Gothic Transformations and Musical Appropriations in Susan Hill's Novel the Bird of Night

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Susan Hill has frequently written and spoken movingly about the seminal effect of Benjamin Britten's music on her writing. The Sea Interludes from Britten's opera, Peter Grimes (op. 33, 1944-5), for example, had a 'startling impact' on her when at school, reminding her of 'the bleak North Sea coast beside which [she] was born'.1 Hill feels 'drawn to [Britten's] imaginative world, the writers whose work he set to music, and the landscapes he wrote about'.2 She describes the Interludes as 'the key to opening the door to my own great burst of my best work' and only has to play his music to want to write.3 Hill's affinity with Britten is multi-faceted and enduring, even since his death in …