![]() ![]() The girls’ father, Ebin, veers between mild interest and indifference, and their younger brother, Dennis, provides some much-needed comedy. The characters are curious, and unpredicable. Overseeing this pandemic are Emma and Hattie Willoweed, part of a sprawling family living in the home of their formidable grandmother. These nasty and unforeseen ends are attributed to a peculiar illness, which spreads like wildfire through the village. After the river floods excessively in early summer, the villagers begin to change, exhibiting odd and frightening behaviours these range from a ‘mad miller’ who drowns himself, to the village barber, who cuts his own throat in full view. ![]() The novel is set in a small Warwickshire village and, set over a short span of time, the story encompasses many strange things. Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, which was first published in 1954, fits all of this criteria. I so enjoy Barbara Comyns’ work it is wonderfully strange, and sometimes a little horrifying, but it is always compelling, and surprising. ![]()
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