Sarah Hall: Helm

Helm is a wind, the only named wind in the United Kingdom. It may well be a wind but in this book it is a character, just as much if not more so than the humans in this book. As winds, do, it behaves in various ways, from mild to strong. For a long time it was on its own and then humans appeared and for some strange reason it seems to be attracted to humans, even though it does cause them some grief, including destroying their houses and destroying them.

While Helm and the Eden Valley where it is located are key characters, we also follow the stories of others from early man(though in this book, it is really early woman) up to the modern era.

NaNay, the woman from the prehistoric era, has a vision and she wants to build Magsca which would appear to be some sort of meeting place However, the people in the tribe oppose her visions and she is determined to set out on her own to follow where she is told to go. Helm of course gets involved and causes her and people her tribe are certain amount of grief.

There are quite a few stories up to the modern time. The next one in chronological order involves Michael Lang. He travels around the country, a good and committed Christian, looking for and driving out devils and evil spirits. We meet him going to a monastery where they are in fear that he will find fault with them though he does not. He gets a carpenter to build a massive cross for him which he will carry, alone, up to the top of the hill. Is journey up the hill carrying a very heavy wooden cross. This is not surprisingly quite arduous though Helm does not cause too much of a problem.

He is not the only religious fanatic in this book. Nathaniel de Peyster is an eighteenth century fanatic. He is married to Catherine who is a free spirit, something which he definitely does not approve of, so much so that he has locked her up so she repents and becomes totally obedient to him. Of course, even though she’s locked up, she has to make herself available for him when required. She is writing letters to her sister which will be smuggled out, which is why we know her story. When he tries to destroy ancient pagan statues, Helm very much intervenes.

Some of these characters interact with Helm more than others. Jenni, a girl with a free spirit who likes running around the hills is another example. There does not appear to be a father and she does not get on with her mother so she goes up to the hills and has lots of conversations with Helm. Suddenly, the authorities take control of her and dose her up with drugs and she loses her free spirit.

Helm is something of a voyeur and enjoys watching humans having sex. For example there is a couple who fly into the valley by balloon and, perhaps foolishly decide to have sex in the balloon and Helen enjoys watching them.

Other characters interact with Helm professionally, by which I mean they are studying it. The first one is Thomas.Bolger who seems to have abandoned his sick wife to come and study it. We follow his studies with his travails in dealing with a locals. We learn that, unlike most winds, Helm, does not interact with other winds. Just to show us that it is not entirely unique we get a list of other winds elsewhere in the world that do the same. It seems to be quite keen on this and this is not the only list she gives us.
In modern times we have Dr Selima Sutar who is staying up in the valley in a bothy studying the wind and also the various things that it carries – seeds, pollen, etc. but, in particular large quantities of microplastics She too has problems with the locals who really harass her, particularly a sort of a Luddite group called the Endtreneurs.

As mentioned, the win plays a varying role with a different characters. Many of the locals of course blame the wind for their problems sometimes justifiably and sometimes not. They blame Helm for all their miserable illnesses and ailments. The poxes and puses, the agonies and accidents, the frailties of flesh and brain. And, of course, top of the list, worse than all the rest, chief of all crimes, they blame Helm for sex pesting.

As this is Sarah Hall one of the key features of the book is the natural environment. We see the changing environment partly caused by heel movement property just by time. We see the rugged landscape, the difficult weather again partly cause my Helm, no not entirely. We even see a variety of planting animals, the latter including bobcats and bears. Clearly living in this area is difficult for humans and there is a certain amount of struggle to survive and make a living.

We also have the feminist aspect withNaNay determined to prove that she is right,Janni and Catherine both suffering abuse for being free spirits , Selima suffering considerable harassment which, we suspect, a man might not have suffered and finally two of the men studying the weather have wives who suffer from female illnesses.

Other key themes include the sacred and the profane and the role of technology and opposition to technology, as represented by theEndpreneurs.

Hall says in her endword that she has been trying to write this book for twenty years and there is no question that it is a very fine achievement, not least by having as its main character a wind. The fact that that the wind very much has a character of its own and expresses this character makes the book all the more interesting.

Publishing history

First published 2025 by Faber & Faber