is split between the stories of Flora and her son Molloy but the narratives do not overlap. Flora has contends with the death of her own father, the difficult relationship with her mother May, and then birth of her sister Olga who her mother May dotes on. Flora becomes independent of her family and becomes the governess for Hugh, a six-year-old boy who is then killed in a car accident. Flora's life is accompanied by a series of bereavements and disappointments. Her son also mirrors her experiences of death as he becomes a doctor. The greatest regret is that he was unable to be there at the death of his mother Flora. His wife Elizabeth is also beset by illness which he is determined to ameliorate...

Reception

 * Carol Birch in The Independent writes that 'Susan Hill writes piercingly about grief and its aftermath...The Service of Clouds is skilfully structured, seamlessly blending past and present...Hill's lean, sharp prose and consistently detached tone create a severe and rather beautiful book, with a certain plain poetry that flows silkily off the page. What little conversation there is, is stylised, repetitive and curiously formal.'
 * The Times writes that the novel 'contains echoes of Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse...Hill is rare among contemporary writers...a meticulous down-to-earth and strangely beautiful novel'.