The Magic Apple Tree: A Country Year - Softcover

Hill, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140064206 ISBN 13: 9780140064209

Publisher: Penguin, 1983

Synopsis

Looking out from Moon Cottage, Susan Hill records the sights and smells, the people, gardens, animals, births, festivals and deaths that mark the changing-seasons in the small Oxfordshire community.

About this title

Review:

This is a marvellous book. After reading many books which celebrate an 'escape' from England to sunny climes, here is the perfect antidote. Susan Hill describes life in a country village in England in the most marvellousr, warm prose - she occasionally veers a little towards sentimentality, but whatever sweetness the book contains is nicely countered by a true eye for detail. This is a comforting, reassuring read which nevertheless has the overall effect of challenging the reader to think about his own life, what he is doing with it, and whether that is how he wants it to be. Highly recommended. --Amazon

This book (and one by Mary Taylor Simetti) is my default reading, when more sophisticated pleasures can't entice me. Beautifully written, this book is almost an elegy to English country living. It provides me - a Californian - with the vicarious feeling that I too am living in Moon Cottage in Barley. Hill provides recipes, observations, descriptions of people, surroundings, and customs of her village, perhaps as bulwark against the encroaching tide of modern life. She finds much to value in living in the "country" and there is much to value in this beautiful book. --Amazon

Susan Hill's study of the British countryside and the seasons of the year is wonderful. Reading it for the first time in the middle of a long winter a few years ago made me feel lucky to live here - despite the dark nights and the cold. Autumn has always been my favourite time of the year but the authors description of her life in the countryside made me look afresh at all seasons and gave me the urge to get out and about to enjoy. Susan Hill's descriptions of the countryside and country people are strongly reminiscent of Hardy and this book was an introduction to a wonderful author. If you like this you must try her other work - which is generally deeper and darker but just as beautiful. Comment | --Amazon

About the Author:

Susan Hill was born in Scarborough in 1942, and educated at grammar schools there and in Coventry. She read English at King's College, London, of which she is now a Fellow. As well as I'm the King of the Castle, her novels include Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, In the Springtime of the Year, Air and Angels, The Service of Clouds,The Various Haunts of Men, The Pure in Heart, The Rise of Darkness, The Beacon, The Vows of Silence and The Small Hand. She has written several volumes of short stories, including A Bit of Singing and Dancing; two ghost novels, The Woman in Black and The Mist in the Mirror; and a number of stories for children. Her autobiographical books are The Magic Apple Tree and Family. She is married with two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1983
• ISBN 10: 0140064206
• ISBN 13: 9780140064209
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208