Today we’re looking at Susan Hill’s chilling masterpiece The Woman in Black, a story with the capacity to scare you witless whether in print, on stage or screen. But will the front cover be enough to give a 5 and 7 year old nightmares?

G. The Woman in Black is an old woman, got a thingamajig on her head.

C. A hat on her head, and she is the best woman ever. She goes over a bridge and into a yard which has loads of people who are dead.

Why does she wear black?

G. Because she wants to be a baddy.

C. Because she has a very cross face – and it looks like she has a gun in her pocket because she’s picking her dress up.

What’s she going to do with the gun?

C. I think she’s going to shoot the graves. She wants to kill the people even more. The people who are inside the graves. Dead People, skeletons.

What type of book is it?

G. A shooting book

C. A Graveyard book

• Since our session C. has asked me to make it clear that she meant to talk about zombies, not skeletons. Which is a point worth making – why would the woman in black want to shoot skeletons? The bullets go right through them.

More of this sort of thing here