On the Black Hill - Feb 2021 Book Group discussion thread

15 watchers
Feb 2021
9:19am, 18 Feb 2021
20,876 posts
  •  
  • 0
Serendippily
I spent a happy half hour reading the Christie Malfry thread yesterday where Dio went to war for his choice and we were all roundly chastised for any discomfort over fictional mass murder :-) it made me want to read it again. I’d forgotten he became a foyles reviewer from it
Feb 2021
9:21am, 18 Feb 2021
48,562 posts
  •  
  • 0
McGoohan
(I'm worried about Dio's silence so far here...)
Feb 2021
9:52am, 18 Feb 2021
57,676 posts
  •  
  • 0
Diogenes
Funny you should say that, McG. I must have mellowed since then and I realise that I cant expect everyone to like and feel the same about a book as I do. I’m not going to try and convince anyone to change their view, unless of course that view is patently absurd.

I’ve never held back from saying where I found a book underwhelming, and no one has come at me for that.

I’d forgotten about the Foyles review thing. I wonder if that ever made it to the shelf?
Feb 2021
3:39pm, 18 Feb 2021
20,860 posts
  •  
  • 0
Columba
Is it what is called psycho-geography?

Not an Archers fan, and never have been.
Feb 2021
3:58pm, 18 Feb 2021
57,693 posts
  •  
  • 0
Diogenes
I’m not sure that it is. I’m reading a book at the moment called All The Devils Are Here, by David Seabrook which very much is psychogeography. I believe it to be more than when a place is a character in itself in a work but when the characters and events are influenced by their environment.
Feb 2021
8:08pm, 18 Feb 2021
20,885 posts
  •  
  • 0
Serendippily
Your choices prompt a good range of view Dio :-)
Feb 2021
8:10pm, 18 Feb 2021
57,698 posts
  •  
  • 0
Diogenes
I’m sort of regretting not choosing something less cosy and more challenging/divisive.
Feb 2021
8:18pm, 18 Feb 2021
48,588 posts
  •  
  • 0
McGoohan
What Dipps said. I think Stoneygift was a fairly well debated chozz too.
Feb 2021
8:35pm, 18 Feb 2021
45,103 posts
  •  
  • 0
LindsD
True
Feb 2021
6:04pm, 21 Feb 2021
806 posts
  •  
  • 0
Peregrinator
On the Black Hill

Tough life being a farmer, reflected in the high suicide rates in the sector (http://www.farmbusiness.co.uk/news/more-then-one-farmer-a-week-in-the-uk-dies-by-suicide-2.html). And even tougher for much of the 20th century. I was aware of the background to UK farming of On the Black Hill through the interwar years: the depressed produce prices, people moving from rural life to the towns, a chronic under investment in productivity, mechanisation and quality with an emphasis on acquiring land. Apparently at the start of WWII there were fewer than 2000 tractors in the whole of Wales. The whole sector really only revived by the second world war and subsequent government interest in improving food production during the 1940's and 50's. My first job in the 1970's was for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and involved costing how much the Government was spending on grants to farmers to improve the drainage on their farms - pre-computers and spread-sheets, it involved hand calculators and bits of paper. Now of course we pay farmers to let their land flood. Although even then there was a group trying to define a policy on gassing badgers to control Bovine TB. I really had no idea - I phoned up an ADAS regional office and asked, "is that Alnwick?" - "No" came the reply "its Anuhk". So, I found this story set in that history interesting. But also the frustrations of people pinned by a connection with the land which in many cases restricts them from finding a better life, or even fly in an aeroplane.

Maybe one of the benefits of a UK agriculture policy will be to define policies that help rural communities, the environment, quality food production, animal welfare and farming. I have my doubts that any stated good intentions will survive the effects of real-world politics and the financial reckoning of Covid, but even pigs might fly.

About This Thread

Maintained by McGoohan
Back to the main Book Group thread... fetcheveryone.com/forum/book-group-56655/

And the poll for this one: fetcheveryone.com/polls-view.php?id=8635


Nice to be on the black hill, to be on the black hill... nice

Related Threads

  • bookgroup
  • books









Back To Top
X

Free training & racing tools for runners, cyclists, swimmers & walkers.

Fetcheveryone lets you analyse your training, find races, plot routes, chat in our forum, get advice, play games - and more! Nothing is behind a paywall, and it'll stay that way thanks to our awesome community!
Get Started
Click here to join 112,116 Fetchies!
Already a Fetchie? Sign in here