Force for evil. A little girl called Alice, a deaf-mute. A vision. A
lady in shimmering white who says she is the immaculate conception. And
Alice can suddenly hear and speak. And she can perform miracles. Soon
the site of the visitation, beneath the ancient oak tree, has become a
shrine, a holy place for thousands of pilgrims. But Alice is no longer
the guileless child overwhelmed by her saintliness. She has become the
agent of something corrupt, a vile force that is centuries-old.
Innocence and evil have become one.
James Herbert was one of Britain's greatest popular novelists and our
#1 best-selling writer of chiller fiction. Widely imitated and hugely
influential, he wrote 23 novels which have collectively sold over 54
million copies worldwide and been translated into 34 languages. Born in
London in the forties, James Herbert was art director of an advertising
agency before turning to writing fiction in 1975.
His first novel, The Rats, was an instant bestseller and is now
recognised as a classic of popular contemporary fiction. Herbert went on
to publish a top ten best-seller every year until 1988. He wrote six
more bestselling novels in the 1990s and three more since: Once, Nobody
True and The Secret of Crickley Hall. Herbert died in March 2013 at
the age of 69.
