Gothic fiction combines fiction with horror, death and romance. In these books, the setting and surroundings seem alive and vital. They are characters in themselves.

Think Wuthering Heights with its imprisonment, dark stairways, stormy weather, melancholy figures and ghosts; think Rebecca and her haunted Manderley. These stories always fascinate and enthrall.

In my novel, The Yard, the characters live in a family complex (called The Yard). This complex is alive with its ravine, cloned houses and sprawling orchard. There’s a haunting sense that its inhabitants, with their shared customs but differing values and contrary natures, are its instruments.

The Yard and its forces from within and without shape the lives of my protagonists. It haunts, humiliates, teaches and inspires. One must escape its clutches and begin anew. One must.