Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Literature / BreakOfDark

Go To

1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/breakofdark_3.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350: [[{{Tagline}} The world is full of unexplained things...]]]]
3-> ''There is a barrier that divides the dark unknown from the ordinary. Sometimes the barrier is crossed... .''
4-->-- '''Creator/RobertWestall''' ''Break Of Dark''
5
6''Break of Dark'' is an anthology of [[ShortStory short fiction]] by English author Creator/RobertWestall, first published in 1982. There are five stories in the anthology, all of them dealing with supernatural occurrences against the backdrop of typical life. The title refers to the point at which the weird and sinister crosses over into the mundane and interacts with humans; when the irrational and inexplicable comes into conflict with the familiar and ordinary.
7
8The stories in the anthology are:
9* "Hitchhiker": In which a young man out hiking and mountain climbing in North-west Scotland encounters a mysterious, naked blonde girl on the roadside. But where is she ''really'' from?
10* "Blackham's Wimpy": During the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Second World War]] a British bomber crew experience a haunting encounter with a German fighter-pilot.
11* "Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou": A prank between grown-up school rivals turns distinctly nasty when something crosses over from the other side.
12* "St. Austin Friars": A perfect parish for a new vicar. But why is someone making arrangements for a funeral a month in advance? And why are the Drogo family so very influential in Muncaster?
13* "Sergeant Nice": A spate of mysterious thefts in a pretty seaside town drives the local policeman to distraction. Who can possibly be behind them and why can he never catch them? And why has a horse trough from 1903 suddenly appeared next to the town clocktower?
14
15----
16!!Contains Examples of:
17* AuthorAvatar: Peter Wingfield is an author, with messy hair, a bushy beard, several literary awards and five cats. He routinely wears big, baggy sweaters and frequently has a cigarette dangling from his fingers. Take a look at the photo on Creator/RobertWestall's page. And this [[http://www.robertwestall.com/images/cats/robert_westall_kittens.jpg one here]].
18* BewareTheNiceOnes: You couldn't meet a nicer policeman than Sergeant Nice. But that's not going to help you if you're behaving like the aliens in the story of the same name.
19* BloodKnight: Exploited in "Blackham's Wimpy". The crew of C-Charlie are threatened with being officially classified as 'Lacking in Moral Fibre' (ie, demoted for cowardice). Their captain retorts that they'll be happy to take their commander on a suicidally dangerous raid with them and show him whether they're cowards or not. The CO promptly reclassifies them as 'Crazy' (an official term meaning they're dangerously obsessed with fighting and destruction), which they much prefer.
20* CatsAreMagic: When Peter Wingfield decides he's going to get rid of the [[spoiler: ghosts of Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou]], he brings along two of his cats to help him do so.
21* CatScare: In "Blackham's Wimpy" Gary, C-Charlie's radio operator, boards S-Sugar at night with the intent of setting fire to it. He hears someone whispering in German and there's a hunched figure in the cockpit in flight crew gear... [[spoiler: turns out to be his own Captain, engaged in a HollywoodExorcism attempt.]]
22* CorruptChurch: It's very strongly implied that the Bishop of Muncaster is perfectly aware of the true nature of the Drogo family and is probably directly under their influence. He certainly has no interest in doing anything about them, so long as the donations continue to flow.
23* DeathOfAChild: At the end of "Hitchhiker"; three babies end up dead.
24* DelayedExplosion: The bomb used by [[spoiler: Sgt. Nice to blow up the aliens in "Sergeant Nice"]] has its explosion delayed. Of course, this is caused by the bomb being transported to the alien ship, resulting in the explosion not being where you might expect it.
25* EvilSmellsBad: Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou emanate the smell of old woman, stale clothes and menthol throat lozenges. It's a fairly mild version of evil smelling bad, but it's sufficient to make Biddy smother her house in pine-scented air fresheners.
26* ExpositionOfImmortality: In "St. Austin Friars", William Henry Drogo invites the Reverend to dinner and tells him several detailed stories about the past of Muncaster, as if he witness them directly. When challenged he simply states: ''"I am one hundred and ninety-two years old."''
27* ForeignRemake: Anime director Creator/HayaoMiyazaki, of ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'' and ''Anime/SpiritedAway'' fame, wrote a manga called ''A Trip to Tynemouth'' about several of Westall's short stories - principally the tale of "Blackham's Wimpy."
28* GhostShip: Well, Ghost Plane. S-sugar returns from a raid intact but empty save for Blackham himself [[spoiler: catatonic and continually flying the plane, even after he's been taken out and put to bed. The rest of the crew are found to have bailed out too low and buried themselves in a turnip field. And the rear gunner shot himself in his turret.]]
29* IrishPriest: Well, okay. Irish Student Priest. Nevertheless, Flight-Lieutenant Townsend, aka Father Townsend, aka Dadda, is C-Charlie's bomber group's only Irishman. So of course he spent two years at the seminary, intending to go into the priesthood.
30* ISeeDeadPeople: In "Blackham's Wimpy" it's more a case of I Hear Dead People. "Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou" plays it a bit more straight, with Peter serving as unwitting [[BodyAndHost channel]] for the dead relatives to get back into the world and play havoc with Roger. At the end of the story, they're fully visible and tangible.
31* ItWontTurnOff: The radio sets in S-Sugar, even after the power cord has been cut and the set itself smashed with a hammer; they still keep replaying the radio exchanges that accompanied Gehlen's death.
32* KillItWithFire: After trying to exorcise Gehlen's ghost from S-Sugar, the crew of C-Charlie decide the best solution is to burn down the Wimpy he's haunting. And it works.
33* LaserGuidedAmnesia: At the end of "St. Austin Friars," the Drogos erase the Reverend William's memories of the burial.
34* LaserGuidedKarma: In "Blackham's Wimpey", the guided karma missile gets both sides. Gehlen dies after his crew are overhead gloating about being about to shoot down Blackham, and then his ghost haunts Blackham into insanity and his crew into suicide. As Dada puts it - ''"they shouldn't have laughed at him."''
35* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Joan Smith's ability to locate money could be weird alien PsychicPowers. Or it could be, as she explains it, that she's just looking where drunk Glaswegians drop their loose change when fumbling in the dark.
36* NakedOnArrival: Joan Smith, the slightly odd girl encountered in "Hitchhiker" first appears completely naked. She claims this is because her clothes have been stolen.
37* OldFashionedCopper: Sergeant Nice, real name Sgt. William Bainbridge, is the Series/DixonOfDockGreen end of the scale ramped up to eleven. He runs the police newspaper, does charity work, always has his uniform scrupulously and spotlessly clean and makes uplifting slogan out of flower beds.
38* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Leutnant Dieter Gehlen of the Luftwaffe, is shot down by the crew of the eponymous Blackham's Wimpy. He haunts the aircraft that shot him down, manifesting as a perpetual repeat of the events leading to his death every time the bomber is flown. S-Sugar comes through every raid she flies in unscathed, but the crew using her will die on their next mission.
39* OurVampiresAreDifferent: It's never out-and-out stated, but it's very heavily implied that the Drogo family are some kind of vampire. At the end of "St. Austin Friars" Mr. Drogo comments that ''"There are still people cruel enough to sharpen stakes for us."'' There's no blood-drinking going on, though, and they don't seem to have a problem with daylight or reproduction.
40* PeopleJars: The aliens who are behind the thefts in Graymouth are seen to have some of these. Specifically, they have a set of what are described as ''"huge glass bottles, like in the biology lab at school";'' in which are the various organs and parts of the cats and dogs and the one little girl they've vivisected. The heads of the unfortunates are still alive, set on top of each bottle.
41* SlobsVersusSnobs: A very mild version plays out between Peter Wingfield and Roger Trembling in "Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou." Wingfield is unkempt, scruffily dressed, a chronic smoker and lives in a dilapidated old house full of mouldering antiques and dying pot plants, which Trembling refers to as "The Haunted Mansion." Roger lives in an ultra-modern villa with Modernist furnishings and chrome kitchen fittings, works for a computer company and plays squash every week. Peter refers to his house as "Mission Control."
42* UnfinishedBusiness: It's definitely what keeps Dieter Gehlen tethered to the mortal [[IncrediblyLamePun plane]]. He continues to haunt S-Sugar even after dishing out a justifiable revenge on Blackham and his crew, fighting der Fuhrer's war even after death. Exactly what Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou want is never really made clear; but they seem to have some kind of grudge against Roger.
43* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: "Blackham's Wimpy" is set during the later stages of the Second World War; it's centred around the crew of a Wellington bomber and their bomber groupmates.

Top