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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Down on the farm: Addlands by Tom Bullough

11/6/2016

4 Comments

 
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Less than a week after I published my post on how we relate to fictional characters as if they were real, I was chatting to a farmer out on the moors. He was on his quad bike looking for some motorbikers who’d trespassed on the land that feeds his sheep and cows; I was patrolling on foot enjoying the sunshine and wildlife and hoping the next people I asked to put their dog on a lead would comply. We spoke about the impact of the human footprint (and tyre) on the changing landscape, and he referred to other farmers he knew in tourist hotspots who have to contend with far more visitors. Ever conscious of my limited countryside knowledge, I wanted to tell him that I knew a farmer too. But I didn’t, because the farmer I had in mind lives in a book. So I’m telling you instead. As Norah commented on my cognitive poetics post, finding a suitable channel to sound off about our reading is part of the motivation for writing blogs.

Deep in a valley in the Welsh borders, the Hamer family live and work on Funnon Farm. Life is hard when we first meet them in 1941 and, while things change over the ensuing seventy years, it stays hard, although perhaps in unexpected ways. Idris ploughs the land with a horse while his wife, Etty, gives birth to a son who isn’t his in a house with no inside toilet or electricity. Haunted by the First World War, Idris is a staunch Methodist who believes in the sanctity of the Sabbath to the extent that he balks at digging his sheep out of a snowdrift, despite his compassion for the animals and his lack of fear of hard work. Much younger, and destined to outlive him, Etty plays the piano at Chapel, and is the calm foundation of both house and farm, the one who decides whether to invest in new technology or whether it’s a fad. Then there’s Oliver, the dark-skinned child who grows into a giant of a man, a talented boxer and a keen scholar who nevertheless accepts his destiny as steward of the land. Add in a family feud between Idris and his brother, a touch of romance and rather more of injury, with a dollop of gentle humour (such as when Oliver, now middle-aged, buys his mother a dishwasher to do the laundry because he can’t afford a washing machine) Addlands is a literary family saga crossed with a nature diary. I’m not sure if the peppering of dialect words, and farming procedures I couldn’t quite understand, added to or detracted from my enjoyment of this novel, but enjoy it I did. It’s an elegy to the changing countryside, and the ordinary heroism of those wedded to it, hard-working and hard-playing, and the inevitable losses and gains as time marches on. Thanks to Granta books for my review copy.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
4 Comments
Norah Colvin link
11/6/2016 08:14:44 am

Hi Anne, I was expecting a sounding off, but it's simply a book review; and for an interesting book at that. Funny how you had the opportunity to comment on a fictional character, though declined to do so, so soon after mentioning it in a post. Reminds me of my post about lying.
I like the sound of this book. Your final statement is what sold me. I'll just have to remember it if I ever get to the bottom of my TBR pile. Not likely! Thanks for the kind mention and linking to my blog.

Reply
Annecdotist
11/6/2016 04:37:11 pm

Indeed! I wrote this before I read and commented on your post and was going to come back here and refer to it but then forgot/didn't have time, and the introduction was getting rather long anyway.
Glad you liked the review. I suppose I was thinking of sounding off in a more neutral way, as having my say, not necessarily complaining, that I'll have to watch for that implied meaning.

Reply
Sarah link
12/6/2016 09:55:32 pm

I love this little anecdote and review. Nice. :-) I'll have to see your fictional characters post now...

Reply
Annecdotist
13/6/2016 05:36:44 pm

Thanks, Sarah.

Reply

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