Deze trilogie ontvouwt zich tegen de achtergrond van het idyllische Engelse platteland, waarbij de levens van families en gemeenschappen worden verweven met de ritmes van het land. Het verkent diepe familiebanden en complexe sociale verhoudingen te midden van een veranderend tijdperk, van het begin van de 20e eeuw tot de impact van de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Het verhaal is rijk aan pastorale schoonheid en dompelt lezers onder in een prachtig weergegeven historische omgeving. Dit is een verhaal over liefde, verlies en de blijvende kracht van de menselijke geest in een getransformeerde wereld.
Somerset, 1911: The forces of war are building across Europe, but this pocket of England, where the rhythms of lives are dictated by the seasons and the land, remains untouched. Albert Sercombe is a farmer on Lord Prideaux s estate and his eldest son, Sid, is underkeeper to the head gamekeeper. His son, Leo, a talented rider, grows up alongside the master s spirited daughter, Charlotte a girl who shoots and rides, much to the surprise of the locals."
Goodness, Tim Pears writes beautifully . The descriptions of rural life, executed with painterly exactness, are a constant delight. The prose really sings Mail on Sunday
A love divided. A world torn in two. A return. A redemption. A stirring, exquisitely rendered tale of homecoming; the final instalment in Tim Pears's epic West Country TrilogyIt is 1916. Lottie Prideaux rides the winding lanes of her childhood on her motorcycle, defying the expectations of her class and sex as she trains to be a vet. Meanwhile young Leo Sercombe finds himself a long way from home, hauling coal aboard the HMS Queen Mary in the middle of the ocean. Here life is raw, bloody and vivid, with death never more than a heartbeat away.As Leo and Lottie wander in this strange and brave new world, and as war, loss, violence and betrayal conspire to tear asunder the ties that bind the past, present and future together, can even the most fated of returns - and redemptions - hope to come to pass?