
Patrick Deeley`s train journey home to rural East Galway in autumn 1978 was a pilgrimage of grief: his giant of a father had been felled, the hurley-making workshop silenced. From this moment, Patrick unfolds his childhood as a series of evocative moments, from the intricate workings of the timber workshop run by his father to the slow taking apart of an old tractor & the physical burial of a steam engine; from his mother`s steady work on an old Singer sewing machine to his father`s vertiginous quickstep on the roof of their house. There are many wonderful descriptions of the natural world & delightful cameos of characters & incidents from a not-so-long-ago country childhood. In a style reminiscent of John Mc Gahern`s Memoir, Deeley`s beautifully paced prose captures the rhythms, struggles & rough edges of a rural life that was already dying even as he grew. This is an enchanting, beautifully written account of family, love, loss, & the unstoppable march of time.