The Wolf Pit: A Moorland Romance

by Will Cohu

In 1966 Will Cohu's grandparents moved to Bramble Carr, a remote cottage on the Yorkshire moors. The summers and winters he spent there were full of freedom and light; only after childhood ended was he aware of the price the adults had paid for life in this most romantic of settings.

Navigating family tensions and the trials of growing up, Will describes the close-knit community of North Yorkshire and his family's place within it; shepherd Frank Raw probing the head-high snowdrifts at Fryup Dale for signs of his flock; Bob Robinson, patrician doctor and obsessive antiquarian; John Kenney, pub landlord and hoarder of military memorabilia; Will's glamorous RAF parents; and, at the centre of the story, his beloved but enigmatic grandparents, talented children of the old working classes, searching for a home in a changing world.

The Wolf Pit depicts a rural England that is passionate, funny and frightening; an idyll shot through with drink and disappointment that also offers the space in which we might make sense of what life throws at us. The story moves from children's sledging adventures at Bramble Carr to the emptiness of the Australian outback, where Will's uncle Robert slips from the embrace of his brother into lonely self-destruction.

Exquisitely written, and flecked with sharp wit and tender insight, The Wolf Pit is an enquiring love letter from Will Cohu to his family, and a moving account of our struggle against the elements without and within.

246 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2012

About the author

Will Cohu was born in Yorkshire in 1964. Educated at Exeter College, Oxford, from 1992 he freelanced as writer, editor and journalist, mostly for the Daily Telegraph. His books include Urban Dog (2001) and Out of the Woods (2007). He has been twice short-listed for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Award. His memoir, The Wolf Pit, was published in 2012 and shortlisted for the PEN/Ackerley Prize. He lives in Lincolnshire.

Reviews

[John Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had lots going for it as far as I was concerned: much of this personal memoir is set in a favourite part of the world for me, not too far from where I grew up. Many of the places mentioned I am familiar with.

The writing is deeply personal and I hope it was cathartic for the author. However I found its level of introspection almost painful and the brooding melancholy veered at times towards the mawkish. I now feel burdened by the weight of lives and behaviours analysed by the writer and need to park it somewhere whilst I reach for a lighter read.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will Cohu's memoir of his childhood in the North York Moors reaches far beyond his own life to that of his parents and grandparents and the wider community of Danby and the moors. It's a part of the country I know quite well, and The Wolf Pit succeeds very well in anchoring the human story to the remarkable landscape against which it plays out. Tragedy is woven throughout this tapestry of a tale, but so are all the other aspects of life, and Cohu achieves a remarkably detailed portrayal of the inner dynamics of an apparently ordinary family. This is a book that deserves to be much better known than it is.

[Peter Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written memoir, at times sad, at times very very funny. Lives are played out against the landscape, mostly against the swaying heather and seductive mystery of the North Yorkshire Moors. Reminiscent, in a way, of Chatwin's In Patagonia, but this is more firmly rooted - with Cohu's determination to understand his family's difficult past driving the narrative to an enlightening and poignant end.

[Angelique Simonsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

liked this one

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

his didn't really hang well together, but I enjoyed moments of description and insight amidst its ramblings...