Prisoner’s Base

Celia Fremlin’s sixth novel Prisoner’s Base (1967) served further proof of her mastery at uncovering anxieties and even terrors in the domestic sphere. It tells of grandmother Margaret, her daughter Claudia, and Claudia’s daughter Helen, who share a home from which Claudia’s husband is frequently absent. Claudia has a penchant for taking strangers under her wing and into the house, the danger being that they never leave. But a different danger is proposed by Maurice, a self-styled poet who boasts that he has served seven years in prison for manslaughter.

‘Haunting…Fremlin continues to prove that the modern horror story makes the traditional Gothic one no more than a child’s make-believe.’ Los Angeles Times

‘Gripping… a tense thriller that keeps one in suspense until the very last line.’ Manchester Evening News