Idyllic and harrowing by turns this is the account of a child’s upbringing in the hills of Wales as well as a reconstruction of his parents relationship whose decision it was to upsticks from London to the country. This extraordinary way of life is an inspiration to us all and a vivid memoir of love and strife in such a remote place.
One summer`s day in the late 1960s two young Londoners fell in love with a hill farm in South Wales. They had almost no money, no idea about sheep, and their marriage was uncertain from the start. Their new home was a mile up the wild mountain, one end dug into its damp flank. It was ancient, cold and unbelievably primitive, with a view like a prospect of Africa. On a fair day it was paradise. But it was a working farm, cut off from the world and condemned - they found out, after they bought it - as `unfit for human habitation`. This is the story of a passionate adventure; it is also the biography of a relationship, a portrait of an extraordinary way of life and an account of a bewitching childhood. From memory, conversations and the diaries of his now-separated parents, Horatio Clare reconstructs their relationship with each other and their mountain farm, and tells the story of his astonishing upbringing. At the fore is his mother, a wilful romantic, who chooses to make a life on the mountain single-handedly, and to raise her children there.
Horatio Clare has worked on Front Row and Nightwaves, and produced Radio 3's The Verb. Born in 1973, Clare has written for The Spectator, the New Statesman, the Guardian, and the Daily Telegraph.
