Summary
From acclaimed author Tim Pears, the first novel in a sweeping historical trilogy, beginning in rural, pre-WWI England.
Somerset, 1911. The forces of war are building across Europe, but this pocket of England, where the rhythms of lives are dictated by the seasons and the land, remains untouched. Albert Sercombe is a farmer on Lord Prideaux's estate and his eldest son, Sid, is underkeeper to the head gamekeeper. His son, Leo, a talented rider, grows up alongside the master's spirited daughter, Charlotte--a girl who shoots and rides, much to the surprise of the locals. In beautiful, pastoral writing, The Horseman tells the story of a family, a community, and the landscape they come from.
The Horseman is a return to the world invoked in Pears' first award-winning, extravagantly praised novel, In the Place of Fallen Leaves . It is the first book of a trilogy that will follow Leo away from the estate and into the First World War and beyond. Exquisitely, tenderly written, this is immersive, transporting historical fiction at its finest.
Tim Pears was born in 1956, grew up in Devon, left school at sixteen, and had countless menial jobs before studying at the National Film and Television School. He is the author of eight novels, including In the Place of Fallen Leaves ,which won the Hawthornden Prize and the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award; In a Land of Plenty ,which was made into a BBC series; and Landed, which won the MJA Open Book Award in 2011. Pears lives in Oxford, England, with his wife and children.
