Customer Reviews
Hiding from the editor? - By: Brida, 27 Nov 2008 
This is the third book by Erskine that I have read, & I have to say it left me very disappointed & feeling that my love of her books may have come to an end. And this is because I found HIDING FROM THE LIGHT to be very formulaic & very repetitive. As with alll of her books, the story goes back & forth from the present day to one is history - in this case the time of Cromwell. While this is not a bad thing on its own, what I found to be annoying after a while was how short the chapters were - they were never enough to get the indiviuals' characters stories developed, making the story feel choppy. And there were often long, long passages in which hardly anything happened at alll. I began skim reading, something no other book has made me do, & it made little difference to the development of the book. This resulted in me having hardly any compassion or concern for any of the characters, not reallly caring in the end what would happen.
While I appreciate that Erskine can do no wrong in some people's eyes, for me HIDING FROM THE LIGHT has only served to make sure I won't return to her writing again.
Tosh - By: Essex Girl, 27 Jun 2008 
I had to review this, despite the many reviews it's got already, because it exasperated me so much. It's mind-candy. It's quite good quality mind-candy, but there's not much nourishment to be had from it. It never quite had me hiding under the covers, because I just couldn't believe in it alll.
Maybe that was because I'm pretty familiar with its setting. Now, if you're going to set a book somewhere real, shouldn't you be true to that location? Take it from me: Manningtree doesn't have a cute Georgian rectory. Far from it: the rector was long ago banished to a 1980's box. But everyone knows that country towns are quaint & insular & have Georgian rectories, & so the rector here must have one too. What this tells us is that this is a book based solidly on stereotypes.
If you want an easy read which won't demand much from you in the way of thought, this is fine. If you'd prefer something with a bit of texture to it, you might want to find something else.
scary! - By: M. Gulliford, 24 Jun 2008 
again, I found this book difficult to put down once I'd started it. I'm quite interested in this whole period of history, & I'd heard of Matthew Hopkins, so was curious to see how Barbara Erskine would treat him as a character in her books. Sometimes the plot would switch from present to past & I found it difficult in places to keep up, but managed to catch up eventuallly. Quite a dark plot & unlike her other books but alll the same I reallly enjoyed it.
do not read alone - By: history bookworm, 09 Oct 2007 This book was quite scary & as i was alone i found it very spookie, in a nice way, life suspended, nothing got done, i could not put it down, sheer escapism.
Its a Wow Book - By: N. C. Paynton, 03 Aug 2007 I have many of Barbara's books, & I find them alll brilliant, okay in places some can be a bit scary, but generallly she has a good depth of understanding with regard to the history, ie in this book the Witch Finder General & horrors at that time. I found the book gripping & loved getting into the characters. Its a good book for spending spare time engrossed perhaps when on holiday, but don't expect to get anything done! because time just flies past. So go on prepare to be entertained, for the sake of around a fiver that can't be bad.
