History Literature / TheMagicCottage

-->'''Mike:''' I was going to sort out this bloody watcher in the woods once and for all. Forget about discarnate beings and [[Literature/TheWomanInBlack women in black]] and shrouded apparitions and [[Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes something wicked this way comes]] and [[Film/{{Psycho}} psycho]] and [[Film/TheOmen omen]] and [[Film/TheExorcist exorcist]] and the [[Film/EvilDead evil]] fucking [[Franchise/EvilDead dead]] - I was going to confront the beast that wasn't a beast at all but [[SelectiveObliviousness somebody playing silly bloody games at my expense]].

* WizardDuel: Attunement to "ethereal vitality" enables Mycroft and [[spoiler: later, Mike]] to induce fantastic sensory manipulation, with which the two lock horns.

A 1986 novel by {{Creator/James Herbert}}. Session musician Mike Stringer and illustrator Midge Gudgeon move from London to Gramarye, a somewhat dilapidated but idyllically peaceful cottage in rural Hampshire, previously occupied by the recently deceased, eccentric but highly regarded Flora Chaldean.

* ParentalAbandonment: The untimely deaths of Midge's parents left her grief-stricken and irrationally guilt-ridden.

* BequeathedPower: [[spoiler: The spirit of Flora Chaldean turns up to pass to Mike her receptivity to magic.]]

Rather surprisingly, the team of builders sent in to renovate find no trace of a previously prominent crack in the wall. At first, life here is highly contented, in some ways which seem practically supernatural; local wildlife is amazingly tame, the creative inspiration and [[GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex sensual intimacy]] of Mike and Midge is spectacularly enhanced, and that crack in the wall seems to have just closed itself over.

* SealedGoodInACan: The benevolent magic innate to Gramarye nurtures Mike and Midge's creativity and [[GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex intimacy]].

* CorruptHick: Averted, the locals are friendly.

* {{Cult}}: From their [[{{Commune}} mansion retreat]], the Synergists' peddling of homemade goods, and attempt to indoctrinate the youth of Cantrip in their ways, earn a disdainful such reputation. Mike is somewhat unsettled by their earnest openness. Their seemingly harmless bid to commune with the "Divine Will," said to permeate all, [[spoiler: turns out to be not so harmless - leader Mycroft is a power-crazed fanatic]].

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Rumbo the friendly squirrel reminds Mike of a dog. Well and truly justified; this is a CallBack to ''Literature/{{Fluke}}'' (1977) [[spoiler: one of whose dog characters was later reincarnated as a squirrel.]]

* {{Cult}}: The Synergists, in their [[{{Commune}} mansion retreat]], peddling of homemade goods, and attempt to indoctrinate the youth of Cantrip in their ways, earn a disdainful such reputation. Mike is somewhat unsettled by their earnest openness. Their seemingly harmless bid to commune with the "Divine Will," said to permeate all, [[spoiler: turns out to be not so harmless - leader Mycroft is a power-crazed fanatic]].

A 1986 novel by {{Creator/James Herbert}}. Session musician Mike Stringer and illustrator Midge Gudgeon move from London to Gramarye, a somewhat dilapidated but idyllically peaceful cottage in rural Hampshire, previously occupied by the recently deceased, eccentric but highly regarded Flora Chaldean. Rather surprisingly, the team of builders sent in to renovate find no trace of a previously prominent crack in the wall. At first, life here is highly contented, in some ways which seem practically supernatural; local wildlife is amazingly tame, the creative inspiration and [[GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex sensual intimacy]] of Mike and Midge is spectacularly enhanced, and that crack in the wall seems to have just closed itself over. On the land surrounding the cottage, Mike is unsettled by recurring glimpses of a distant silhouetted figure. A nearby mansion houses the Synergists, a mystical organisation whose leader, Eldrich P Mycroft, is ominously keen for Midge to join them. Flora Chaldean, widely held to have had some kind of healing power, is revealed to have been in a state of decomposition in the cottage kitchen long before her corpse was found. The cottage’s empathy with nature later reveals [[TheSwarm rather less benevolent]] [[MakeThemRot manifestations]], and Mycroft’s offer to help Midge contact her deceased parents has Mike worried about her susceptibility to the demands of the Synergists...

** In Mike's introduction to the adventure with Gramarye, he half-seriously compares it to ''Film/TheAmityvilleHorror''.

* CarSong: On the way to the Cantrip estate agents, Midge joins Mike "in a chorus of Blue Suedes and Mean Womans."