Pollard by Laura Beatty
To fifteen-year-old Anne the woods that lie beyond her house are a temporary refuge from her noisy, chaotic family, until one day she gathers her courage and steps into the woods, never to return. Slowly, she makes a new life for herself, learning to forage and to hunt, to build a house from the bounty of the woods and to listen to the voices of the trees. As she endures her first, terrible winter she develops the strength of character that will carry her through the dangers of her unconventional life and the bitter beauty of falling in love, but as the outside world encroaches on her secret existence Anne faces a terrible tragedy.
A fierce and wonderful book.. This is just the sort of generous, provocative novel the Booker judges should cherish...Bewitching... despite its readability, Pollard is the precise opposite of escapist literature, because it gives the reader back the world * Observer *
Beatty has a wonderful ear for voice, especially the voices of children, and the characters she constructs through Anne's skewed perception are funny and heartbreaking by turns; but what is really impressive is how she weaves her human comedy with the most powerful nature writing... This novel heralds an exceptional talent' * Guardian *
Enchanting...Beatty is a writer of extraordinary power...alive to every nuance of behaviour * Literary Review *
This is a moving novel, delicate yet powerful, whose unusual heroine charms absolutely * Economist *
Most contemporary depictions of homelessness tend to home in on the urban, gritty aspect, conveying inner-city squalor. Laura Beatty's lyrical, pastoral Pollard admirably takes a different tack... Beatty writes about endurance with compassion and empathy. She fantastically conveys the elemental quality of Anne's life and the ways in which her strangeness makes relationships with other human beings much more fraught than her dealings with the harsh, beautiful woodland world * Metro *
Beatty has a wonderful ear for voice, especially the voices of children, and the characters she constructs through Anne's skewed perception are funny and heartbreaking by turns; but what is really impressive is how she weaves her human comedy with the most powerful nature writing... This novel heralds an exceptional talent' * Guardian *
Enchanting...Beatty is a writer of extraordinary power...alive to every nuance of behaviour * Literary Review *
This is a moving novel, delicate yet powerful, whose unusual heroine charms absolutely * Economist *
Most contemporary depictions of homelessness tend to home in on the urban, gritty aspect, conveying inner-city squalor. Laura Beatty's lyrical, pastoral Pollard admirably takes a different tack... Beatty writes about endurance with compassion and empathy. She fantastically conveys the elemental quality of Anne's life and the ways in which her strangeness makes relationships with other human beings much more fraught than her dealings with the harsh, beautiful woodland world * Metro *
LAURA BEATTY lives in the middle of Salcey, one of the very few remaining medieval hunting forests in England. The forest, she says, has provided us with food, forage, fuel, materials for building and transport - yet it is also the place where we keep our bogeymen, where witches live, and where characters go in 'and come out wiser or sadder or dead or different'. Laura Beatty is married with three children.She is the author of a a book about Anne Boleyn, written for children, and a biography of Lillie Langtry, described as 'unputdownable' (Express), 'vastly entertaining' (Observer), 'fresh and revealing' (Literary Review) and 'irresistibly enjoyable' (Sunday Telegraph).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780099516941 |
| ISBN 10 | 0099516942 |
| Title | Pollard |
| Author | Laura Beatty |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2009-07-02 |
| Number of pages | 320 |
| Prizes | Winner of Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2009 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |