The autumn of that year was the most beautiful I can remember.
All Among the Barley is a classic novel of rural life with unsettling modern relevance. Set on a Suffolk farm between the wars, it features fourteen-year-old Edie and her family.
‘A masterpiece’ JON MCGREGOR
‘Impossible to forget’ THE TIMES
‘Astonishing’ GUARDIAN
‘Startling’ FINANCIAL TIMES
A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR
The autumn of 1933 is the most beautiful Edie Mather can remember, though the Great War still casts a shadow over the cornfields of her beloved home, Wych Farm.
When charismatic, outspoken Constance FitzAllen arrives from London to write about fading rural traditions, she takes an interest in fourteen-year-old Edie, showing her a kindness she has never known before. But the older woman isn’t quite what she seems. As harvest time approaches and pressures mount on the whole community, Edie must find a way to trust her instincts and save herself from disaster.
- All Among the Barley is Melissa Harrison’s most accomplished novel yet. A perfect book club read, it tenderly and arrestingly explores a young girl’s coming-of-age, our relationship with the natural world and how the past can echo powerfully in the present.
- Melissa Harrison is a standout British voice and is often hailed as one of our most important nature writers. She has been shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Wainwright Prize. Ali Smith chose Clay as a Book of the Year. AS Byatt chose At Hawthorn Time as a Summer Read. For fans of Jon McGregor, Penelope Lively, Elizabeth Taylor, EM Forster, Thomas Hardy and Cider with Rosie.
Reviews
“A beautiful and wholly tragic novel” – Daily Mail
“A work of rare magic ” – Helen Macdonald, author of ‘H is for Hawk’
Author Biography
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. She is a nature writer, critic and columnist for The Times, the Financial Times and the Guardian, among others.