Addlands is the story of two generations of the Hamer family working the Funnon Farm There is Idris stubborn strong a man of the plough & the prayer-sheet haunted by the war Then comes Oliver a near mythic giant bestriding the landscape a fighter a man of the hills as hard as the prehistoric stone Then there is Etty Oliver&s mother the centre of this close constellation watching new technologies & old ways converge on the farm & on the life of her son Addlands is instantly a classic of rural British fiction It is as vast & complex as a symphony but as pure & moving as a solo voice in an empty church As much a book about birdsong as it is about closing time brawls Addlands& beauty is in the clear truth of its language & the sheer humane depth of its inquiries It is a miraculous book which unfurls at the speed of life & bathes its reader in a rare golden light