The New Girlfriend and Other Stories
A short story collection published by Hutchinson in 1985
The whole northern side of the old railway line lay exposed to the view and the elements and much of its charm was lost. It became what it really always was, nothing more or less than a ridge, a long strip of waste ground running across north London, over Northwood Road, over Stanhope Road, under Crouch End Hill, over Vicarage Road, under Crouch Hill, under Mount View, over Mount Pleasant Villas, over Stapleton Hall, under Upper Tollington Park, over Oxford Road, under Stroud Green Road, and so to the station at Finsbury Park.
Murder, perversion, corruption, blackmail, secret terrors that lead to unspeakable acts, and hidden fears that erupt in irrational violence.
All these, of course, are part of someone else’s world that happens out there, far from the ordinary streets and ordinary people who live in your neighbourhood, your town. They have nothing to do with the everyday lives of people like you. Or do they?
Notes
Contains: “The New Girl Friend”, “A Dark Blue Perfume”, “The Orchard Walls”, “Hare’s House”, “Bribery and Corruption”, “The Whistler”, “The Convolvulus Clock”, “Loopy”, “Fen Hall”, “Father’s Day” and “The Green Road to Quephanda”.
The title story won an MWA Edgar Award.
The Parkland Walk is the longest Linear Nature Reserve in London at 4km in length, and follows the former railway line connecting Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace, which opened in 1873.
“A Dark Blue Perfume” and “Bribery and Corruption” were adapted for TV in 1997 by Peter Ransley and Guy Meredith.
“The Orchard Walls” was adapted for TV by Jacqueline Holborough in 1998.
Loopy (2004): a short film directed and adapted from the Ruth Rendell story by Seth Michael Donsky.
The New Girlfriend: A François Ozon film adapted from the short story in 2014.
How Ruth Rendell became the favourite of French cinema.