Aug 31, 2026 · 1 hr 32 min · 11 segments
In this week’s episode of Being Bookish, I am joined by novelist Simon Wroe to discuss his new novel, Ghost Month (released in hardback on the 27th of August). The novel is set in a London where the…
Simon WroeGuestRaeHostWell, they have that cleanup crew, don't they? That clean up the green dust after, almost like after the dust has settled.
It was interesting you saying about the whole, oh, they fall under a spell because then obviously we have the third family, which is Eddie's family.
his mum and his dad and his older sister, and their deceased son, David.
And his mum basically joins a cult.
I mean, that church that they build in the park and everything else is a cult.
There's no other way to describe it.
And they are all sort of lulled into this false sense of what you're doing.
We want to welcome them back.
And they are essentially ascribing to these people traits that they possibly didn't have in life.
And I think that's a failing.
I don't know if it's a failing.
That is a way that we quite often romanticize our memories of the dead.
look at someone who's dead, you're not going to say, oh, my God, he was an absolute jerk.
Yeah, and I think there is a sort of, it's a phenomenon, isn't it? Yeah, we talk about this sort of, yeah, you sort of slightly, you rose tint everything and you, you know, there's that whole, you shouldn't speak ill of the dead.
And absolutely, yeah, you sort of, you start to edit your memories and you, you know, I don't know, you remember that lovely photo of you and whoever looking happy and you forget.
the terrible moody time in the hotel room after that photo was taken or whatever it is.
And you just have that photo and you hold onto the photo and slowly that becomes your set memory of that event.
And the things that were not recorded, the things that sort of yeah, sort of don't, don't show themselves so readily, uh, sink into the, into the background a bit.
And I mean, with Eddie's family, it's a very, they're very torn family, you know, like Eddie is, Eddie's eight years old.
Well, they have that cleanup crew, don't they? That clean up the green dust after, almost like after the dust has settled.
It was interesting you saying about the whole, oh, they fall under a spell because then obviously we have the third family, which is Eddie's family.
his mum and his dad and his older sister, and their deceased son, David.
And his mum basically joins a cult.
I mean, that church that they build in the park and everything else is a cult.
There's no other way to describe it.
And they are all sort of lulled into this false sense of what you're doing.
We want to welcome them back.
And they are essentially ascribing to these people traits that they possibly didn't have in life.
And I think that's a failing.
I don't know if it's a failing.
That is a way that we quite often romanticize our memories of the dead.
look at someone who's dead, you're not going to say, oh, my God, he was an absolute jerk.
Yeah, and I think there is a sort of, it's a phenomenon, isn't it? Yeah, we talk about this sort of, yeah, you sort of slightly, you rose tint everything and you, you know, there's that whole, you shouldn't speak ill of the dead.
And absolutely, yeah, you sort of, you start to edit your memories and you, you know, I don't know, you remember that lovely photo of you and whoever looking happy and you forget.
the terrible moody time in the hotel room after that photo was taken or whatever it is.
And you just have that photo and you hold onto the photo and slowly that becomes your set memory of that event.
And the things that were not recorded, the things that sort of yeah, sort of don't, don't show themselves so readily, uh, sink into the, into the background a bit.
And I mean, with Eddie's family, it's a very, they're very torn family, you know, like Eddie is, Eddie's eight years old.
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