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The West Country Trilogy #2
The Wanderers
The powerful second novel in Tim Pears’s acclaimed West Country trilogy. Two teenagers, bound by love yet divided by fate, forge separate paths in England before World War I.
1912. Leo Sercombe is on a journey. Aged thirteen and banished from the secluded farm of his childhood, he travels through Devon, grazing on berries and sleeping in the woods. Behind him lies the past, and before him the West Country, spread out like a tapestry. But a wanderer is never alone for long, try as he might—and soon Leo is taken in by gypsies, with their wagons, horses, and vivid attire. Yet he knows he cannot linger, and must forge on toward the western horizon.
Leo’s love, Lottie, is at home. Life on the estate continues as usual, yet nothing is as it was. Her father is distracted by the promise of new love and Lottie is increasingly absorbed in the natural world: the profusion of wild flowers in the meadow, the habits of predators, and the mysteries of anatomy. And of course, Leo is absent. How will the two young people ever find each other again?
In The Wanderers, Tim Pears’s writing, both transcendental and sharply focused, reaches new heights, revealing the beauty and brutality that coexist in nature. Timeless, searching, charged with raw energy and gentle humor, this is a delicately wrought tale of adolescence; of survival; of longing, loneliness, and love.
1912. Leo Sercombe is on a journey. Aged thirteen and banished from the secluded farm of his childhood, he travels through Devon, grazing on berries and sleeping in the woods. Behind him lies the past, and before him the West Country, spread out like a tapestry. But a wanderer is never alone for long, try as he might—and soon Leo is taken in by gypsies, with their wagons, horses, and vivid attire. Yet he knows he cannot linger, and must forge on toward the western horizon.
Leo’s love, Lottie, is at home. Life on the estate continues as usual, yet nothing is as it was. Her father is distracted by the promise of new love and Lottie is increasingly absorbed in the natural world: the profusion of wild flowers in the meadow, the habits of predators, and the mysteries of anatomy. And of course, Leo is absent. How will the two young people ever find each other again?
In The Wanderers, Tim Pears’s writing, both transcendental and sharply focused, reaches new heights, revealing the beauty and brutality that coexist in nature. Timeless, searching, charged with raw energy and gentle humor, this is a delicately wrought tale of adolescence; of survival; of longing, loneliness, and love.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 11, 2018
78 people are currently reading
541 people want to read
About the author
Tim Pears
20 books104 followersBorn 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
May 15, 2018
You have to read the first book of this trilogy to know why 13 year old Leo is wandering the English countryside in 1912. He lives with gypsies for a while, then, on his own again, seeks work in a copper mine, on a sheep farm, and then travels with a kind-hearted tramp. Along the way he meets all kinds, theives, murderers, suspicious women and false friends, and people willing to give him clothes and food for a few hours work. Also along the way, he grows and learns from them all, good and bad. Back at the estate he was forced to leave, his friend Lottie is also learning and growing and becoming a woman, although not in the way her father would prefer. I can't wait for Tim Pears to get the third book written, so I can find out what happens to these two, especially now that WWI has reared its ugly head.
Love this author and am off to look for his earlier books.
Love this author and am off to look for his earlier books.
June 17, 2018
Warning- do not read this book, which is #2 in a trilogy, unless you have read the first. The Horseman is book #1.
That one was good, this one is excellent. It's a progression in time month to season. Here at the beginning, Leo is turning 14. He's just about as old as the century. As it enters 1915 near the ending, you will not believe all that has happened within these nearly couple dozen months.
England and the western districts (he is always heading for Cornwall) are superbly drawn. The nature writing surpasses anything I have read placed England and particularly for that period of farming, livestock, poultry keeping, bounties or not of the land. Class distinctions, not only in economic resource and attrition values, but in all senses layered. Finely, crudely, for faith and moral connections- or not. But all clearly unpeels layer by layer in actions and witness. Not half as much in conversations or abstract word flings between the more hubris. But nevertheless in vast investigation of that time, that place, the minds and bodies of Leo and Lottie. Different places and never met during these wanderings. And where has the white colt been lead to wander too? Taken away by another in the night.
I find I will have to wait for book #3 and it may be some time. Oh what anticipation!
Excellent tale of reality "eyes" in a time when childhood was not defined in years. And learning was often far, far from any school room or library. And in which freedom of no owning and abandoned loyalties and disconnection lead to quite other lessons. Some of the dire and painful supreme. Others of bountiful sharing and stranger protection. But almost nothing of stable continuity.
Thieves, scoundrels, fools with know better directives, mute kindness or sharing, animal partnering and animal tooth and claw- a full spectrum of types. They adhere and then they don't? But always an end goal. And the struggle for food and for shelter.
I've read books of this scale of wandering before, but never for English districts. It's always been on other continents, and especially in the North American South or West. Geography so different, but the natural world here so much more groomed/ settled or not.
The voice of Lottie portions were point on for her thoughts and actions too, especially upon the changed relationship with her father's marriage and her interests in the biologic. Somehow the duck trade help she is giving too, near the ending- it puts her at increasing disparity with her class and station. You know with the war- it will all change. Where will that interest in the medical and bodies lead? And always you know too, her absolute surety and the waiting for his return.
Read these, but only in order. They are very gritty and specific. And also a sublime insight too into the roamers and gypsy Romany culture of that period and those places. But regardless of the gristle of the subject matter, the prose is bursting like just broken buds.
Made me wonder what badger fat smells like. No, I'm sure I don't want to know.
That one was good, this one is excellent. It's a progression in time month to season. Here at the beginning, Leo is turning 14. He's just about as old as the century. As it enters 1915 near the ending, you will not believe all that has happened within these nearly couple dozen months.
England and the western districts (he is always heading for Cornwall) are superbly drawn. The nature writing surpasses anything I have read placed England and particularly for that period of farming, livestock, poultry keeping, bounties or not of the land. Class distinctions, not only in economic resource and attrition values, but in all senses layered. Finely, crudely, for faith and moral connections- or not. But all clearly unpeels layer by layer in actions and witness. Not half as much in conversations or abstract word flings between the more hubris. But nevertheless in vast investigation of that time, that place, the minds and bodies of Leo and Lottie. Different places and never met during these wanderings. And where has the white colt been lead to wander too? Taken away by another in the night.
I find I will have to wait for book #3 and it may be some time. Oh what anticipation!
Excellent tale of reality "eyes" in a time when childhood was not defined in years. And learning was often far, far from any school room or library. And in which freedom of no owning and abandoned loyalties and disconnection lead to quite other lessons. Some of the dire and painful supreme. Others of bountiful sharing and stranger protection. But almost nothing of stable continuity.
Thieves, scoundrels, fools with know better directives, mute kindness or sharing, animal partnering and animal tooth and claw- a full spectrum of types. They adhere and then they don't? But always an end goal. And the struggle for food and for shelter.
I've read books of this scale of wandering before, but never for English districts. It's always been on other continents, and especially in the North American South or West. Geography so different, but the natural world here so much more groomed/ settled or not.
The voice of Lottie portions were point on for her thoughts and actions too, especially upon the changed relationship with her father's marriage and her interests in the biologic. Somehow the duck trade help she is giving too, near the ending- it puts her at increasing disparity with her class and station. You know with the war- it will all change. Where will that interest in the medical and bodies lead? And always you know too, her absolute surety and the waiting for his return.
Read these, but only in order. They are very gritty and specific. And also a sublime insight too into the roamers and gypsy Romany culture of that period and those places. But regardless of the gristle of the subject matter, the prose is bursting like just broken buds.
Made me wonder what badger fat smells like. No, I'm sure I don't want to know.
March 19, 2018
*Note: A copy of the book was provided in exchange of an honest review. This is an uncorrected proof edition’s quotes, so they can be subject to change. Would love to thank @BloomsburyIndia for sending the copy.*
Review:
Holy Guacamole. I really liked this book a lot. Funny thing is though that I haven’t even read the first book in the series.
4 stars.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Wanderers, which is the second book in Pear’s West Country Trilogy, is a world which isn’t written about a lot. It is set almost at the cusp of World War one, with a lot of foreshadowing. I wasn’t able to get my hands on the first one, so I had to continue and make sense of the second one. Luckily there is no cohesive “plot” as such, and the book doesn’t boast much in terms of action.
However, the writing is wonderful. Novels set in the pre-war era are so rare and disengaging, that I was almost expecting the same, especially when I realised it won’t be anything like Downton Abbey. I am glad to say I was taken by surprise. The world before the war has always fascinated me. Reading Lottie’s picturesque estate and the time Leo spends with the gypsies, was so starkly different from the modern world that it felt unreal. There was always a sense of dread, as Leo and Lottie are from a generation that is going to witness the most gruesome war, and maybe even both of them. Historical fiction always makes one uncomfortable, because as readers you might be aware of the fate, like Jamie’s in Outlander, or Isabelle’s in The Nightingale, but you still keep reading on.
The characters are both, detached and the center of the novel. I liked Leo’s bits a bit more. It was refreshing to see him grow into a young man, although I won’t call this a bildungsroman. Even with Lottie you can see the first signs of the suffragette movement. Both are very historically accurate as characters, which will make the third installment very painful for me to read.
Lastly I want to talk about the writing. It gave me a sense of reading a writer from the early 20th century. Pears’ writing is evocative and mesmerising. You are with Leo as he runs away on his horse, from the Gypsies. And then you are with Lottie at her father’s wedding. You stand by these characters and you witness their feelings first hand. With their childhood naiveté and their tragic fates. There wasn’t much of romance in the story, so I wasn’t rooting for them, however I liked these characters much more as individuals, connected by the sense of an approaching doom. One of the characters tells Leo, that the wars “won’t happen” because trading countries don’t fight and as a 21st century reader that line felt terrifying.
I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. In the world of fiction, where everything is being dominated by fast-pace writing, this is one slow, beautiful and terrifying read. If not for the characters, read the novel for the words.
- Samidha.
Review:
Holy Guacamole. I really liked this book a lot. Funny thing is though that I haven’t even read the first book in the series.
4 stars.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Wanderers, which is the second book in Pear’s West Country Trilogy, is a world which isn’t written about a lot. It is set almost at the cusp of World War one, with a lot of foreshadowing. I wasn’t able to get my hands on the first one, so I had to continue and make sense of the second one. Luckily there is no cohesive “plot” as such, and the book doesn’t boast much in terms of action.
“Then drops of rain appeared on the water. If you watched closely, each drop seemed not to fall from above but rise from beneath the surface.”
However, the writing is wonderful. Novels set in the pre-war era are so rare and disengaging, that I was almost expecting the same, especially when I realised it won’t be anything like Downton Abbey. I am glad to say I was taken by surprise. The world before the war has always fascinated me. Reading Lottie’s picturesque estate and the time Leo spends with the gypsies, was so starkly different from the modern world that it felt unreal. There was always a sense of dread, as Leo and Lottie are from a generation that is going to witness the most gruesome war, and maybe even both of them. Historical fiction always makes one uncomfortable, because as readers you might be aware of the fate, like Jamie’s in Outlander, or Isabelle’s in The Nightingale, but you still keep reading on.
“They each stood and watched whatever was growing larger, approaching them through the air. Bearing down upon them, flying low and fast along the ridge, straight as arrows.”
The characters are both, detached and the center of the novel. I liked Leo’s bits a bit more. It was refreshing to see him grow into a young man, although I won’t call this a bildungsroman. Even with Lottie you can see the first signs of the suffragette movement. Both are very historically accurate as characters, which will make the third installment very painful for me to read.
Lastly I want to talk about the writing. It gave me a sense of reading a writer from the early 20th century. Pears’ writing is evocative and mesmerising. You are with Leo as he runs away on his horse, from the Gypsies. And then you are with Lottie at her father’s wedding. You stand by these characters and you witness their feelings first hand. With their childhood naiveté and their tragic fates. There wasn’t much of romance in the story, so I wasn’t rooting for them, however I liked these characters much more as individuals, connected by the sense of an approaching doom. One of the characters tells Leo, that the wars “won’t happen” because trading countries don’t fight and as a 21st century reader that line felt terrifying.
“Memories are pinches of gunpowder, thrown into the flames, they ignite and explode.”
I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. In the world of fiction, where everything is being dominated by fast-pace writing, this is one slow, beautiful and terrifying read. If not for the characters, read the novel for the words.
- Samidha.
August 19, 2020
The Wanderers is the second novel in Tim Pears’s West Country trilogy. Like the first book, The Horseman, it was longlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. (The author recently made it three out of three when the final book in the trilogy, The Redeemed, made the shortlist for the 2020 prize.) I listened to the audiobook version, superbly narrated by Jonathan Keeble, who really captured the rhythm of the writing and created distinct voices for the various characters.
The end of The Horseman saw young Leo leaving his home to head westward, filled with guilt that an innocent act should have resulted in dramatic consequences for his family. Penniless and without the means to sustain himself, he is rescued by a band of gypsies. There follows a wonderful section of the book in which Leo is introduced to gypsy culture and travels with the Orchard ‘tribe’. Once again, his bond with horses and his riding ability form a key part of the storyline. Learning that the gypsies do not intend to travel further westward, he parts company with them in a thrillingly opportunistic way. Once more Leo finds himself travelling alone, reliant on his own enterprise or the kindness of strangers to feed him and provide him with shelter.
Throughout the book, the author populates Leo’s journey with a wonderful cast of characters, such as the patriarch of the Orchard family and an old shepherd. Often he meets people living on the margins of society. For example, an ailing hermit, a veteran of the Boer War who senses the country is moving towards war once again.
During his travels Leo is educated in country ways such as the care of sheep, and how to forage and live off the land. These are described in realistic detail – in some cases, perhaps rather too realistic for those on the squeamish side! As in The Horseman, there are wonderful descriptions of the landscape through which Leo passes. The author vividly depicts a way of life that progresses at a very different pace to our own, one much more aligned with the seasons. Of course, the reader knows it’s a way of life that will shortly be changed forever by the coming of war.
Meanwhile, back on the estate, Lottie feels increasingly invisible as her father’s attention is diverted elsewhere. She fears being sent away from the estate and the countryside she loves so much and being unable to pursue her interest in nature and biology, not considered suitable subjects for a young lady in her position. She clings to the hope that Leo, the only person who seems to understand her passion for the natural world, will keep his promise to return.
The book ends at a turning point for Leo, and for the country. I’m looking forward to finding out what happens in The Redeemed, the final book in the trilogy, which will pick up Leo’s and Lottie’s story in 1916.
The end of The Horseman saw young Leo leaving his home to head westward, filled with guilt that an innocent act should have resulted in dramatic consequences for his family. Penniless and without the means to sustain himself, he is rescued by a band of gypsies. There follows a wonderful section of the book in which Leo is introduced to gypsy culture and travels with the Orchard ‘tribe’. Once again, his bond with horses and his riding ability form a key part of the storyline. Learning that the gypsies do not intend to travel further westward, he parts company with them in a thrillingly opportunistic way. Once more Leo finds himself travelling alone, reliant on his own enterprise or the kindness of strangers to feed him and provide him with shelter.
Throughout the book, the author populates Leo’s journey with a wonderful cast of characters, such as the patriarch of the Orchard family and an old shepherd. Often he meets people living on the margins of society. For example, an ailing hermit, a veteran of the Boer War who senses the country is moving towards war once again.
During his travels Leo is educated in country ways such as the care of sheep, and how to forage and live off the land. These are described in realistic detail – in some cases, perhaps rather too realistic for those on the squeamish side! As in The Horseman, there are wonderful descriptions of the landscape through which Leo passes. The author vividly depicts a way of life that progresses at a very different pace to our own, one much more aligned with the seasons. Of course, the reader knows it’s a way of life that will shortly be changed forever by the coming of war.
Meanwhile, back on the estate, Lottie feels increasingly invisible as her father’s attention is diverted elsewhere. She fears being sent away from the estate and the countryside she loves so much and being unable to pursue her interest in nature and biology, not considered suitable subjects for a young lady in her position. She clings to the hope that Leo, the only person who seems to understand her passion for the natural world, will keep his promise to return.
The book ends at a turning point for Leo, and for the country. I’m looking forward to finding out what happens in The Redeemed, the final book in the trilogy, which will pick up Leo’s and Lottie’s story in 1916.
June 22, 2018
And now I must wait to see what becomes of Leo, Lottie, the white horse...
Hope the wait is a short one!
Hope the wait is a short one!
March 7, 2018
High praise indeed from me for the second book in Pears’s West Country Trilogy. It is a novel of stark contrasts as the story alternates between Leo and Charlotte in the years between 1912 and 1915.
At 13 Leo is headed alone towards his mother’s birthplace, Penzance (without giving any spoilers from the first book). As he passes through the Bodmin and Dartmoor areas he lives with a family of gypsies, works on at what remains of an abandoned tin mine (it was the time when the workforce moved north to the iron and coal mines of Cumbria), then lives wild in a wood with a hermit for a while. Charlotte meanwhile, continues her education in the home of her father, Lord Prideaux.
Personally I found this as enjoyable, if not a bit more, than The Horseman . This is less character driven, and more held together by both youngsters’ experiences in the country, particularly Leo, who lives outdoors, his education is as full as Charlotte’s, but one of what we would call these days bushcraft, and survival skills.
As with the first book of the trilogy there are some passages of outstanding writing, Pears writes so well about nature. While Leo is at the Okehampton fair, with horses racing bareback and bare knuckle boxing, Charlotte is at the Epsom Derby.
The Orchard family of gypsies that Leo becomes part of come across a rival band, the Penfolds, at the Okehampton fair, and trouble breaks out,
‘He’ll never amount to no more’n a piece of shite - and the same goes for the lot of you. You’re the biggest liar that ever stood on two feet. Look at you...chewing your tobbaca like a sheep chewing it’s cud. Your old woman there looks a sour as a crab apple tree. All your women chatter like magpies.’
‘Look at yourself, Samson Orchard, you’re a big man with a small heart, and you’re good for nothin. You’re a large puddin with nought in it, so you are.’
The few chapters that relate to the boy staying with the hermit Rufus are particularly special. I am sure it will be one of the highlights of my reading year.
The big question is, with the World War looming, can the final book of the trilogy live up to the first two, I very much look forward to it.
At 13 Leo is headed alone towards his mother’s birthplace, Penzance (without giving any spoilers from the first book). As he passes through the Bodmin and Dartmoor areas he lives with a family of gypsies, works on at what remains of an abandoned tin mine (it was the time when the workforce moved north to the iron and coal mines of Cumbria), then lives wild in a wood with a hermit for a while. Charlotte meanwhile, continues her education in the home of her father, Lord Prideaux.
Personally I found this as enjoyable, if not a bit more, than The Horseman . This is less character driven, and more held together by both youngsters’ experiences in the country, particularly Leo, who lives outdoors, his education is as full as Charlotte’s, but one of what we would call these days bushcraft, and survival skills.
As with the first book of the trilogy there are some passages of outstanding writing, Pears writes so well about nature. While Leo is at the Okehampton fair, with horses racing bareback and bare knuckle boxing, Charlotte is at the Epsom Derby.
The Orchard family of gypsies that Leo becomes part of come across a rival band, the Penfolds, at the Okehampton fair, and trouble breaks out,
‘He’ll never amount to no more’n a piece of shite - and the same goes for the lot of you. You’re the biggest liar that ever stood on two feet. Look at you...chewing your tobbaca like a sheep chewing it’s cud. Your old woman there looks a sour as a crab apple tree. All your women chatter like magpies.’
‘Look at yourself, Samson Orchard, you’re a big man with a small heart, and you’re good for nothin. You’re a large puddin with nought in it, so you are.’
The few chapters that relate to the boy staying with the hermit Rufus are particularly special. I am sure it will be one of the highlights of my reading year.
The big question is, with the World War looming, can the final book of the trilogy live up to the first two, I very much look forward to it.
February 23, 2018
The Wanderers by Tim Pears is rather an interesting book. The title suits the story perfectly and you yourself feel that you have become a part of the book. When you start with the book, all the scenes start scrolling like a movie in front of your eyes. The entire scenic beauty has been described very minutely, one can literally picture the story in which Leo scrounges work, learn some skills, makes a few friends, and is robbed of his magical horse.
From taming any wildlife to rural practices, everything is delivered in detail. The beautiful part is to witness how Leo’s character is developed. From a timid boy to a person who has seen rough time, and that change has been showcased in a very miraculous manner. The “curse” (as per me) between Leo’s poverty and Lottie’s luxury can be felt throughout. There is a base of history surrounding the time period of 1912-1915 but the good thing is that the history of 1912 will not overwhelm you. The novel gives you a close glimpse of 1915 war and the social conflicts of rich poor.
To be honest, I found the book a little intense and a bit slow, maybe cause I am not really used to with such descriptions but even though saying that, I did admire the book. What I really liked about the book cover and the title was the way it described the book in one go. Once you complete the novel, you understand the reason for the boy sitting on a horse in a lonely field. The writing is smooth and the descriptive way in which the author, Tim Pears has written shows how wide his imagination can go.
This is a book to be kept as a collection piece, although I haven’t read the first part, The Horseman, it was very easy to relate what could have happened. I am surely looking forward to the last part.
From taming any wildlife to rural practices, everything is delivered in detail. The beautiful part is to witness how Leo’s character is developed. From a timid boy to a person who has seen rough time, and that change has been showcased in a very miraculous manner. The “curse” (as per me) between Leo’s poverty and Lottie’s luxury can be felt throughout. There is a base of history surrounding the time period of 1912-1915 but the good thing is that the history of 1912 will not overwhelm you. The novel gives you a close glimpse of 1915 war and the social conflicts of rich poor.
To be honest, I found the book a little intense and a bit slow, maybe cause I am not really used to with such descriptions but even though saying that, I did admire the book. What I really liked about the book cover and the title was the way it described the book in one go. Once you complete the novel, you understand the reason for the boy sitting on a horse in a lonely field. The writing is smooth and the descriptive way in which the author, Tim Pears has written shows how wide his imagination can go.
This is a book to be kept as a collection piece, although I haven’t read the first part, The Horseman, it was very easy to relate what could have happened. I am surely looking forward to the last part.
March 21, 2024
Not as gobsmacking as the first in the trilogy but suddenly leaps into its own in the last 30 pages or so or maybe that's because I read them when I was awake.
The bits about the posh girl Lottie aren't nearly as gripping but I'm fond of the boy and can happily wander along with him wherever he goes, as long as he mentions his horse often enough. He ends up working for a benighted sheep farmer who castrates his lambs by biting off their balls and spitting tobacco juice into the wound. Then he takes their tiny bollocks home for his supper. That's the last straw for our boy, he quits. I didn't find it that shocking really, isn't that a worldwide practice? Not nearly as reprehensible as eating meat from a supermarket.
The bits about the posh girl Lottie aren't nearly as gripping but I'm fond of the boy and can happily wander along with him wherever he goes, as long as he mentions his horse often enough. He ends up working for a benighted sheep farmer who castrates his lambs by biting off their balls and spitting tobacco juice into the wound. Then he takes their tiny bollocks home for his supper. That's the last straw for our boy, he quits. I didn't find it that shocking really, isn't that a worldwide practice? Not nearly as reprehensible as eating meat from a supermarket.
October 5, 2020
The Wanderers is the second book in Tim Pears trilogy depicting life in the early 1900s countryside of Devon and the West Country. This book follows the cast out son of the country estates horse handler. As he makes a journey across the country to his mother's people, he falls in with gypsies , a tramp, and hard task master of a poor sheep farm. The beautiful, tactile descriptions of a time long gone away brings the reader into a world so different as can be from modern days. Yet. People are the same...they strive to make a living , wonder about purpose, wrestle with solitude and belonging, test themselves getting to know themselves, yearn for love and mercy. The pace is measured and gentle. The growth is gradual and real. This writer teases this story alive drawing the reader firmly along.
March 13, 2020
less character development here for me than in first book
young Leo wanders westwards through a number of early 20th century scenes, struggling to find a place
serve as set pieces to explore old days and old ways, miners, struggling mean farmers, gypsies
some thing of a storyline with recurring interactions with white horse, interesting in themselves, but ultimately not quite satisfying
Lottie's lot changes less, continued fascination with the natural world, some changes at home as her father has a new love interest
young Leo wanders westwards through a number of early 20th century scenes, struggling to find a place
serve as set pieces to explore old days and old ways, miners, struggling mean farmers, gypsies
some thing of a storyline with recurring interactions with white horse, interesting in themselves, but ultimately not quite satisfying
Lottie's lot changes less, continued fascination with the natural world, some changes at home as her father has a new love interest
January 24, 2018
The Horseman, the first part of Pears’s West Country trilogy, pretty much disappeared without trace when it was published last year. And that was despite it being critically acclaimed. The Wanderers, the trilogy’s second instalment, will likely face the same fate. Why? Because, like its predecessor, The Wanderers can’t be rushed.
The story of farm boy Leo’s travels just before the First World War may well be, at heart, a road trip but The Wanderers is all about the journey not the destination. Pears’s sumptuous but scrupulous descriptions of the countryside are as evocative as Robert Macfarlane’s nature writing and as delicious to savour. The book ends before Leo’s trajectory back to Lottie, his love from the first novel, has become clear – the final part of this moving, absorbing odyssey cannot arrive quickly enough.
The story of farm boy Leo’s travels just before the First World War may well be, at heart, a road trip but The Wanderers is all about the journey not the destination. Pears’s sumptuous but scrupulous descriptions of the countryside are as evocative as Robert Macfarlane’s nature writing and as delicious to savour. The book ends before Leo’s trajectory back to Lottie, his love from the first novel, has become clear – the final part of this moving, absorbing odyssey cannot arrive quickly enough.
July 20, 2018
To follow on from "Consequences" I stayed in the West Country for the second part of this wonderful trilogy. The Wanderers is wonderful although not quite as brilliant as The Horseman. The beauty of The Horseman was how it stayed in one place and slowly built up to a devastating event. The Wanderers is the consequence of this & Leo lives the life of a fugitive flitting from one situation to the next. There is no peace for this quiet unassuming hero and life is dangerous and eventful. Meanwhile Lottie has remained with her father and her feelings for Leo.
The writing is so restrained that it is never romantic or sentimental but Lottie & Leo are beautifully displayed & this past world seems so present.
To say I am looking forward to the finale is incorrect. I am dreading it. The war is looming & Leo is destined to a life in the trenches & I can only imagine tragedy. Of course I want a happy ending & Leo & Lottie to be happy ever after but somehow I doubt this will happen but I will wait with hope for a happy ending!!!!!!
The writing is so restrained that it is never romantic or sentimental but Lottie & Leo are beautifully displayed & this past world seems so present.
To say I am looking forward to the finale is incorrect. I am dreading it. The war is looming & Leo is destined to a life in the trenches & I can only imagine tragedy. Of course I want a happy ending & Leo & Lottie to be happy ever after but somehow I doubt this will happen but I will wait with hope for a happy ending!!!!!!
December 25, 2018
I loved the first book in this series, which I read (twice) a year or so ago. I may have loved this one even more.
The first book may arguably be hard to get into, because of the slow pace and dialectal and rural West Country vocabulary of a hundred years ago. But I think this is much less of an issue with this book, especially if you've already read "The Horseman". Plot-wise, it will also help to have read that book, though maybe not essential.
Without giving away much of the plot, we pick up where we left off, following the separate storylines of the two main characters. The writing remains understatedly stunning and utterly heart-wrenching. Some may say that the author's research is a little too obvious. But I don't care. It is a fascinating insight into this world and, to me at least, entirely convincing.
Thankfully, I decided to read this second book just a month before the third and final book of the trilogy is published. Can't wait!
The first book may arguably be hard to get into, because of the slow pace and dialectal and rural West Country vocabulary of a hundred years ago. But I think this is much less of an issue with this book, especially if you've already read "The Horseman". Plot-wise, it will also help to have read that book, though maybe not essential.
Without giving away much of the plot, we pick up where we left off, following the separate storylines of the two main characters. The writing remains understatedly stunning and utterly heart-wrenching. Some may say that the author's research is a little too obvious. But I don't care. It is a fascinating insight into this world and, to me at least, entirely convincing.
Thankfully, I decided to read this second book just a month before the third and final book of the trilogy is published. Can't wait!
February 15, 2022
Where the first part of this trilogy ponderously and scrupulously details the month-to-month workings of the people attached to a West Country farm in the early 20th-Century, this second book picks up the pace - as though to echo the more mobile lives of the characters we now meet. They are also living off the land, but are not connected to it in the same way. Leo travels first with a gypsy clan, then stays with some mean farmers who don't love their land or animals, then is taken under the wing of a hobo. It's almost Dickensian in its descriptions of Leo's trials and its quirky cast, whom like Leo we don't know if we can trust. If the first book is almost hypnotic, this one snaps its fingers repeatedly in your face to bring you round. Things are changing, keep up! The contrasting sections of Leo's love Miss Charlotte trying to find her own way trapped in a pampered life were less interesting to me, but I'm sure that will all pay off in book three. I liked this a lot.
March 19, 2019
I hadn't realised this was the second in a trilogy but I joined the main character at the age of 10 so I suspect the first volume might have been a tad slow.
The writing is superb. Described as 'pastoral' writing, I can confirm that the reader hears the birds twerping and the horses whinny. Pears absolutely drops you into the setting.
This is a vivid tale of life on the road for a 10 year old in pre WW1 England - harsh. There are gentry, gypsies, farmers, and those who truly live off the grid - loved the 'pantry' near the end of this book. Dystopian fiction is my usual go-to and this book has given me plenty of material to set the scene for my own post-apocalyptic tale.
Although I'd like to find out what happens to the characters, the book also works on its own as a glimpse of a time.
The writing is superb. Described as 'pastoral' writing, I can confirm that the reader hears the birds twerping and the horses whinny. Pears absolutely drops you into the setting.
This is a vivid tale of life on the road for a 10 year old in pre WW1 England - harsh. There are gentry, gypsies, farmers, and those who truly live off the grid - loved the 'pantry' near the end of this book. Dystopian fiction is my usual go-to and this book has given me plenty of material to set the scene for my own post-apocalyptic tale.
Although I'd like to find out what happens to the characters, the book also works on its own as a glimpse of a time.
April 4, 2021
This second volume in Tim Pears’ West Country trilogy is as gripping, luminous and involving as the first. I have high hopes indeed for The Redeemed, the final book in the set. The Wanderers follows Leo westward, first with a roving group of Romany gypsies, then at a copper and arsenic mine, a ‘mean farm’ on the Cornish border, a China clay works, until ultimately he falls in with Rufus a psychologically damaged veteran of the second Boer War now living as part tramp, part hermit. Interspersed with Leo’s story is Charlotte Prideaux’s, who finds escape from the misery of her circumscribed life and her father’s approaching wedding to the young Alice Grenvil by a growing fascination with the natural world. Pears’ storytelling is exceptional and his description of the natural environment in which his characters’ stories unfold bears comparison with Hardy.
July 27, 2020
This book feels so real, it was like I was living it. Incredibly beautiful writing. Sometimes painful writing. Most times my heart ached for Leo. I was so angered by Wilf I almost couldn't stand to read the passages with him.
The tawny owl story, Lottie finding she was invisible by degrees, learning about cutting out the voice box of the mules and war horses were just some of the stories I stopped and let the writing just wash over me.
Thank goodness Leo finally met Rufus; who was decent to him.
Thank you Mr. Pears!
The tawny owl story, Lottie finding she was invisible by degrees, learning about cutting out the voice box of the mules and war horses were just some of the stories I stopped and let the writing just wash over me.
Thank goodness Leo finally met Rufus; who was decent to him.
Thank you Mr. Pears!
March 13, 2021
Separately only 3*, complete trilogy 5*.
February 2, 2018
The Wanderers is actually the second book of a trilogy, but you don’t need to have read the first to enjoy Tim Pears’s writing, or to become fully immersed in the world he recreates. This volume is set in Devon and Cornwall in 1913, as Leo Sercombe is cast out of his home on the Prideaux estate in Devon for some crime which remains unspecified. (This is where having read book one, The Horseman, might be handy, but as the plot of The Wanderers doesn’t concern itself overly with what happened in the past, I found it didn’t noticeably dim my understanding of the book.) Pears gives the reader two perspectives: Leo’s, as he journeys across the West Country, making his way slowly towards Penzance, and that of Lottie, Lord Prideaux’s daughter and Leo’s former playmate. Leo’s sections read like slow-motion picaresque in a minor key, with awe and respect at the beauty of the natural world taking the place that humour and the grotesque usually occupy in that genre. He spends time with “gypsies” (Romany travelers), Cornish tin miners, and a vagabond named Rufus who served in the Second Boer War. Lottie’s story, meanwhile, follows a Bildungsroman arc, as her father remarries and Lottie fights to pursue an intellectual fascination with anatomy and dissection. What saves this arc from being a tired “feisty-girl” trope is Pears’s ability to express, sensitively and subtly, Lottie’s deep grief at Leo’s disappearance, and her isolation from her father and from any friends her own age. His writing, both about nature and about the complexities of the human heart, is delicate and precise and always slightly oblique; he is the master of presenting a situation or a piece of dialogue without comment, and letting the reader conclude what she will. I'm shocked that I haven't read his work before now.
November 14, 2020
Leo Sercombe has been banished from his home farm, and at his tender age, it is necessary for him to live on his wits and rely on the kindness of strangers. It's 1912, and there are rumblings about a war, but Leo just needs to survive. He starts out by becoming guests of a caravan of gypsies, where he meets new people, learns new things, and is able to hone his skills as a horseman. When things begin to go awry there, he escapes, hoping to make it to Penzance where he knows he has extended family. Before that though, he must find a way to survive, and becomes a hand at an abandoned mine, works at a farm, and then lives for a while with a traveling farm hand who is actually somewhat of a hermit. In each place, he finds a certain level of friendship and happiness, but becomes more determined to figure out how to live life his way. He often thinks of his family, and particularly misses his older brother and hopes one day to see him again.
Back where Leo started life, his friend/girlfriend Lottie is still on her family estate, where her widowed father has decided to marry a younger woman, who is eager to make changes. Lottie, meanwhile, has become very interested in animal anatomy, and with the help of Leo's older brother, who brings her dead animals, she is learning dissection and anatomical identification.
By the end of the book, Leo is on his own again headed towards Penzance, and Lottie is starting to bristle due to the changes being made by her new stepmother. I am looking forward to the next installment to learn more about what happens to both of them.
Back where Leo started life, his friend/girlfriend Lottie is still on her family estate, where her widowed father has decided to marry a younger woman, who is eager to make changes. Lottie, meanwhile, has become very interested in animal anatomy, and with the help of Leo's older brother, who brings her dead animals, she is learning dissection and anatomical identification.
By the end of the book, Leo is on his own again headed towards Penzance, and Lottie is starting to bristle due to the changes being made by her new stepmother. I am looking forward to the next installment to learn more about what happens to both of them.
May 17, 2023
This is the second volume in Tim Pears' West Country Trilogy. I read the first book (The Horseman) a couple of weeks ago and I mean to read the third one soon. At the end of The Horseman the central character - an adolescent boy named Leo Sercombe - has been severed from Lottie, his girl friend, by the ramifications of the English class system and driven into exile by his own family.
As this book opens Leo is making his solitary way across rural England in 1912, without a home, food or money. He falls in (and subsequently, out) with a party of gypsies whose idiosyncratic life is exuberantly described. There are also vivid pictures of life in a struggling tin mine, on a bleak sheep farm and on the road with a kind but eccentric tramp. From time to time we get a glimpse of how things are progressing for Lottie and oblique hints from the outside world of certain movements and events that are more meaningful to us than they could be to Leo: suffragettes, the arms race between Britain and Germany, the belief that international trade would make war impossible.
I realise that I've broken one of my own rules by giving away fragments of the plot but I couldn't see a way to avoid it in this case and I haven't spilled any more beans than would a glance at the dust jacket.
Like its predecessor this is a beautifully written, heart-breaking novel.
As this book opens Leo is making his solitary way across rural England in 1912, without a home, food or money. He falls in (and subsequently, out) with a party of gypsies whose idiosyncratic life is exuberantly described. There are also vivid pictures of life in a struggling tin mine, on a bleak sheep farm and on the road with a kind but eccentric tramp. From time to time we get a glimpse of how things are progressing for Lottie and oblique hints from the outside world of certain movements and events that are more meaningful to us than they could be to Leo: suffragettes, the arms race between Britain and Germany, the belief that international trade would make war impossible.
I realise that I've broken one of my own rules by giving away fragments of the plot but I couldn't see a way to avoid it in this case and I haven't spilled any more beans than would a glance at the dust jacket.
Like its predecessor this is a beautifully written, heart-breaking novel.
November 6, 2024
After soldering through the first instalment I couldn’t wait to continue on Leo and Lottie’s journey. I’m a slow reader but I absolutely burned through the descriptive prose like candle wax. I read this second book while induced in the tranquility of my mountain farm so that might’ve helped.
Structurally the book reads well with a flowing storyline that keeps the reader engaged. The chapters are short enough that they can easily be read in a way that makes the book more interactive than if it were written in a longitudinal format. It helps that time evolves in alternating periods between the two central characters, though it’s clear Leo remains the main focus.
It’s difficult not to put in spoilers here but I will say that the first book provided the groundwork on which the emotionally turbulent second book could be laid.
Unfortunately the final book may have given away the ending via the self explanatory title “the redeemed” but I’m hoping Pears employs some sophistication to offset my expectations.
Once you align with Pears’ pacing, this trilogy becomes addictive. I didn’t expect to finish the second book so quickly and I’m cursing myself for not bring the third along with me. So advise to future readers: if you can’t stand waiting to get into the proceeding books, buy them all in one go and keep them with you to prevent the dip.
Structurally the book reads well with a flowing storyline that keeps the reader engaged. The chapters are short enough that they can easily be read in a way that makes the book more interactive than if it were written in a longitudinal format. It helps that time evolves in alternating periods between the two central characters, though it’s clear Leo remains the main focus.
It’s difficult not to put in spoilers here but I will say that the first book provided the groundwork on which the emotionally turbulent second book could be laid.
Unfortunately the final book may have given away the ending via the self explanatory title “the redeemed” but I’m hoping Pears employs some sophistication to offset my expectations.
Once you align with Pears’ pacing, this trilogy becomes addictive. I didn’t expect to finish the second book so quickly and I’m cursing myself for not bring the third along with me. So advise to future readers: if you can’t stand waiting to get into the proceeding books, buy them all in one go and keep them with you to prevent the dip.
October 21, 2018
This is a quietly beautiful, engaging, vivid book. The life and people of the southern English countryside leap off the page in full colour. But there is plenty space to breathe, to think. Early on in the book one of the characters remarks that some townsfolk are so used to noise that they cannot here the trees speak. In this book you can hear the trees speak.
This has a different sort of magic than the first in the trilogy. Torn from his place on the land when he was born, Leo's life no longer follows the stable rhythm of the farming year. This is a hypnotic meandering journey across the west country as the boy grows up. Lottie's story is full of foreboding, her sense of loss amplified as her life on the Estate is set to change forever.
I feel Tim Pears must have done a huge amount of research to create such a authentic feel to even the most minor characters that inhabit his story. They are real and complex people, following a tradition that has now largely disappeared, to see the world from their viewpoint is a real treat. But most of all it is the writing that makes this book so special. Exquisitely paced and never dull, it is full of nuanced detail and rhythmically beautiful. This is a book that you can disappear into.
This has a different sort of magic than the first in the trilogy. Torn from his place on the land when he was born, Leo's life no longer follows the stable rhythm of the farming year. This is a hypnotic meandering journey across the west country as the boy grows up. Lottie's story is full of foreboding, her sense of loss amplified as her life on the Estate is set to change forever.
I feel Tim Pears must have done a huge amount of research to create such a authentic feel to even the most minor characters that inhabit his story. They are real and complex people, following a tradition that has now largely disappeared, to see the world from their viewpoint is a real treat. But most of all it is the writing that makes this book so special. Exquisitely paced and never dull, it is full of nuanced detail and rhythmically beautiful. This is a book that you can disappear into.
June 14, 2018
Tim Pears continues his West Country Trilogy and stays loyal to his beautiful, savage descriptions of life between 1912 and 1915. As with the first book in the series, The Horseman, we follow Leo and Lottie as they develop in their very different ways. Leo’s story is especially gripping as he wanders from gypsies to tin mine to sheep farm to tramping. Each episode develops fascinating characters and heartbreaking situations for Leo. Yes, Leo does meet up with his beloved white horse and there is a wild race, but he also faces many more challenges. Pears has obviously researched his history of English rural life and the descriptions of everything from roasting hedgehogs to scrubbing and dredging a water well add authenticity to the story. As with The Horseman, the story is spare and stark while simultaneously being remarkably descriptive. It’s reminiscent of All The Pretty Horses. It’s definitely a book that won’t appeal to everyone, but I eagerly await the third book.
May 20, 2020
Not having read the first book, I am left to guess why young Leo leaves home to trek across the English countryside hoping to find relatives on his mother's side. It is a different kind of book, not one of the present day popular thrillers, it's not about WW II !!, it is not concerned with Donald Trump shenanigans, but it does describe life among gypsies,sheep herders, miners,farmers and a lot about horses, English food from a century ago, gutting a deer, wringing duck necks, nature, with some wisdom from the characters and at times, the Bible.My favorite, when speaking of getting to the heart of things, "The deeper you goes, the further you be from the surface," another way to say beauty is skin deep. The end of the story will require reading the next book.
I notice that many reviews of books practically tell the whole story. Why read the book? So I just try to give an overview. I appreciate winning the book and enjoyed reading it.
I notice that many reviews of books practically tell the whole story. Why read the book? So I just try to give an overview. I appreciate winning the book and enjoyed reading it.
August 18, 2018
Not for me, this West Country trilogy. I can appreciate that both this and the first volume, The Horseman, are well written and meticulously researched, and if you want to know anything at all about country life in the first decade or so of the 19th century in England, these will be a joy to read. I didn’t find the slow pace a problem, but I did find that I simply wasn’t interested enough in the detailed descriptions of agriculture and hunting and so on. I found the main protagonist Leo an engaging character and felt for him, certainly in this volume, but found Lottie, the daughter of the estate with whom his life is seemingly inextricably linked, a particular irritating character. I wasn’t engaged by the storyline and found myself skipping large chunks. It’s me, not Tim Pears, I can see that, but I really didn’t enjoy either book.
May 10, 2020
This is the second novel in the West Country Trilogy, it begins in 1912 with a bewitching scene with Charlotte, Lottie walking through the woods collecting a range of wild flowers. She ends up in the churchyard at her mother's grave.
From here the book uses groups of chapters to explore the different lives of Lottie and Leo. At the end of the previous book their embryonic friendship was harshly brought to an end.
The delight of this novel is the characterisation and the sense of realism in the observation of the countryside and social history.
By the end of the book, both Lottie and Leo have reached the age of 15. The Great war is referred to in the final chapter.
The underlying question remains; will they meet again?
I suppose that I I will have to read the third book in the trilogy to find out.
From here the book uses groups of chapters to explore the different lives of Lottie and Leo. At the end of the previous book their embryonic friendship was harshly brought to an end.
The delight of this novel is the characterisation and the sense of realism in the observation of the countryside and social history.
By the end of the book, both Lottie and Leo have reached the age of 15. The Great war is referred to in the final chapter.
The underlying question remains; will they meet again?
I suppose that I I will have to read the third book in the trilogy to find out.
March 4, 2018
This style of writing is something that is very new to me and something that I have encountered for the very first time. I had a mixed feeling about this book. Though this book is the 2nd part in the trilogy I didn't feel that I was missing out on anything when I haven't read book one.
The book as I understood has been told from two people's point of view ! One is that of Leo who travels with the gypsies and the other is that of Lottie's who is intellectually fascinated.
Thought I have to give it to the author that the picture painted was so heart-breakingly beautiful though it took me time to read the book. The descriptions about human nature and the nature around is precise and I would definitely love to read more from this author.
The book as I understood has been told from two people's point of view ! One is that of Leo who travels with the gypsies and the other is that of Lottie's who is intellectually fascinated.
Thought I have to give it to the author that the picture painted was so heart-breakingly beautiful though it took me time to read the book. The descriptions about human nature and the nature around is precise and I would definitely love to read more from this author.
May 30, 2018
The 3 Star rating is more of a reflection on my not having known that this was the second novel of a trilogy than on its beautiful writing and interesting story. Unfortunately, not having read the first novel I was confused as to how this young boy of 13 ends up on the road in Devon recovering from a severe beating. Then, of course, I was also left to wonder what becomes of him later.
His story is interspersed with that of Charlotte, a brilliant young girl he seems to have know who is of a higher class.
If you do decide to take a chance on this book, I urge you to start with the first in the series. Pears is a wonderful writer, but I would have preferred a single volume of 400 pages to being dropped in medias res in this middle book.
His story is interspersed with that of Charlotte, a brilliant young girl he seems to have know who is of a higher class.
If you do decide to take a chance on this book, I urge you to start with the first in the series. Pears is a wonderful writer, but I would have preferred a single volume of 400 pages to being dropped in medias res in this middle book.
October 15, 2018
The first book in the trilogy ended with the harsh banishment of your Leo from his family home leaving a disconsolate young Charlotte to her empty life of privilege and one wondered where matters would go from there. Other reviews encapsulate the story and there is no call to repeat this but Tim Pears has a wonderful way of keeping one engaged in the story line whilst unfolding the the very considerable product of his detailed research into life at the beginning of the last century. Young Leo is remarkably patient for someone who is a clear survivor but with an ultimate aim or ambition. I found his relationship with the malodorous hermit of particular interest.
Pears is a clever chap as the ending of Volume 2 compels one to buy Volume 3.
Pears is a clever chap as the ending of Volume 2 compels one to buy Volume 3.
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