That Summer at Hill Farm - Softcover

France, Miranda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099555131 ISBN 13: 9780099555131

Publisher: Vintage, 2012

Synopsis

Paperback. Pages: 304 Publisher: Random House UK To the casual outsider. Hill Farm is a rural idyll and the perfect retreat from urban life. Yet beneath the tranquil surface lie discontent. Desire and death-watch beetles. Farmer Hayes loves the land - but hates farming. His neglected wife Isabel adores her three children. but is temperamentally unsuited to life as a wife and mother. The Smith sisters have not spoken to one another for forty years. farm-hand Mikey dabbles in pyromania. while neighbour Mr Payne has fled the city. only to find a greater threat to his karma in the hedgerows of Middle England. And after one incendiary summer. all of their lives will be different ... It was originally published with the title Hill Farm.

About this title

Review:

"Thoroughly enjoyable first novel... Sparkling and witty, a treat"--Bookseller

"Miranda France has minutely drawn a farming community, and a broken woman, with excellent skill. She is superb at plucking comedy from tragedy, as well as exhibiting a wry authorial narrative that must owe more than a little to Jane Austen. She manages to square this lightness of tone with a subtle tale full of secrecy, betrayal and fear that keeps you clinging on right to the very end"--The List

"...the choreography of village life is beautifully rendered, the shifting inner lives of the characters are subtle and believable and the fresh, sometimes subversive observation is a delight."--The Sunday Times

"Miranda France writes skillfully and with a wry touch... Hill Farm turns out to be a pleasure to read, tempting the reader to wolf it down in one sitting."--Sunday Herald

"A convincing depiction of the way in which ordinary lives can be nudged towards quiet tragedy."--Literary Review

"An arresting writer... France's account of village life conveys a genuine, smoldering anger, and she clearly knows what it feels like to be suffocated by the English countryside. Adultery, arson and assault- all come bursting out as expedient and increasingly desperate means of bucking bronca."--The Guardian

"Hill Farm reads like The Archers written by Tolstoy... This debut novel from a well-known travel scribe twists coming-of-age drama with Karenina-esque sensual discovery, and perfectly captures the more Gothic aspects of country life."--Daily Mail

"With an incredible confidence for a debut novelist, Miranda France changes tack from rural romance to murder mystery...[she] writes with such assurance and humour that she carries us along... through the subtle underpinning of her characterisation."--Spectator

"Pyromaniac labourers, feuding pensioners and adulterous housewives blot the landscape in Miranda France's entertaining novel, a sort of homage to Cold Comfort Farm, with a dash of Jilly Cooper and The Archers thrown in."--Financial Times

"France writes superbly about the reality of living in the countryside - and the pitch-black ending chills the blood."--Saga Magazine

Book Description:

It was the summer that everything changed... A sparkling, witty debut, perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson, Stella Gibbons and Joanna Trollope

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0099555131
• ISBN 13: 9780099555131
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304