I am reading a book at the moment. Horatio Clare's - Running for the Hills. It tells a simple tale of how his parents bought a farm in South Wales in the 1970s. The story rests on his memories from childhood and his mother's diaries. A pretty young journalist, she falls in love with this 70 odd acres of land with a farmhouse set below the mountain and sheep to tend.
The marriage soon breaks up, the father goes back to London to work as a journalist and the mother decides to stay on the farm and raise the two boys Alexander and Horatio. Yes a name to think on, but she did tell them tales of daring-do, so perhaps she is forgiven by her children for giving them unusual names.
The flight back to a sustainable life: Yes, we have all done it and I am rather glad that I did not end up on a Welsh farm, hauling bloodied lambs from their mother's backside. But his mother was made of sturdier stuff and manages to run the farm with occasional help from the people around.
The boys had an idyllic upbringing in the countryside, though some things are made of nightmares. Predation on the sheep by foxes or crows, the 'fly-strike maggots' are just a couple of things to deal with. No television or radio (because the mountain behind the farmhouse cut out signal) is perhaps a good thing for expanding one's thinking from the daily routine of news.
I am still reading the book but have also acquired another book of his called 'Heavy Light' The blurb says this of him....
"After a lifetime of ups and downs, Horatio Clare was committed to hospital under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act, from hypomania in the alps, to a complete breakdown and a locked ward in Wakefield, this is a gripping account of how the mind loses touch with reality, how we fall apart and how we may heal"
Apparently Clare now lives in Hebden Bridge with his family, he has worked for the BBC, and has had a radio programme on Radio 3 about walking through Greenland which I must find. Thanks to Sara of Sussex for mentioning him. Another rabbit hole to be explored.
For Tom Stephenson: Don't know if you would be interested but this came in my email this morning. A long but fascinating article by Mike Williams on 'John Wood's Moon Temple' on the Lansdown, he seems to work for Bathscape.
I read 'Running for the Hills' many years ago and loved it and 'The Light in the Dark' more recently and have 'Heavy Light' on order from the library. He has a couple of books about birds that I've not read and I tried and failed with his book about Shipping. An Interesting man.
ReplyDeleteWell I am glad I have been introduced to the book Sue. He is obviously a prolific writer and as he is local maybe he will do a talk one day.
DeleteI haven’t read “Running for the Hills” yet, I will order it from the library today. One of the sentences that has stayed with me after reading “Heavy Light” was that in Horatio’s experience, including his own, 100% of young people’s mental health problems nowadays are a result of smoking cannabis. The ready availability of these dangerously contaminated drugs are destroying lives across all divides. As I was besotted by Nelson when young I love the name Horatio. One of my (many) old chairs is a ‘Trafalgar’ chair with a rope carved back, made in the wake of the Battle of Trafalgar. It sounds uncomfortable but it is my early evening knitting chair and sits in the corner of the sitting room underneath my mum and dad’s 1950s wooden standard lamp which I upcycled by painting it in Charleston Gray by Farrow & Ball. I had the Trafalgar chair reupholstered in a sea blue woven fabric with tiny gold crosses which make me think of Jane Austen and the present of a topaz cross from her sailor brother Charles, an autobiographical detail which she used in Mansfield Park. My current reading (a light detour from Daniel Deronda by George Eliot) is the newly republished by Little Toller of “All Around The Year” by Michael Morpurgo, his diary of a year on his Devon farm. This book was a perfect Christmas present from my son Tom who said he saw it in his local East Dulwich bookshop and knew I would love it and I really do. I’m eking it out. Every month has a poem by Michael’s friend and neighbour Ted Hughes (I bought a good hardback copy of “Birthday Letters’ from my secondhand bookshop, and hadn’t realised that these poems are written as a sort of apology to Sylvia Plath) and photographs by James Ravilious and an introduction by Katherine Rundell who wrote a brilliant biography of John Donne. Lots of rabbit holes there Thelma - sorry! But I am so happy you have discovered Horatio Clare and please try and find his soundscape walks on BBC Sounds. The 3-part Greenland walk was on Radio 3 at 5pm last week and was the perfect accompaniment to knitting a pair of colourwork socks using three colours of John Arbon’s Exmoor sock yarn. I finished knitting the socks yesterday apart from Kitchener grafting the toes which I must do in daylight. Everything is connected which is what I love about history and literature and art and music. We’re off to the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft today to see the current exhibition of the textile work of Hilary Bourne and Barbara Allen, yet another rabbit hole for me to explore! Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteSuch a lot to absorb Sara. But starting with the knitting, I am also knitting with John Arbon's wool, hats, with one for Andrew, which has to be large. Using 'Down the Allotment', soft Autumn shades, lovely wool though expensive. I also used to collected chairs, though not many, mostly gone with all the down-shifting but I kept my old Windsor and it is by a window so I can contemplate what is happening in the outside world. You do a great deal of reading, immersing yourself in history -18th to 19th? The link I put up above, is about a favourite walking place with my dog, and though I don't know the author I think I must have helped him find the barrows on the Lansdown with my blogging.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Michael Morpurgo, basically because of the 'War Horse' which must be terribly sad and I hate sad stories. Strange how Ted Hughes lived in this area but moved down to Dorset. I can actually understand why, there is a certain melancholia around here with its dark sooty houses, heavily wooded valleys and bleak moors. It accounts for a lot of his poetry.
Books to add to my list. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome Joanne.
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