What do you think?
Rate this book
The West Country Trilogy #3
The Redeemed
The final instalment in Tim Pears's spellbinding chronicle of love, exile and belonging in a world on the brink of change Selected as a book of 2019 by the Guardian, Scotsman and The TimesIt is 1916. The world has gone to war, and young Leo Sercombe, hauling coal aboard the HMS Queen Mary, is a long way from home. The wild, unchanging West Country roads of his boyhood seem very far away from life aboard a battlecruiser, a universe of well-oiled steel, of smoke and spray and sweat, where death seems never more than a heartbeat away. Skimming through those West Country roads on her motorcycle, Lottie Prideaux defies the expectations of her class and sex as she covertly studies to be a vet. But the steady rhythms of Lottie's practice, her comings and goings between her neighbours and their animals, will be blown apart by a violent act of betrayal, and a devastating loss.In a world torn asunder by war, everything dances in flux: how can the old ways life survive, and how can the future be imagined, in the face of such unimaginable change? How can Leo, lost and wandering in the strange and brave new world, ever hope to find his way home? The final instalment in Tim Pears's exquisite West Country Trilogy, The Redeemed is a timeless, stirring and exquisitely wrought story of love, loss and destiny fulfilled, and a bittersweet elegy to a lost world.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 24, 2019
130 people are currently reading
340 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
November 28, 2018
Tim Pears might be British literature's best-kept secret. (It used to be Sarah Moss, but I think she's hitting the big time now, despite her lack of prize wins.) The Redeemed is the third in his West Country Trilogy, of which I have only read the second (The Wanderers), but with which I am nevertheless obsessed, and for which I have the profoundest awe. The Redeemed opens with Leo Sercombe, exiled from the estate where his parents worked and which served as his childhood home, having joined up with the Royal Navy and about to see action in World War I. Lottie Prideaux, his childhood playmate and the daughter of the manor, meanwhile, has managed to get herself taken on as a veterinary assistant to Patrick Jago, whose young male assistants are all away at war. Over the next twelve years, Lottie and Leo live their lives, and it's to Pears's immense credit that he manages to keep us in suspense about whether they will find each other again, and a way of living that fulfills them, without resorting to cheap tricks of plotting. (He's not averse to a cliffhanger chapter ending, but he does it with such elegance.) His writing is beautiful—not self-satisfied or self-conscious, but engaging all the senses, plain and clear without being dull, delicate without being precious. The Horseman and The Wanderers described a world that's now gone; The Redeemed describes that world's passing, and shows us that a decent world, in many ways a better one, replaced it. Read Tim Pears, please.
March 14, 2019
Was this the same author who wrote the first two books in this trilogy? I enjoyed The Horseman and The Wanderers, but this book was lacking on so many levels. The character development was non existent. It was basically a narrative of events which Leo experienced during and after his time in the Royal Navy and Lottie during training to become a veterinarian. There was very little tension, the characters didn’t grow or change and we rarely knew their thoughts, feelings or struggles. The few conflicts which occurred were introduced and resolved (predictable all) within a few pages.
I felt as though the author did not have the full trilogy mapped so this was simply a way to bring it to a close.
I felt as though the author did not have the full trilogy mapped so this was simply a way to bring it to a close.
February 18, 2019
The final instalment of Pears’s West Country trilogy had a lot to do to live up to its predecessors. There’s no need for concern though as the quality of writing continues to enthrall in its description of the lives of young Leo and Charlotte.
As the novel starts they are 16 years old having not seen each other since the dramatic end of the first book. It is the First World War and Leo is in the Royal Navy as a ship’s boy on HMS Queen Mary stationed in Orkney. His story is based around the battle of Jutland and continues as he becomes a diver. Lottie is an independent career minded female at a time when that sort of life choice was very difficult. She becomes one of the first women accepted to study vetinary science at university.
In all three novels there are wonderful, memorable scenes; the images Pears creates of rural England in the early part of the century are powerfully evocative and a reminder that life could be tough and brutal, as well as the beauty in the nature that is described so well.
Having looked forward to this for a year now, and enjoyed it greatly, the only regret I have is that it may have been better to read them one after the other directly.
As the novel starts they are 16 years old having not seen each other since the dramatic end of the first book. It is the First World War and Leo is in the Royal Navy as a ship’s boy on HMS Queen Mary stationed in Orkney. His story is based around the battle of Jutland and continues as he becomes a diver. Lottie is an independent career minded female at a time when that sort of life choice was very difficult. She becomes one of the first women accepted to study vetinary science at university.
In all three novels there are wonderful, memorable scenes; the images Pears creates of rural England in the early part of the century are powerfully evocative and a reminder that life could be tough and brutal, as well as the beauty in the nature that is described so well.
Having looked forward to this for a year now, and enjoyed it greatly, the only regret I have is that it may have been better to read them one after the other directly.
September 30, 2021
Shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2020, The Redeemed is the final book in Tim Pears’s West Country trilogy. The first two books in the trilogy – The Horseman and The Wanderers – made the longlists for The Walter Scott Prize in 2018 and 2019 respectively. The Redeemed continues the stories of Leo Sercombe and Lottie Prideaux from the previous two books; the events in their lives being told in parallel and only converging at the end of the book.
Part one of the book recounts Leo’s experiences serving in the Navy aboard a coal-powered battle cruiser, during which he witnesses the Battle of Jutland and its deadly aftermath. Meanwhile Lottie, much to the dismay of her father’s new wife, has become assistant to the local vet, learning how to treat sick farm and domestic animals. It’s a changing world in which conscription has robbed estates, like those owned by Lottie’s father, of farm workers but there is also the possibility of new opportunities for women. Lottie’s ambition is to study veterinary science but all that is put at risk by a violent act from a quite unexpected quarter.
In the mistaken belief that his future lies elsewhere, part three of the book sees Leo, now a qualified diver, employed in a bold scheme to raise the battleships scuttled by the German navy in Scapa Flow at the end of the war. Leo undertakes this dangerous work to pursue his dream of earning enough money to purchase a piece of land where he can return to his first love, working with horses. Despite everything, he keeps alive the hope that he will be able to fulfil a promise made long ago.
Each part of the book contains an immense amount of detail: about daily life aboard a battleship, the care of horses and cattle, or the steps needed to float a submerged ship. Flowing throughout the book, however, is a deep sense of the natural world. Eventually, the stories of Leo and Lottie converge and what follows is touching and intensely moving both for its intensity and its transcience.
The Redeemed is like a long train journey where, whilst you’re keen to reach your destination, there’s also immense joy to be found in watching the beautiful scenery go by.
Part one of the book recounts Leo’s experiences serving in the Navy aboard a coal-powered battle cruiser, during which he witnesses the Battle of Jutland and its deadly aftermath. Meanwhile Lottie, much to the dismay of her father’s new wife, has become assistant to the local vet, learning how to treat sick farm and domestic animals. It’s a changing world in which conscription has robbed estates, like those owned by Lottie’s father, of farm workers but there is also the possibility of new opportunities for women. Lottie’s ambition is to study veterinary science but all that is put at risk by a violent act from a quite unexpected quarter.
In the mistaken belief that his future lies elsewhere, part three of the book sees Leo, now a qualified diver, employed in a bold scheme to raise the battleships scuttled by the German navy in Scapa Flow at the end of the war. Leo undertakes this dangerous work to pursue his dream of earning enough money to purchase a piece of land where he can return to his first love, working with horses. Despite everything, he keeps alive the hope that he will be able to fulfil a promise made long ago.
Each part of the book contains an immense amount of detail: about daily life aboard a battleship, the care of horses and cattle, or the steps needed to float a submerged ship. Flowing throughout the book, however, is a deep sense of the natural world. Eventually, the stories of Leo and Lottie converge and what follows is touching and intensely moving both for its intensity and its transcience.
The Redeemed is like a long train journey where, whilst you’re keen to reach your destination, there’s also immense joy to be found in watching the beautiful scenery go by.
January 24, 2020
3.5 stars, however I've sprinkled generosity as the two previous volumes in this trilogy were stunning - this echoes another "horse" sequence - Cormac McCarthy's Border trilogy - first volume, All the Pretty Horses is great, second volume, The Crossing, is a masterpiece, third volume, Cities of the Plain, quite disappointing in light of its predecessors - with The West Country Trilogy, Tim Pears opens strongly with The Horseman, really hits his stride in the middle with The Wanderers, yet falters oddly as the finish line comes into sight.
July 4, 2021
I loved this trilogy. Great characters, and a sweeping storyline that takes in the pre-war years and the first world war, but remains rooted in the West Country landscape, its people and their way of life, from travellers to farm labourers. 4.5 stars.
April 27, 2020
reads more as a series of historical set pieces, loosely linked through the two main characters, but in many cases not contributing much to the narrative
interesting but not reaching the heights of book 1 for me
interesting but not reaching the heights of book 1 for me
July 2, 2024
A book of two halves for me - although that was completely down to subject matter and no fault of the book at all. I loved the parts set in the West Country. For someone who couldn’t wait to move to the city as a young person (and have never regretted having done so) I have a strange nostalgia for a rural way of life and this trilogy showing the decline of an ancient agrarian world with the post World War One move towards mechanisation and the city sums that nostalgia up perfectly. Having had relatively recent ancestors who worked on a large estate I’ve also enjoyed a series that focuses as much on the working people of these estates as the gentry that owned and ran them.
I didn’t enjoy the parts when Leo was away with the Royal Navy and salvaging anywhere near as much - although they were obviously impeccably researched and I learned a lot so I was glad to have read them. The details of the naval battles and the engineering behind the Scapa Flow salvage operations were fascinating but ultimately not really my thing - and I was desperate just to get back to Somerset.
With hindsight the three books should have been read closer together to get a better sense of the changes being wrought to the English countryside during this period but this has still been a lovely reading experience- although the first book probably remains my favourite.
I didn’t enjoy the parts when Leo was away with the Royal Navy and salvaging anywhere near as much - although they were obviously impeccably researched and I learned a lot so I was glad to have read them. The details of the naval battles and the engineering behind the Scapa Flow salvage operations were fascinating but ultimately not really my thing - and I was desperate just to get back to Somerset.
With hindsight the three books should have been read closer together to get a better sense of the changes being wrought to the English countryside during this period but this has still been a lovely reading experience- although the first book probably remains my favourite.
April 16, 2024
The Redeemed is the third and last book in Tim Pears' West Country series. The trilogy was a sublime reading experience - for a week I was immersed in another time and place that Pears' lyrical writing made so intimate and real. It is always difficult for me to express why a book (in this case three) affects me so intensely, and West Country is worthy of more than a Goodreads synopsis, so I won't even try. The January 19, 2019 review by The Guardian speaks eloquently for West Country:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201.... An excerpt from the review:
"As a piece of nature writing, Pears’s West Country trilogy is exemplary, a feat of perception and description that earns him a place among a pantheon that stretches from Thomas Hardy to Flora Thompson. Its greatest achievement, however, may be in the sense of bereavement it conjures for a world gone by, and the accompanying awareness that, unless we start paying attention, we have just as much to lose in the future."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201.... An excerpt from the review:
"As a piece of nature writing, Pears’s West Country trilogy is exemplary, a feat of perception and description that earns him a place among a pantheon that stretches from Thomas Hardy to Flora Thompson. Its greatest achievement, however, may be in the sense of bereavement it conjures for a world gone by, and the accompanying awareness that, unless we start paying attention, we have just as much to lose in the future."
July 9, 2019
Loved this trilogy and feel really sad to have finished it. Although slightly disappointed by the final chapters when Leo and Lottie finally come back together it felt rushed and lacking in detail. But only because I’d spent all the intervening pages in book 2 and 3 waiting for their final reconciliation. I am glad that they got their happy ever after ending though!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2019
In the last book if the trilogy, Leo returns home to the West Country.
February 11, 2020
This book is the final one in a trilogy that makes me nostalgic for a world that I never saw but will always know.
October 18, 2021
This is the final book in this series, and I was sorry to see it end.
Leo Sercombe, who we have seen grow up throughout the series, survives his stint in the Royal Navy and makes his way back to where he started, hoping to reconnect with his friend Lottie, whom he promised he would come back to. A lot has changed for both of them - Leo is of course more mature, and has had some extraordinary experiences as part of his naval service. Lottie's father remarried, had sons, and then was killed in a horse-riding accident. Her stepmother and the sons returned to London, visiting the estate only in the summer. As Lottie has a younger stepbrother, she is no longer the one to inherit the estate, but stays on as a kind of caretaker. She has taken her interest in animal anatomy and physiology and become a veterinarian.
As you would expect, it's a long and circuitous path until these two come back together, but if finally happens, and the whole story is very satisfying. There's very little sentimental type feeling in these books, but a lot of true emotions and deep feelings. I found the stories interesting, and particularly during Leo's stint as a sailor, learned a lot about ships and the work done on them during that time period.
Leo Sercombe, who we have seen grow up throughout the series, survives his stint in the Royal Navy and makes his way back to where he started, hoping to reconnect with his friend Lottie, whom he promised he would come back to. A lot has changed for both of them - Leo is of course more mature, and has had some extraordinary experiences as part of his naval service. Lottie's father remarried, had sons, and then was killed in a horse-riding accident. Her stepmother and the sons returned to London, visiting the estate only in the summer. As Lottie has a younger stepbrother, she is no longer the one to inherit the estate, but stays on as a kind of caretaker. She has taken her interest in animal anatomy and physiology and become a veterinarian.
As you would expect, it's a long and circuitous path until these two come back together, but if finally happens, and the whole story is very satisfying. There's very little sentimental type feeling in these books, but a lot of true emotions and deep feelings. I found the stories interesting, and particularly during Leo's stint as a sailor, learned a lot about ships and the work done on them during that time period.
December 17, 2024
What a wonderful journey. For sure the highlight of my 2024 reading sessions.
I began with low expectations having picked up “the horseman” from my wife who couldn’t get passed the first 20 pages (“sooo slow!” She would exclaim). For me, it was just a book to fill the time whilst waiting for something better to come along. It was a weak resistance of mine. What made Pears’ book mildly attractive was the fact that we had recently acquired a fruit farm in the mountains of Transylvania – being completely new to this lifestyle, but keen to learn the ropes.
It wasn’t until the thrilling end of the first book that I realised it was a trilogy. And by that time I was hooked, I’m normally a slow reader, but I felt like Pears, in spite of his honest meditative style of writing, pushed me along to something of a Gallup through the second and third books. It was only life itself that curtailed my zeal and tempo.
Leo and Lottie – I felt like I knew them. Pears writes as though you’re in the story; there with them, as they, often in Leo‘s case, had life happen to them. I regularly updated my wife on my progress – or more rightly, their progress – like close friends, going through a hard time, willing them, to find each other again.
Highly recommend.
I began with low expectations having picked up “the horseman” from my wife who couldn’t get passed the first 20 pages (“sooo slow!” She would exclaim). For me, it was just a book to fill the time whilst waiting for something better to come along. It was a weak resistance of mine. What made Pears’ book mildly attractive was the fact that we had recently acquired a fruit farm in the mountains of Transylvania – being completely new to this lifestyle, but keen to learn the ropes.
It wasn’t until the thrilling end of the first book that I realised it was a trilogy. And by that time I was hooked, I’m normally a slow reader, but I felt like Pears, in spite of his honest meditative style of writing, pushed me along to something of a Gallup through the second and third books. It was only life itself that curtailed my zeal and tempo.
Leo and Lottie – I felt like I knew them. Pears writes as though you’re in the story; there with them, as they, often in Leo‘s case, had life happen to them. I regularly updated my wife on my progress – or more rightly, their progress – like close friends, going through a hard time, willing them, to find each other again.
Highly recommend.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 22, 2019
This trilogy has been a delight to read. Collectively, it follows the lives of two people, male and female, from childhood to young adulthood with an old-age epilogue and I'm sure there will be an omnibus edition in the future which will make for a nice long read. I'm sorry it's over because I really enjoyed reading about the trials and triumphs of these two young people and also about the time and place in which they lived; late 19th and early 20th century Britain, though mostly Southern England. Pears gives detailed observations and descriptions of the customs, crafts and farming practices of the time especially those related to horses, some of them disgusting to this reader's sensitivities. My only 'issue' as such is the timing of its publication feeding as it did the current British obsession with nostalgia. The books are a paean to a slower more considered time when roles were clear if inequitable and people lived as communities and generally within their means. Pears' language is concise and often beautiful throughout the three books and he tells a good story.
March 1, 2022
The first book in this trilogy about the lives of Leo Sercombe and Lottie Prideaux, two West Country children from very different families born at the turn of the 20th-Century, painstakingly followed a year on their farming estate month-by-month. The second covers the couple of years following that, in which they both adjust to the impact of the previous instalment's climactic events. This final book covers the entire remainder of their lives, so is much less meditative and in some ways just more ordinary in style and pacing to the others. However, I was so invested in the story by this point that I did really want to know what happened. It's quite a satisfying ending - and Pears' historical research of their experiences (the Battle of Jutland, the first women admitted to veterinary college, the raising of scuttled ships in Scapa Flow) seems as meticulous as before - but it doesn't have the magical, hypnotic quality of the first book or the Dickensian adventure of the second. Still, I really enjoyed the trilogy as a whole and the original, believable characters Pears created.
March 7, 2019
A beautifully detailed end to the series. This book, like others in the series, has a quiet power that quickly overwhelms you. The hypnotic, rhythmic storytelling is compelling.
Lottie follows the path she has found for herself with unflinching determination, whilst Leo is adrift. He confides in a chaplain that he feels he is living the wrong life, out of time, out of place.
But the world around them is shifting now - changing quickly it ways unimagined. The old certaintys of their childhood are gone forever.
Tim Pears somehow gets right inside the heads of his characters even the minor ones. I don't know how he does it. It is the small moments that make the story. His description of the veterinary work, especially the difficult foaling, was so bang on accurate (I am a vet), his research must have been meticulous.
I loved this book as I did each of the instalments in this series. I will definitely be reading more from Tim Pears.
Lottie follows the path she has found for herself with unflinching determination, whilst Leo is adrift. He confides in a chaplain that he feels he is living the wrong life, out of time, out of place.
But the world around them is shifting now - changing quickly it ways unimagined. The old certaintys of their childhood are gone forever.
Tim Pears somehow gets right inside the heads of his characters even the minor ones. I don't know how he does it. It is the small moments that make the story. His description of the veterinary work, especially the difficult foaling, was so bang on accurate (I am a vet), his research must have been meticulous.
I loved this book as I did each of the instalments in this series. I will definitely be reading more from Tim Pears.
July 6, 2021
Tim Pears’ masterful West Country trilogy comes to a thrilling and moving conclusion in The Redeemed. Separated by circumstance, distance and years, Leo Sercombe’s and Lottie Prideaux’s lives continue along strange and unforeseen paths but the ties that bind them are strong and the reader is carried along by the hope that fate will be kind to them. As with the first two books, the natural world and Leo and Lottie’s shared love of horses is portrayed in evocative, luminous prose. A number of reviewers have noted the debt that Tim Pears’ writing owes to Thomas Hardy, a favourite author of mine, so this trilogy was always going to appeal to my tastes. Pears has a somewhat rosier view of the world and the operation of blind fate than Hardy though, so don’t let that be a disincentive! I’m so glad I came across these books and will be recommending them far and wide. They represent truly immersive and involving fiction.
January 30, 2020
The last of the West Country trilogy. After the down-home charm of the first two books, the shocking start of The Redeemed, with protagonist Leo suddenly and inexplicably a young seaman heading into battle aboard a heavy cruiser in WW I, is a somewhat off-putting jolt--undoubtedly what Pears intended. But those who loved the mood and pace of The Horseman and The Wanderers need fear not, because the story soon heads toward familiar ground. By mid-novel, Pears is working his magic, and we are wrapped up again in the charm of the period and the characters. The ending may be predictable, but it doesn't matter because here it's the journey that counts. Sorry to see it end. Highly recommended, but if you go, definitely start at the beginning with The Horseman, perhaps the best of the three anyway.
November 5, 2023
I felt a huge rush of nostalgia throughout the West Country Trilogy, as it evoked much of my own childhood memories of farming life in Cornwall. I also felt a deep sadness that we have lost so much of the rich diversity of nature that Leo Sercombe and his contemporaries enjoyed. Tim Pears’ writing also brought home to me how physically hard farming life was for my father and grandfather and how central horses were to their way of life. My grandfather never owned a car and relied on his moorland pony for transport into his old age. I connected less to Leo’s life in the navy and subsequent time in Scapa Flow but also learned a great deal. But perhaps, like Leo, we had to experience that different life to feel the joy of coming full circle back to the land and to a gentler way of life. Leo and Lottie earned their redemption and I thank Tim Pears for his great storytelling.
August 1, 2019
A very worthy conclusion to a stunning trilogy that I know I will revisit regularly.
As in the previous books, at times the historical detail can threaten to overtake the story and his research perhaps is overly manifest. But it's all so fascinating and flowingly written that I would be more than happy to read much much more of it. My other potential issue was one heavy-handed dialogue towards the end of the book that I found ill-judged.
However, overall the writing is exquisite, with such heart and generosity on display for the main and minor characters, that one gets totally swept up in their journey.
As in the previous books, at times the historical detail can threaten to overtake the story and his research perhaps is overly manifest. But it's all so fascinating and flowingly written that I would be more than happy to read much much more of it. My other potential issue was one heavy-handed dialogue towards the end of the book that I found ill-judged.
However, overall the writing is exquisite, with such heart and generosity on display for the main and minor characters, that one gets totally swept up in their journey.
June 23, 2021
Amazing, delicious read, one I will read again at some future time. I tried to pace myself so as not to complete, but to savor this trilogy. The journey of Leo and Charlotte cannot be rushed. I was almost fearful Pears would leave me to conjure my own ending. I won't give away the ending, thus ruin it for others.
The historical facts about the raising of the scuttled ships in the Scapa Flow was fascinating. Too bad I had no knowledge of this as we drove across the Churchill Barriers, stopped at the Italian chapel to visit Kirkwall and it's treasures of the past. He ties in the issue of pre radiation steal I only recently learned about. Considering the early pioneering of depth diving, the immense dangers, I found this info enlightening.
This was such a joy to read.
The historical facts about the raising of the scuttled ships in the Scapa Flow was fascinating. Too bad I had no knowledge of this as we drove across the Churchill Barriers, stopped at the Italian chapel to visit Kirkwall and it's treasures of the past. He ties in the issue of pre radiation steal I only recently learned about. Considering the early pioneering of depth diving, the immense dangers, I found this info enlightening.
This was such a joy to read.
November 20, 2022
'One hot day Leo picked his way through bracken and gorse, in a valley of rough-split, broken shale. He saw sloughed-off skin. A place of snakes. As soon as he saw one alive he saw another, then another, and trod slowly. The adders came in a range of colours. Reddish, yellowish, charcoal grey. One was almost black.' (262)
'The girls sat, listening, or dozed with their eyes open, as snakes do.' (312)
'Lottie said that when she looked into the eyes of a horse, she acknowledged that it does not see as much as humans do, nor understand much of what it sees. "But I have the feeling that I glimpse what is behind the horse", she said. "What made her."
"God?"
"I don't know. Is there a need to name it?" (370)
'The girls sat, listening, or dozed with their eyes open, as snakes do.' (312)
'Lottie said that when she looked into the eyes of a horse, she acknowledged that it does not see as much as humans do, nor understand much of what it sees. "But I have the feeling that I glimpse what is behind the horse", she said. "What made her."
"God?"
"I don't know. Is there a need to name it?" (370)
October 5, 2020
Whoa! What a writer! The Redeemed is the third book of Tim Pears trilogy set in England in the early 1900's. Truly, I felt totally immersed in the story. Lottie , the daughter of the landowner, and Leo, the son of the estate's horse manager continue their life journey back into one another's orbit. The lush descriptions of living in a long gone world feel real. Bits of history are woven into the tale. Horses pepper the story in a most satisfying manner. I love when I can relax into the telling of a story because I trust the author to tell me things that are accurate and true. Fantastic series !!
May 17, 2023
This is the third novel in Tim Pears' West Country Trilogy. It's been some years since I read a work of fiction that moved me so much. The world before 1914, meticulously recreated in the earlier volumes, is now being stalked by the twentieth century.
I've puzzled a little over why these novels affected me so deeply. I think there are four main reasons:
the main two characters are human and fallible but I really, really like them;
the transition from 19th to 20th Century is a part of history that fascinates me;
so much of the book is just so damned interesting; and
the prose is beautiful.
I've puzzled a little over why these novels affected me so deeply. I think there are four main reasons:
the main two characters are human and fallible but I really, really like them;
the transition from 19th to 20th Century is a part of history that fascinates me;
so much of the book is just so damned interesting; and
the prose is beautiful.
November 13, 2019
This is the last of the wonderful Tim Pears's trilogy set in the West Country very near to where I was
born, he manages to get the Somerset dialect right. It is set around the years of WWI and tells of the people of that changing times in rural life and the coming of mechanization on the farms and of their experience of war. Pear's is obviously a country-lover and there are some beautiful descriptions of landscape and animals.
born, he manages to get the Somerset dialect right. It is set around the years of WWI and tells of the people of that changing times in rural life and the coming of mechanization on the farms and of their experience of war. Pear's is obviously a country-lover and there are some beautiful descriptions of landscape and animals.
July 24, 2020
I meant to take longer to read this but every time I went to stop...I decided just one more chapter. Even though plenty of sad things happen over the three books this has been the most relaxing book I've read all year. The language feels effortless. Or no. It feels like it isn't there that the book just exists on the air and I get to be a part of it.
If you like reading about horses, WWI, or the England country side..than this book will be for you ..
If you like reading about horses, WWI, or the England country side..than this book will be for you ..
July 31, 2020
I was looking forward to reading this book as soon as I had read the 1st book and even more so after I had read the 2nd book. I wasn't disappointed - the characters felt like beloved members of my family and I really cared about them so much. There aren't many books like this one out there I can tell you. The trilogy should be part of the school curriculum in my opinion and I am hoping that a film will be made of the story from start to finish.
December 16, 2021
This final volume does falter at times, and there is a slight uneasiness at the conventionality of the romance narrative, but then I always forgive Trollope and Dickens for the obviousness of their romantic plots and sub-plots, so I shouldn't be so hard on this. If I am honest I would have been disappointed with anything other than a (happy) resolution....
Taken together I've loved almost every minute of this wonderful trilogy.
Taken together I've loved almost every minute of this wonderful trilogy.
December 18, 2023
I did not like this book as well as the first two in the series as it seemed to drag from about the 25% mark. The writing is accomplished but it had too many very detailed career paths for Leo to follow before he got to go home and then the ending felt a bit rushed. Character development (primarily from the earlier books as not much was added here), historical accuracy and sense of place are all strengths so, in this case, perhaps the lost third star is the editor's fault.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews