On the Black Hill - Feb 2021 Book Group discussion thread

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McGoohan Jan 2021 9:32pm, 31 Jan 2021 48,355 posts	0 McGoohan Look you boyo, this is the thread for the discussings of the Dio-chosen Feb book, On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin. This is a tale of Welsh farmers who have gone on holiday by mistake. Throw your thoughts like mental darts at the thread below.
Diogenes Feb 2021 9:00am, 1 Feb 2021 57,157 posts	0 Diogenes For a real Brucie Bonus, by the Collected Novels which also includes Utz and The Viceroy Of Ouidah hive.co.uk The only bad thing about this choice is that it doesn't have a stripey cover
McGoohan Feb 2021 9:01am, 1 Feb 2021 48,362 posts	0 McGoohan Didn't he do well?
Diogenes Feb 2021 10:59am, 2 Feb 2021 57,189 posts	0 Diogenes
Diogenes Feb 2021 10:59am, 2 Feb 2021 57,190 posts	0 Diogenes (with apologies to Cold War Steve)
Hanneke Feb 2021 9:08pm, 7 Feb 2021 70,672 posts	0 Hanneke Oh, you are on my playground, in my backgarden etc etc Can I join? I shall re-read the book and can post some photos of what it actually looks like around here... And Monty Don own Charity Farm... And I designed the gardens of another of the farms in the book
Diogenes Feb 2021 9:24pm, 7 Feb 2021 57,366 posts	0 Diogenes Great to have you, Hann
Hanneke Feb 2021 10:46pm, 7 Feb 2021 70,673 posts	0 Hanneke
Serendippily Feb 2021 10:55pm, 7 Feb 2021 20,756 posts	0 Serendippily Finished. I had two great uncles who lived on a rotting farmhouse in Somerset. It was bitter hard work, I was scared of the muck, the rotting and rusting everywhere, the decay. At a very advanced age, one skipped to live with a widow in a modern bungalow in Poole and I can’t say as I blame him. While this book reminded me of them it didn’t quite ring true - the work and the cruel seasons took too much of a back seat. It was too easy to be rich when farming is so hard: making money selling land is one thing, making money working it rather another. There was a bit too much time to sit outside. I preferred when the boys were little - the second half everyone blurred a bit and felt like slightly twee characters, like no one ever washed in Wales.
Diogenes Feb 2021 9:19am, 8 Feb 2021 57,372 posts	0 Diogenes I'm not yet far into my re-read, but, as I recall, one of the things I liked was that the brothers were not quite stereotypical, that a lot was left unexplained, and yet you got a deep understanding of the linits, simplicity, and complexities of their existence.