Things Found on the Mountain

In a remote valley in the Black Mountains farmer's daughter Beth is a child of nature, utterly at one with the rugged landscape as she tends the farm's wayward sheep. But change is coming to the mountains, the modern world enters in the form of the construction of a reservoir in a neighboring valley. Parts of the mountain are literally taken away to build the dam, there are people, machinery, noise, the subjugation of nature. Change arrives too with the First World War, emptying the mountains of young men including Beth's beloved brother Daniel, who goes 'missing in action'. Their mother turns to religion, their father falls silent. Beth takes to the mountain, and solitude. The arrival of Eric Gill's colony of catholic artists means more change, and more tension with the families of the valley. Although wary of these newcomers Beth meets Gabriel, an apprentice letter carver, who draws her out of her solitude and who also loves the mountain. When the colony relocates to England Beth faces a heart-wrenching choice between her home and the person she loves. Things Found on the Mountain is a Hardyesque coming of age story. At its heart is the dramatic landscape, which suffers, like Beth, a loss of innocence. This moving novel will appeal to fans of Sian James and Maeve Binchy.