“The Land in Winter” ~ by Andrew Miller
This enjoyable novel is set around the freezing cold of Christmas 1963. Andrew Miller excels at conveying to his reader not only the time setting but also the bleakness of the winter so this is a very good book to read sitting in front of the fire. The author is one of those lesser known popular writers who over the years has been selected by many of our customers and has a faithful following which “The Land in Winter” should enhance especially with a Booker prize 2025 shortlist endorsement.
The book starts in an asylum with the sad suicide of an incumbent, but this chapter is just an opening before branching out to introduce the main characters; two couples, near neighbours in the rural snow bound West Country.
Dr Eric Parry is one of the local GPs, his wife Irene, pregnant with their first child finds herself isolated in the countryside far away from the social London life she was used to. Bill Simmons, a would be farmer, but with some modernising ideas, is newly established in a neighbouring farm across the fields with his wife Rita. Rita herself has been also uplifted to rural life so different from her past as a dancer in a Birmingham nightclub. Her personality and characterisation add a lot to this book; a great invention.
Eric also has Birmingham roots but has moved up in society. Bill, the son of a London landlord, with a dubious past, has inherited some wealth but is unsure what he wants out of life and is very much a novice farmer. So the four main principle characters have very defined backgrounds across the classes, but the two wives become close friends,
The Parrys hold a Christmas party where Irene’s London literary friends mix with Rita and Bill. Eric’s GP partner, an emigre, is amongst the local guests; as is Eric’s lover with whom he has been betraying his wife, leaving Irene confused by her husband’s detached attitude towards her. The weather isolates the village community whilst the wider country grinds to a frozen halt.
Throughout the book there is an aura of post-war Britain, rationing is over, but the country is far removed from what it is nowadays and the author conveys this brilliantly as his plot unwinds to provide the reader with a chilly entertaining read, enhanced by a broad mix of character; good, bad and indifferent, with the countryside encased in crippling snowdrifts.
