Издания и произведения

Francis Croft, the greatest poet of his age, was mad. His world was a nightmare of internal furies and haunting poetic vision. Harvey Lawson watched and protected him until his final suicide. From his solitary old age Harvey writes this brief account of their twenty years together and then burns all the papers to shut out an inquisitive world. The tautness and control that characterize Susan Hill’s work are abundantly evident in The Bird of Night as she magnificently handles the heights and depths, the splendours and miseries of madness and friendship.

Susan Hill's 1972 novel examines the relationship between Bipolar Affective Disorder and creativity; the illness that both creates genius and destroys it. The text, which contains homoerotic overtones, is narrated by Harvey from first person perspective, giving an insight into the pressure on his abilities to care for and keep safe Francis, who is seen as the greatest poet of his era but is extremely unwell with a madness that is directly linked to his creativity. Francis' illness is both the driving force for his brilliance and the key element to his downfall. The novel is a brilliant exploration of madness, almost completely removed from…