Michelle Paver writes very different books for different ages, but there’s a common thread running through the ones I’ve read: she is brilliant at creating a sense of place — and then making you slightly afraid of it.

I first encountered her through Wolf Brother, which I’ve taught and enjoyed, and her children’s books were also firm favourites with my eldest son when he was younger.

But Dark Matter is the one that really got under my skin. I’d happily put it on the same shelf as Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black: both are wonderfully atmospheric ghost stories, but Paver’s Arctic setting gives the isolation an almost unbearable physical quality. It frightened me in places, but it also broke my heart in others.

I’ve since read Thin Air, which I enjoyed without quite loving in the same way, and Wakenhyrst, whose slow accumulation of dread and doom is superb.

But Dark Matter is the one I’d most happily press into someone’s hands with the words: “You should read this.”

Preferably before bedtime. Obviously.