The Wanderers: The West Country Trilogy Hardcover – 11 Jan. 2018

I ordered a use book which was said to be in very good condition. This was definitely the case: it could almost have been taken as brand new. My order was dispatched immediately and received before the estimated date. I was very satisfied with the seller's overall service.

This is a quietly beautiful, engaging, vivid book. The life and people of the southern English countryside leap off the page in full colour. But there is plenty space to breathe, to think. Early on in the book one of the characters remarks that some townsfolk are so used to noise that they cannot here the trees speak. In this book you can hear the trees speak.This has a different sort of magic than the first in the trilogy. Torn from his place on the land when he was born, Leo's life no longer follows the stable rhythm of the farming year. This is a hypnotic meandering journey across the west country as the boy grows up. Lottie's story is full of foreboding, her sense of loss amplified as her life on the Estate is set to change forever.I feel Tim Pears must have done a huge amount of research to create such a authentic feel to even the most minor characters that inhabit his story. They are real and complex people, following a tradition that has now largely disappeared, to see the world from their viewpoint is a real treat. But most of all it is the writing that makes this book so special. Exquisitely paced and never dull, it is full of nuanced detail and rhythmically beautiful. This is a book that you can disappear into.

Following "The Horseman", I was eager to read the second of this rural trilogy by Tim Pears. It does not disappoint. We follow 13 year old Leo, banished from the Great Estate and his family he heads West towards Penzance, the home of his mothers' people.It is not an easy journey, and he meets and works with gypsies, miners, farmers and a tramp on his way. There are brief glimpses back to his past life as we are kept in touch with the life of Lottie.The descriptive writing is wonderful as in the first book. Now, with the rumblings of the first World War, we have to wait in trepidation for the last of the three books. I can't wait.

Impressed by The Horseman, I then bought this book, and have now ordered the third in the trilogy. I'm an author researching rural life in the early years of the 20th century and am finding the way that Pears blends historical accuracy with powerful storytelling rather compelling. The Wanderer reminded me of George Borrow's Romany Rye; so much so that I've dug out my copy to re-read.

Oh Lord, can this man write! The Trilogy is a masterpiece of evocation, bringing the early twentieth century West Country farm life to us, in beautiful prose. We engage totally with the two main characters, Leo and Lottie, but also are introduced to many others who inhabit different worlds and there is thorough and entertaining research of each of their lifestyles and occupations. I have but one more book to read by Tim Pears, and I am already mourning the loss of him. Few books move me to tears, but many of his have done just that. Read him....you won't regret it!

I loved the first in the trilogy, The Horseman, with its sharp focus on the old ways of farming, ploughing, harvesting, horses, working with horses. There's a lovely focus and concentration on the fine detail of the instruments, the machinery and the work. This is more dispersed as Leo continues on his enforced journey away from home and Lottie, staying with gypsies, briefly in a mine, on a poor farm, and finally attaching himself to the tramp, Rufus. The cuts back to the Manor House are not so smooth because Leo is no longer there whereas in The Horseman, rich and poor,masters and servants, live on the estate, their lives touching. however, in this volume there is some superb characterisation - Gully the gypsy and the wonderfully eccentric, war-traumatised Rufus with his woodland abode. Rufus is tenderly, exquisitely drawn. No spoilers - but the ending with Rufus is deeply upsetting.

Very good trilogy, not my usual sort of reading be but really enjoyed it.

An excellent read that captures the life of the countryside and the changes facing people at the turn of the 20th century. The characters are in an ever changing world that they do not yet understand. Our two main protagonists are also wandering and having to find their way back to life and each other. I probably preferred parts 1 and 3 more, but still this volume advances the story of our two struggling characters, Leo and Lottie.