Amy and Lan: The enchanting new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Outcast

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I was dissapointed at the outcome of the story and the disregard for the innocent children and adults. The adults are far too busy to keep an eye on them, and Amy and Lan would never tell them about climbing on the high barn roof, or what happened with the axe that time, any more than their parents would tell them the things they get up to. Sometimes hard to work out which of the children was narrating the story, which couples were together and who their children were. Although the reader could see what was coming in the undercurrents of conversations heard and the behaviours the children witness from the beginning but don’t understand, it’s still a shock when the infrastructure of Frith changes forever. As they struggle to get to grips with farm life, helped by some of the locals, the growing group of children share a sometimes chaotic, but mostly rewarding outdoor life.

Veggies are grown, stony land cleared, children are born, animals accumulate: chickens, goats, more goats, turkeys, a cow.

The only negative was the backwards and forwards between families - it was hard to tell who was who at times but I think that was the point. All the way through, there is a tension, as you know something dreadful will happen at the end, but it still came as a shock and left me crying with Amy. Premium Digital includes access to our premier business column, Lex, as well as 15 curated newsletters covering key business themes with original, in-depth reporting. I absolutely adored this book, I loved that it was told from a child’s perspective, really gave it an edge. They do not look through a glass darkly but make astute and shared assessments of their parents and other adults.

This was not helped by the alternate chapters by different narrators and the introduction of many characters. It’s difficult to say if I had a favourite character, although Finbar was intriguing, but of course we didn’t get any background information because it was told through the eyes of the children. The uncompromising presentation of birth, life and death on the farm was handled excellently, I found Amy and Lan’s struggles with these facts of life very poignant and effective. I don't think the adults were that neglectful - the children went to school and did not seem to have any problems there, they had baths and did not come to too much harm.The adults are far too busy to keep an eye on Amy and Lan, and Amy and Lan would never tell them about climbing on the high barn roof, or what happened with the axe that time, any more than their parents would tell them the things they get up to - adult things, like betrayal - that threaten to bring the whole fragile idyll tumbling down. Sadie Jones has really captured the mind of the child, free of preoccupations with money and jobs and focussing on relationships. Lan says the there isn’t any ending to the story of Frith because it’s the story of how they came to Frith- ‘ and we’re never ever ever leaving’- a child’s belief that things will always be the same. When their families make the leap from city living to a farm in the West Country they have untold freedom.

It was not credible that the supposedly feisty Harriet would allow her husband and best friend to conduct an affair for five years without taking any action. Amy and Lan are two children whose lives are closely entwined growing up together on a farm in South West England.

Our narrators are Amy and Lan (for Lachlan), seven-year-old best friends, revelling in their shared freedom on the “organic smallholding” that their parents and friends have reclaimed from dereliction. A story about the “real” Good Life through the eyes of Amy and Lan, and what initially apppears to be carefree childhood, where they are trying to understand changes in their lives, some as a consequence of life on a farm and the relationship with the animals and ‘town’ kids, and others as a consequence of the behaviour of the adults around them. We’re in the West Country in 2005 where best friends Amy and Lan, both seven, live on a farm bought by their families after they grew disillusioned with London life. Their childhood could therefore be said to be idyllic in one sense although they are clearly lacking basic standards of physical care and emotional support from the adults. Luke’s Hospital — Lan and Amy read tone and situation like nobody’s business, know when to shut up when fights about “boring” money erupt, and both agree that the “best two grown-ups” are Jim (Lan’s stepfather) and Harriet, determined to make Frith “a real farm.