All Among the Barley

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There are many areas of sadness in this book from the harsh words of Edie's father to the death of Edmund the corncrake but maybe the saddest of all was the incarceration of Edie into the mental institute, abandoned by her family.

I loved the language of the country folk, grizzle, ted, stoachy, haysel, churr and the birds, landrails, dorhawks, throstles and spinks. For a novel so gentle and with plots and sub-plots which build slowly, it comes as a real and sudden punch in the gut. I drank fresh unpasteurised milk (milked from Rosie, the Jersey Cow who had curled horns and hip bones that stuck out).We should have proper import controls to protect our native English formers – it’s the only way…’ (p. The countryside is idyllic, the work is hard and unrelenting and there's a hint of menace, something not quite right, lurking just under the surface: fascism and anti-semitism are beginning to show their ugly heads, misogyny and male violence are in evidence and possibly there are mental health issues. Melissa Harrison is the author of the novels Clay and At Hawthorn Time, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize, and one work of non-fiction, Rain, which was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize.

Like two recent books I have read – “There, There” and “In a Mad and Furious City” ends with what seems an unnecessary dramatic finale.Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer View image in fullscreen ‘A hawk-eyed observer who refuses to be seduced by sentiment’ … Melissa Harrison. Though I was very moved by the working out of the story, I had some difficulties with both characterisation and plot. I am more familiar with Melissa Harrison’s nature writing and have bought her non-fictional "Rain: Four Walks In English Weather" as Christmas presents.

Our barley was well along now, flaxen from a distance and with the beards tipping over almost as we watched. An effortless book to read and to picture the farm and surrounding area through excellent description and the maps at the start. The author here incorporates the rise of fascism in England, but in such a way that it actually has more to do with Brexit and topics of today. It is this world that Melissa Harrison sets All Among the Barley, though at a slightly later period, the 1930s. I struggled from time to time with Constance and wondered how plausible that scenario was but given the lack of ease of communication at that time and potentially a naivety in rural attitudes it could be that I cannot comprehend the reality of that time and place.There were cows with slimey noses and the longest tongues that scared me when they reached around my fingers for a handful of grass.