In a Land of Plenty

by Tim Pears

In 1952, Charles and Mary Freeman marry, take possession of a mansion high on a hill overlooking a small industrial town somewhere in the heart of England, and begin their family. This, Tim Pears' second novel, is the sweeping, rich, and astonishing tale of the first 30 years of their lives and the lives of their four children, Simon, James, Robert, and Alice.

Compellingly drawn and infinitely resonant, the stories of these four children, stories of both joy and tragedy, create a generous epic of the life of a family, and of a country.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, British Literature

544 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 1998

About the author

Born in 1956, Tim Pears grew up in Devon and left school at sixteen. He worked in a wide variety of unskilled jobs: trainee welder, assistant librarian, trainee reporter, archaeological worker, fruit picker, nursing assistant in a psychiatric ward, groundsman in a hotel & caravan park, fencer, driver, sorter of mail, builder, painter & decorator, night porter, community video maker and art gallery manager in Devon, Wales, France, Norfolk and Oxford.

Always he was writing, and in time making short films. He took the Directing course at the National Film and Television School, graduating in the same month that his first novel, In the Place of Fallen Leaves, was published, in 1993.

Reviews

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know I'm not the only one whose unread books speak to them, and maybe to each other. I hear them murmuring quietly in the background, wondering who will be next, how long before I give them a chance to prove themselves, waiting patiently for their turn. For the most part, they are remarkably well-behaved. But that all changed when I plucked this one off the shelf. They began to scream at me! "No fair, he just got here 6 months ago! Some of us have been waiting for years! Plus it's 540 pages! 540! It'll take forever! ". Some of them even started sobbing loudly.

Well, it did take a while, 11 days actually. And for all those 11 days, this family saga had me so enthralled that it drowned out the noise of the unreads. From 1952-1993, forty years of life in a wealthy English family, living in a big house on a hill, watching four children grow from birth to middle age, with all that entails. Births, deaths, sibling rivalries, times of joy and horrible tragedies, the history of our times in the second half of the 20th century. I was there with them every step of the way, and enjoyed every minute. And did I mention it was written by Tim Pears? No wonder I shut out my other book's noise to concentrate on this one. I just hope they weren't too traumatized.

[Cecily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic, brilliantly written. Wonderful despite (because of?) some nasty people/events. Cleverly pulls your sympathies between different characters at different times, creating a strange tension.

[Bethany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why? Why did I read all 544 pages of this?
There were times I enjoyed the story quite a bit but then the author would throw in some sexual detail which would really irk me because I just don’t like reading those things. They distract me from the story AND detract from the story. (Yes, Mr. Pears, I understand this boy finds the girl attractive but I really don’t want to hear about the state of his *cough* loins.)
For the first 300 pages this was my reading experience: “Tralala! Oh, isn’t this lovel- Ew. I didn’t want to know that. *is bothered for the next 30 pages then starts getting into the story again* “Laadidaaa… this is nice agai- Ew! Was that really necessary?” REPEAT.
After those 300 pages it got better… perhaps only because I started expecting the worse.

I was never actually bored by the story; I find family sagas interesting. Though, I prefer sagas built around characters I care about. Overall, there were no characters I was rooting for or hoping would succeed. (There were a few I wished would just go and jump off a cliff, though.) I would like an aspect of a character here, an aspect there but I never fully liked anyone. Zoe came closest to being my favourite character, I think. I liked Natalie pretty well too. And the setting was interesting because the story opens in the 1950’s and ends in the 90’s. So seeing some of those transitions was interesting. The writing was rather good at parts, but overall, it just wasn't for me. (The sex and language content is a contributing factor, yes... but also other things which I can't quite pinpoint...)

Honestly, I would have been a lot happier not reading this all the way through and just putting it down. I am not afraid to stop reading a book because of its content, I’ve done it before. But something kept me reading. Perhaps it was something in the story; as I said, there were parts I enjoyed. Or perhaps it was just an inner doggedness. If that was indeed the reason, I'm thinking that "inner doggedness" needs to be squelched.

[Delphine · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a family chronicle, In a land of plenty spans a period of fourty years in an unnamed industrial town in England. The novel focuses on Charles Freeman, the patriarch of the Freeman-family. It is a complex family, separated by two different life threads: a life devoted to arts, emotion and passion (Mary, Charles' wife, who commits suicide - his son James, a devoted photographer - and his wife Laura, who seeks consolation in cooking) or - alternatively - a life dominated by profit, expansion of wealth, conservatism and Thatcherism (Charles Freeman, his son-in-law Harry).

I saw the BBC television series about fifteen years ago, and was struck by the beauty of the characters, the atmosphere and the photography. The novel didn't live up to my expectations, though. It lacks a cohesive narrative thread and the characters seem to be made of cardboard rather than flesh & blood.

Apparently, Pears teaches creative writing. Based on this novel, I would say that he views writing as a product rather than as a process . He singles out a couple of interesting metaphors (James' darkroom, Zoe's cinema, Mary's poetry - all places that serve their escapism) but the story lacks subtlety; overall, the characters don't seem real (they're stereotypes, or suffering from weird whims), the imagery is superficial and the story is at times simply boring. Despite all its details and carefully described events, the story doesn't seem to breathe.

I really had to struggle to finish the first 400 pages, but my patience has been rewarded. The next 200 pages were authentic, heartfelt and at times astonishing (thanks to the plot: a family drama, that is reminiscent of We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver). Final rating: two stars.

[Diane Standish · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 2rd five star book of the year. This was a story of a family. I was totally captivated by the style of writing and how well it was written. highly recommended

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love epic stories which span lifetimes and generations and Tim Pears' prose just sings in "In a Land of Plenty." I was son intimately invloved with the characters as the decades unfloded that the final scenes were gutwrenching, both in their sorrow and in the knowledge that the story was coming to its conclusion. I also have a soft spot for this book, as it delves into historical English cookery, a passion of mine.

Pears captures the turbulence both within and without a single family, demonstrating how events and other individuals shape people in different ways, even when their experiences are shared.

[April Andruszko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. My re-read of it was propmpted by the sad death of Helen Mcrory who I remembered being in the TV adaptation. I found that I didn't remember much of the plot so it was like reading it for the first time. It is a book that you lose yourself in with a particular resonance for me as it covers roughl the era in which I grew up.,

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember Tim Pears’ sweeping family saga being a word of mouth bestseller back in the late Nineties. My wife loved it, and I always meant to read it but somehow I never got round to it, and then it just faded out of my mind, until I read Pears’ wonderful West Country trilogy and was inspired to seek out more of his work. In a Land of Plenty follows the fortunes of a larger than life wealthy Midlands industrialist and his wider family and friends from the late Sixties to the Nineties. It’s compulsively readable, full of twists, turns and surprises and with a rich cast of fully-rounded characters. There’s joy and tragedy, love and hate and a keenly-observed social commentary, which I suspect is even more fascinating now in retrospect than it was at the time of publication.

[Al · Rating 2 out of 5]

Impressed by Mr. Pears's West Country Trilogy, I've gone on to read a couple of his other (earlier) books, including this one. Sadly, they don't measure up. The trilogy was distinguished by Mr. Pears's ability to evoke the time (WWI era) in England about which he wrote. IALOP is a story of a dysfunctional English family, and its travails spanning a period from the '50s on. It's overly lengthy, meandering, and with no particular point. Although Mr. Pears writes well and is readable, I simply couldn't get interested in the story or the characters, but having invested some time getting into the book, ended up skimming to the end just to see what happened. It wasn't really wasn't worth it. My advice: Read the West Country Trilogy and move on.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because I (very, very vaguely) remember the series, and as it's not available on DVD, I wanted to read the story (yup, I'm a philistine.)

This book is a family epic, following the Freeman family as they plod on through post-WWII Britain, during times of prosperity and loss.

Unfortunately, it plodded. Even with the massive catastrophe at the end, I wasn't really engaged with the characters. In fact, in the beginning sections I kept losing track of which child was which. I especially didn't really like the main character, and the more colourful ones (like Zoe and Simon) had brief appearances.

Sigh.

[Kirsty Darbyshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fabulous. A long stretching family saga kind of thing that I could have kept reading forever. The story is about rise and fall of Charles Freeman and his family, mostly centering on one of his sons James. Starts in the 1950s and works its way up to the late 90s or so. Takes in the changes of English society and politics over the years. Very wide but it doesn't get out of hand. I loved it.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

By chance I found this book in a little charity shop, and what a gem I found! An amazing book that made me laugh, cry and exclaim out loud. I found the first chapter a little hard going to be honest, but once I got used to the writing style I was grabbed and absorbed by this families trials and tribulations. Not many books fill me with such emotion to make me cry, but this one did and I will certainly be looking for other books by this author.

[Anne Goodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sprawling family saga that charts the changes in a Midlands town across the second half of the twentieth century. A long book, fairly enjoyable after I adjusted to the wide cast of characters, but wasn't sure what the author was trying to achieve (unless he was hoping to write another Middlemarch).

[Abi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite ever books. A wonderful family saga with lots of brilliant characters. I read it 4 years ago and was so sorry to finish it. I have read two of his other books, but did not enjoy them nearly as much.

[John-Henry Barac · Rating 4 out of 5]

An astonishing meander through the lifetime of a man, his family and their place in the English town where they live. The story takes the reader through many social and political issues of the 20th century as these are the context which the characters inhabit. Marvellous characters. I loved it.

[Kathie Wilkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aspects of the book I thoroughly enjoyed - the interjection of historical characters (British Prime Ministers) into the story background - other aspects I found less satisfying, especially some of the novel's characters. A long read and not a totally satisfying one.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Freeman is my favorite character of all time. This book blows me away every time I read it.

[Jayden Acevedo-Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written story with gorgeous prose characters anddialog that feels real but I'm left disatisfied by the ending...

so to start I loved this story, I think it's best described as a 40 year epic about a family who experience the "human condition", and I found myself loving the characters because of how much we got to experience with them. every character goes through their own journey to become the person they are by the end of the book and it feels real how they interact and react with the world around them.

I think a personal standout is James with how he uses photography to express himself I think it's a beautiful allegory for his world, and there are some really powerful moments that I thought stood out because of his photography. I also really enjoyed.

So I would give this book a perfect rating except for the final 3 chapters...

**Major spoilers**

I think to start, Laura's death, directly after she gets married to James. I think my main issue with it is it felt sudden for Robert to do such a tragic thing in killing her... We do get to see how he isn't exactly the best person he even hits Laura at one point, but I still feel like we could've got more to showcase Robert was capable of it, I think I'm an even larger aspect is how it seems he was going to kill Adamina next. From what we are told it seems like he's learning to be somewhat of a father to Adamina, but in the end is willing to kill her? I do have to say we never really see Adamina and Robert interact other than what we are told second hand, by either Adamina or Laura's accounts, but I think that's part of the problem... I just feel like we needed more to get to the possibility of Robert killing both of them, to show he is a danger to the house hold.

I will say however I was able to get down with the tragedy. The chapter where Laura dies is beautifuly written with characters internal dialogues and reactions to such a tragedy, but, and I suppose to preface the book is written in parts and each part starts with a chapter in the hospital where James is. So We know something will happen to him. The chapter after Laura's death is one of the last two, and it's spent mainly focusing Adamina and James as they deal with and heal after the death of Laura. For me the knowledge that James would end up in the hospital felt like it took away from the healing the two characters went. The entire time instead of focusing on the real pain of these two characters I have the fact that it too will end in tragedy in the back of my head... and to be honest James' death also was to be frank kinda lame,like although well written it, was just a bad car crash essentially, so... maybe on its own it woulda been impactful but just after the tragedy of Laura it felt "uneventful".

I think the book needed to have one or the other. either have Laura die and a have better build up with Robert, and get rid of the hospital . Which I would prefer. But getting rid of Laura's death and keeping James' I think could still be impactful and about as good.

Overall still have love for this book, and it still goes down as a favorite, the ending ignoring my gripes was still satisfying, and I would recommend this book.

[Rue Baldry · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely read to start the new year with. It is longer than I would normally choose, but I’m glad of that as it meant I got to wallow in the company of the Freeman family for a long time in my life (days) and theirs (decades).

Decades ago I watched the TV series adapted from this novel, but luckily I don’t remember too much about it and so didn’t know what was going to happen. Just every so often I would feel a subcutaneous frisson stir and would half-remember what I was reading.

A fairly large cast of diverse characters are followed over a good-sized chunk of their lives. Some horrible things happen sometimes, but there’s also a lot of warmth and they all have redeeming features and good reasons for what they do. There is a cosiness within the plot of violence, suicide, prejudice, murder, trauma, mental illness, bullying and self-centred capitalism. This is partly because we are shown both sides of most of the arguments, debates and entrenched hatreds.

Pears seems to like or pity all of the characters and so as a reader I did too, though they don’t all like each other. He writes in beautiful sentences and imagery, and has a knack for incorporating history and political events without jarring, neither too much now too few details, and for those times which I had lived through he evoked a familiar feel without sentimental nostalgia.

Fair warning, though, he did make me very fond of some characters who he then had horrible things happening to them. Really horrible. This is not entirely the warm, cosy read it sometimes appears to be.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A family saga tracing the lives of the Freeman family and their various friends against the backdrop of postwar recontruction in England. Charles Freeman is a self-made man who "has a good war" turning the declining engineering factory he has inherited into one manufacturing munitions and parts for weapons. The novel then traces the growth of his wealth and his family against the postwar boom years, the social changes of the 1960s, and the effects of Thatcherism. I found it quite a good read, but interminable. 542 pages! It took me around two months to get through, on and off. Sometimes I wondered whether the author was being paid by the word, like Dickens I suppose. And I often finished a paragraph or a page and thought that it had just been a waste of paper adding nothing to the book. I would have welcomed a much sterner editor. Lists of shops and takeaways on a particular road, lists of different items of buffet food, kitchen equipment, the various strata of employees at tne local newspaper, and so on. More concerningly, I could not really understand the attraction between Alice and her boring husband, or that between Robert and Laura. Robert seemed to have no redeeming features whatsoever. It takes all sorts, I guess.

[C Seymour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really a 3.5. It started as a five but could have been at least two hundred pages shorter. Actually it needed attacking by a great editor.

Fantastic writing. That is what held my attention. But the storyline went down many dead ends. Whole chapters dedicated to meals or developing photography?? Seriously??

I don’t regret reading the novel however and some of the characters left a lasting impression.

[Vickie · Rating 4 out of 5]

(1997) Long (652 pages) and rather different from other books I've read by Tim Pears. Set in a town, it covers a period of about forty years and the fortunes of one family, particularly one member, James.

[Elizabeth Torphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely writer.

[Jo Birkett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absorbing sweep of a novel, I just settled back and enjoyed the strong narrative thread. Occasionally the characters approach caricatures but that's a minor quibble.

[Oscar Maquito · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4/5

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thiis was suggested by my Daisy reading group it was a pleasant read. Felt an awful lot happened to James. Good connection between the family on the hill.

[Janet Swann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautifully written but much too long and a lot of the detail unnecessary

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Started off really well but it could have done with being 100 pages shorter. At least one of the sections was totally superfluous. The last third was a bit like wading through porridge.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed following the lives of the family. The book is well written and, though long, easy to read.

[The Bookish Wombat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a doorstop of a book running at nearly 700 pages in paperback and it needs to be as it's trying to show us British society since the 1950s through the story of a single (albeit complex) family. I started off really enjoying it, but as it went on I felt that I wanted more dialogue and less third-person narration. The way the book is narrated makes it feel like a history lesson and it made the characters seem less real to me somehow - I'd rather have learned about them through what they say than what the narrator is telling me. That aside, the book is a great achievement and has some very moving passages.