ULVERTON PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Adam Thorpe | 432 pages | 07 Jan 2013 | Vintage Publishing | 9780099573449 | English | London, Ulverton by Adam Thorpe

A spokesman for the British Geological Survey said that earthquakes of around that magnitude occur roughly once a year in Britain. The name , first recorded in the Domesday Book as Ulurestun , is derived from two elements. The loss of the 'W' in Wulfhere can be attributed to the historical Scandinavian influence in the region. The town's market charter granted in by Edward I [10] was for a market every Thursday. Modern Ulverston retains its market-town appearance. Market days are now held on Thursdays and Saturdays. The present-day Saturday market includes in the summer months craft stalls, charity stalls and locally produced wares on "Made in " stalls. Town Bank grammar school was established in the town in from a benefaction by Thomas Fell. Historically, the parish included other chapelries or townships that later became separate civil parishes: Blawith , Church Coniston, , Lowick , , Osmotherley , Subberthwaite and Torver. From to the town served as an urban district in the administrative county of Lancashire. It includes a sixth form college that draws around students from Ulverston and the surrounding areas. Ulverston railway station , a short walk from the town centre, lies on the Furness Line between Barrow- in-Furness and Lancaster , which ultimately leads on to Manchester Airport. All services are operated by Northern. The town is served by several bus services, including the X6 between and Barrow-in-Furness, via Grange over Sands. The X12 runs from Coniston and passes through the village of . Ulverston is twinned with Albert in France. Ulverston has various festivals during the year that entitle it to the description "festival town". This event culminates in a stage performance and fireworks in Ford Park. It was organised locally for the first time in Ulverston's football team, Ulverston Rangers, [26] has been in existence since It boasts two good grounds and a full-size grass training pitch. It is the only football team within Ulverston itself. Ulverston A. Players wear a blue with white trim strip with blue shorts and blue socks. It has produced several professional rugby players, including Derek Hadley and Andy Whittle. A parkrun event has been held every Saturday at Ford Park since There is a swimming club at Ulverston Leisure Centre. The triathletes of Ulverston Tri Club are also based there and train there on Saturday mornings. Over the years the town has been the birthplace of several famous people. A monument to him — a replica of the third Eddystone Lighthouse — stands on Hoad Hill overlooking the town. He appeared in The News Quiz , occasionally introduced The Goon Show , and read the spoof "news bulletin" that featured in the middle of the comedy The Men from the Ministry. Despite being entitled The Royal Norwegian Honorary Consulate in Barrow-in-Furness , one of the numerous consulates of Norway is actually located on the outskirts of Ulverston. The town of Ulverstone in Tasmania , Australia is named after Ulverston and similarly built at the mouth of a Leven River. The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Town of Ulverston. Ok so the good things about this novel I love the sense of the change of time over the centuries in one small village like the changing of the seasons. I also found certain ye olde English extremely trying and just annoying as hell. So by the end I just wanted to finish it not caring if I actually read the last few pages. So ok but not great Although some of the individual passages were well written, I really didn't enjoy this at all. The sections with local dialect were just too challenging to read for very little return to the reader. I like the premise of the book, with the same place featuring through time from 17oo's until the present day, but found it focused more on the people rather than the place and it didn't engage me or give me a sense of the place through time. It's difficult when the sections are so dispara 2. It's difficult when the sections are so disparate and rather obscure. My favourite section was near the end, set at the start of WW1. I thought this was very well written. The very last part is impossible to read on the Kindle version but I tried my best. All in all an unsatisfying read. Jun 11, Beth added it Shelves: couldn-t-finish. This is the first book that I remember not finishing. Honestly, I've not read such self aggrandising, pretentious twattery in my life and I had to do a "literary fiction" module full of angsty white middle aged authors projecting onto their characters at uni. The cover blurb has a Sunday Times reviewer declaring this "A masterpiece" and it It is a powerful exercise in the taking on of different voices, without a doubt-- with each change of era, there is a different narrative point of view, and they are all indeed quite distinct-- but to my slightly low- brow tastes it is wanting in the area of plot. Stuff happens, yes, and there is a nice little quiver in the reader's bosom when events from earlier in the book are referred to later, fr The cover blurb has a Sunday Times reviewer declaring this "A masterpiece" and it Stuff happens, yes, and there is a nice little quiver in the reader's bosom when events from earlier in the book are referred to later, frequently in a distorted form as if authentically passed along by word of mouth, but none of it really has any bearing on what follows. This combined with an occasionally painful patch of phonetic dialogue the end of the s is marked by twenty-eight pages of picturesque rural gibberish with but a single period for punctuation makes it something of an up-hill climb for the reader. It is an impressive exercise, but I'm not sure it's an enriching one. As I say, I'm slightly low-brow in my expectations. One might point out that there is a good depiction of the futility of human ambition, of the ephemerality of human works, and of the paradox of "progress" things get worse because things get better , and that's all true. If that's the sort of thing that you're looking for in a book, and you don't mind the substitution for plot by slices of life, you'll rate this book higher than I. What stars I've given it are mainly for the workmanship; the different voices also give an impression of authenticity to each era, and I do appreciate that. Sadly, despite having looked forward to reading this one I had to give up on it. For those that know me well, they know that I don't give up on books easily and it did take a while to come to this decision. I started the book on the 8th May and by 17th May, I'd only managed to read around a pages. It was as if reading it was a chore and reading should never be a chore in my opinion. When I was in the mood to read or had the time, it wasn't the first book that I picked up and when I did pick i Sadly, despite having looked forward to reading this one I had to give up on it. When I was in the mood to read or had the time, it wasn't the first book that I picked up and when I did pick it up, it was with some reluctance. It's not that it was badly written as it was far from that. I found it well written but it didn't grab me. I'm not a huge fan of short stories and this was basically a series of short stories set over several centuries featuring one fictitious village know as Ulverton, which did have certain variations on the name. If I'd got on with it better this would have been more. View all 4 comments. Jan 31, Leslie rated it it was amazing Shelves: 20th-century- fiction , , short-fiction , favourites. Loved this. It's impressive simply in terms of sheer narrative skill. Each chapter is distinct in form and voice, moving from to , including short story, stream of consciousness, diary entries, epistolary fiction, courtroom depositions, descriptions and annotations for a supposed book of photographs, a transcript for a television documentary. Names and stories weave in and out of individual chapters, with every chapter forcing the reader to rethink earlier stories and implications. And Loved this. And through it all a shifting, wonderfully complex sense of the relationships between place and time, present and history. A masterclass in narrative technique and control of form. Sep 19, Sonja Trbojevic rated it it was amazing. These 12 stories, set in the fictional town of Ulverton, span over 3 centuries of English history, from to An interesting and challenging read, with the final tale taking the reader back to the first one, it is a book to remember. The tales written in dialect reminded me of some of Alan Garner's work. Shelves: s. Ten or so carefully interlocking stories over several centuries of an English village. Difficult going in places, possibly a tiny bit too clever for its own good in others, and one that I think needs at least two reads to fully grasp. It had also been recommended by the excellent Backlisted podcast. That each of the narratives adopts a fashionable literary style of the time - from the epistolary novel to modern drama; from bawdy to murder mystery - indicates how impressive a piece of work this is. Thorpe is unashamedly ambitious and unapologetically creative - the chapters are meticulously constructed and the links that unite them are laid like clues in an elaborate puzzle. But there's no getting around the fact that it's a slog - inevitably in some chapters more than others. Just as Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow are not for skim reading when distracted by ITV's coverage of the football team, nor is this - and sadly, a couple of the sections are simply unreadable. Thankfully, there is still enough here for it to be a very interesting book indeed but be warned if you don't fancy 4o pages of agricultural techniques explained or a level of dialect that would make Irvine Welsh blush. Inventive, but as if by numbers: multiple perspectives over several centuries, in multiple formats - diaries, letters, court transcripts, book extracts, stream of consciousness, snippets of pub conversation, photo captions, film scripts - with only the smallest nods to past sections throughout, meaning an excellent memory is vital to spot the narrative connections. But the point here isn't narrative because there isn't much of a one, beyond the vague narratives of each section, most of which end Inventive, but as if by numbers: multiple perspectives over several centuries, in multiple formats - diaries, letters, court transcripts, book extracts, stream of consciousness, snippets of pub conversation, photo captions, film scripts - with only the smallest nods to past sections throughout, meaning an excellent memory is vital to spot the narrative connections. But the point here isn't narrative because there isn't much of a one, beyond the vague narratives of each section, most of which end in disappointment for the subject - it's the nature of history and memory, how different people and eras have different priorities, how there's always a clash between the desire to maintain tradition and progress even if that tradition is barely understood, and the benefits of that progress aren't clear. This makes it, in many ways, both a deeply melancholy and a deeply pessimistic book. And also means it perfectly captures elements of the attitudes of rural southern England in the late 20th century - and probably still today. In some ways it feels quite Brexity, in fact - or, at least, that it helps explain Brexity attitudes. Amazing that this is Thorpe's first novel -- even though I struggled with it a bit, it's a considerable achievement -- three centuries in twelve chapters, each written in a style appropriate to the time and narrator. Inevitably thoughts turn to David Mitchell. But I have to say I found Cloud Atlas more compelling, the links between sections drawn tighter to create a narrative. Some reviewers have mentioned Alan Garner too , and yes the sense of place, the use of dialect, the description of tradi Amazing that this is Thorpe's first novel -- even though I struggled with it a bit, it's a considerable achievement -- three centuries in twelve chapters, each written in a style appropriate to the time and narrator. Some reviewers have mentioned Alan Garner too , and yes the sense of place, the use of dialect, the description of traditional crafts are all there. Despite all this I found some parts a struggle. I gave up altogether on Stitches -- and I say that as someone who immoderately loves Riddley Walker. Somehow Russell Hoban managed to give the reader enough hooks to follow the dialect, but there's none of that here, just a dense mass of text. Too much like hard work, at a time when I wanted to read to relax. I did enjoy the earlier parts though. I'm giving it three stars to reflect the fact that I only moderately enjoyed it; I can still acknowledge Thorpe's great skill. Aug 26, Patricia Woodward rated it liked it. This book is definitely not an easy read before bed. With each chapter, apart from the first, I had to ask myself what is this chapter about and how does it relate to the whole. I enjoy that sort of analysis, some would hate it. Being a country girl I didn't find the dialect difficult I have neighbours who speak like this and in equally muddled thoughts, so I could follow it okay It wasn't until I got to the end of the book I give it 3 as a novel. As social commentary it is worth more than that. I will read it again. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Municipality in Quebec, Canada. J0B 2B0. Statistics Canada. Adjacent Municipal Subdivisions. Richmond Valcourt Windsor. Adam Thorpe: 'One can hardly say I've been unambitious' | Fiction | The Guardian

Richmond Valcourt Windsor. Cleveland Melbourne Valcourt. Kingsbury Lawrenceville. Hidden categories: Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments Articles with French-language sources fr All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from July Articles with permanently dead external links Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Coordinates on Wikidata Commons category link from Wikidata Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers All stub articles. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. To me, this is as baffling as it is unfair, and I wonder how he accounts for it. He's certainly right about this. But it's also possible that herein lies his problem — at least when it comes to sales. Each book is so different to the last. He followed Between Each Breath with The Standing Pool , a chilling comedy of manners about a middle-class English family who spend a sabbatical in a remote house in rural France; and he followed that with Hodd , a novel that takes the form of a medieval document that purports to be the testimony of an anonymous monk who spent his youth in the greenwood with a bandit called Robert Hodd. He's uncategorisable, and perhaps such unpredictability is simply too much for some readers. Not that any of this impacts on his day-to-day writing: he just keeps going. Meanwhile, he is working on a new book: Rogues , a historical comic novel. After all, the writer with whom he has most in common is his friend Hilary Mantel , and just look at what has happened to her. Just like my book about Robin Hood. It's an impulsion, not a case of showing off, and that's true for both of us. You do what you have to do. The Observer Fiction. Rachel Cooke. Adam Thorpe's debut, Ulverton, has just become a Vintage Classic. Why, then, does the novelist remain so underappreciated? On 28 April , Ulverston was near the epicentre of an earthquake measuring 3. Tremors were felt across south Cumbria and parts of north Lancashire at A spokesman for the British Geological Survey said that earthquakes of around that magnitude occur roughly once a year in Britain. The name Ulverston , first recorded in the Domesday Book as Ulurestun , is derived from two elements. The loss of the 'W' in Wulfhere can be attributed to the historical Scandinavian influence in the region. The town's market charter granted in by Edward I [10] was for a market every Thursday. Modern Ulverston retains its market-town appearance. Market days are now held on Thursdays and Saturdays. The present-day Saturday market includes in the summer months craft stalls, charity stalls and locally produced wares on "Made in Cumbria" stalls. Town Bank grammar school was established in the town in from a benefaction by Thomas Fell. Historically, the parish included other chapelries or townships that later became separate civil parishes: Blawith , Church Coniston, Egton with Newland , Lowick , Mansriggs , Osmotherley , Subberthwaite and Torver. From to the town served as an urban district in the administrative county of Lancashire. It includes a sixth form college that draws around students from Ulverston and the surrounding areas. Ulverston railway station , a short walk from the town centre, lies on the Furness Line between Barrow-in-Furness and Lancaster , which ultimately leads on to Manchester Airport. All services are operated by Northern. The town is served by several bus services, including the X6 between Kendal and Barrow-in-Furness, via Grange over Sands. The X12 runs from Coniston and passes through the village of Spark Bridge. Ulverston is twinned with Albert in France. Ulverston has various festivals during the year that entitle it to the description "festival town". This event culminates in a stage performance and fireworks in Ford Park. It was organised locally for the first time in Ulverston's football team, Ulverston Rangers, [26] has been in existence since It boasts two good grounds and a full-size grass training pitch. It is the only football team within Ulverston itself. Ulverston A. Players wear a blue with white trim strip with blue shorts and blue socks. It has produced several professional rugby players, including Derek Hadley and Andy Whittle. A parkrun event has been held every Saturday at Ford Park since There is a swimming club at Ulverston Leisure Centre. The triathletes of Ulverston Tri Club are also based there and train there on Saturday mornings. Over the years the town has been the birthplace of several famous people. A monument to him — a replica of the third Eddystone Lighthouse — stands on Hoad Hill overlooking the town. He appeared in The News Quiz , occasionally introduced The Goon Show , and read the spoof "news bulletin" that featured in the middle of the comedy The Men from the Ministry. Despite being entitled The Royal Norwegian Honorary Consulate in Barrow-in-Furness , one of the numerous consulates of Norway is actually located on the outskirts of Ulverston. Ulverston - Wikipedia

Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Wikimedia Commons. Ulverton Location in southern Quebec. Route Route This Quebec location article is a stub. I don't disguise the reality of life in the country at all. Thorpe's career is surely one of the great literary mysteries of the age. In the years since Ulverton , he has published a further nine novels; Flight , a thriller about a messed-up freight pilot, came out earlier this year. They are inevitably superb — my favourite is Between Each Breath , an extraordinarily clever and beautifully written tale of music, marriage and Estonia — and always well-reviewed, and yet you look for his name in vain on Booker and bestseller lists alike. To me, this is as baffling as it is unfair, and I wonder how he accounts for it. He's certainly right about this. But it's also possible that herein lies his problem — at least when it comes to sales. Each book is so different to the last. He followed Between Each Breath with The Standing Pool , a chilling comedy of manners about a middle-class English family who spend a sabbatical in a remote house in rural France; and he followed that with Hodd , a novel that takes the form of a medieval document that purports to be the testimony of an anonymous monk who spent his youth in the greenwood with a bandit called Robert Hodd. He's uncategorisable, and perhaps such unpredictability is simply too much for some readers. Not that any of this impacts on his day-to-day writing: he just keeps going. Meanwhile, he is working on a new book: Rogues , a historical comic novel. After all, the writer with whom he has most in common is his friend Hilary Mantel , and just look at what has happened to her. Just like my book about Robin Hood. It's an impulsion, not a case of showing off, and that's true for both of us. You do what you have to do. The town of Ulverstone in Tasmania , Australia is named after Ulverston and similarly built at the mouth of a Leven River. The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Town of Ulverston. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For the town in Tasmania, Australia, see Ulverstone. Human settlement in England. . North West. Barrow and Furness. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. This list is incomplete ; you can help by expanding it. Cumbria portal. Retrieved 13 June The Place-Names of Lancashire. Manchester University Press. BBC News. Retrieved 28 April North-West Evening Mail. Archived from the original on 10 August Retrieved 30 April Sky News. Mills Dictionary of British Place Names. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 4 November Visit Cumbria. Retrieved 9 July South Lakeland District Council. Retrieved 21 September Cumbria County History Trust. Retrieved 12 August Historic England. Retrieved 5 July

Ulverton, QC Map & Directions - MapQuest

The narrator is remembering the atmosphere of the period from a safe distance in The cartoonist is planning to bury some artefacts and his own writing for posterity on the same day as the new monarch is crowned. The final chapter of this novel of short stories is set in and is written in another new form. His encounters with the Ulverton Preservation Society bring him into contact with one Adam Thorpe giving the author a cameo role in his own novel. An extract from the novel was used by The Council for the Protection of Rural England in their publicity material promoting conservationism. It is a novel concerned primarily with location, the town of Ulverton itself is the novels main character. Using a variety of literary techniques Thorpe has created a fictional place that encapsulates the broad sweep of modern history across the English countryside creating a novel form of novel in the process. This book is an interesting read and provides inspiration for short story writers looking to move up in length to writing novels. Jan 05, Jake Goretzki rated it it was amazing Shelves: Stylistically stunning and very clever. A kind of Akenfield rural documentary meets Cloud Atlas shifting eras, narrators and connections meets polemic. For doing this so well even read amid today's glut of historical pastiche , it deserves applause. It also brings the pleasure of a good mystery. Reading along Stylistically stunning and very clever. Reading along, you pick up connections. Some chapters are great comedy set pieces. One is borderline incomprehensible — but to a purpose. How it passes on names and legends. That Ye Olde Cottage? It was a freezing hovel and people died of typhoid or starved in it. That ancient white horse? It was put there by some pompous arse Victorian. So get off my land now, you mommet. View all 3 comments. Jan 22, Marion Husband rated it liked it. When this is good it's very good, when it's bad it's unreadable, literally if you're reading it on a kindle as the last chapter is in tiny, tiny print and I couldn't adjust it. Also some chapters are written in very heavy dialect and frankly I just skipped those chapters with a feeling that life is too short, what a waste of money, should have borrowed it from the library, oh well, Marion, persevere and all that An experiment, perhaps, happens as maybe? Loved some of it, very clever, wonderful, but also very put downable. So, what's next Jan 07, Penny rated it it was amazing. I love, love, love this book. The village of Ulverton is visited across centuries as the reader hears the stories of various of its inhabitants. At first these stories seem random, but as more is learned more is understood, and they all weave in together to form a whole: the history and meaning of the village through its heterogeneous people. There is something of Alan Garner's writing about it, it has a similar obsession with place his is Alderley Edge , and as far as I am concerned that can on I love, love, love this book. There is something of Alan Garner's writing about it, it has a similar obsession with place his is Alderley Edge , and as far as I am concerned that can only be a good thing. Feb 04, Jessica rated it liked it Shelves: The form of the stories and gender of the narrators varied, which made it interesting and challenging. However, I just couldn't get to grips with the stories written in dialect, and have to own up to skipping them! View 1 comment. Jul 17, Malcolm rated it it was ok. Loved the concept of each chapter following on from earlier periods in the life of an English village. Some of the chapters are great. But others are nearly unreadable. Seems more an academic writing exercise than a great novel. Life's too short Did not make it past page The story could not hold my attention. This only happens to me once every few years, but so many books, so little time Feb 16, Zoe Radley rated it it was ok. Ok so the good things about this novel I love the sense of the change of time over the centuries in one small village like the changing of the seasons. I also found certain ye olde English extremely trying and just annoying as hell. So by the end I just wanted to finish it not caring if I actually read the last few pages. So ok but not great Although some of the individual passages were well written, I really didn't enjoy this at all. The sections with local dialect were just too challenging to read for very little return to the reader. I like the premise of the book, with the same place featuring through time from 17oo's until the present day, but found it focused more on the people rather than the place and it didn't engage me or give me a sense of the place through time. It's difficult when the sections are so dispara 2. It's difficult when the sections are so disparate and rather obscure. My favourite section was near the end, set at the start of WW1. I thought this was very well written. The very last part is impossible to read on the Kindle version but I tried my best. All in all an unsatisfying read. Jun 11, Beth added it Shelves: couldn-t-finish. This is the first book that I remember not finishing. Honestly, I've not read such self aggrandising, pretentious twattery in my life and I had to do a "literary fiction" module full of angsty white middle aged authors projecting onto their characters at uni. The cover blurb has a Sunday Times reviewer declaring this "A masterpiece" and it It is a powerful exercise in the taking on of different voices, without a doubt-- with each change of era, there is a different narrative point of view, and they are all indeed quite distinct-- but to my slightly low-brow tastes it is wanting in the area of plot. Stuff happens, yes, and there is a nice little quiver in the reader's bosom when events from earlier in the book are referred to later, fr The cover blurb has a Sunday Times reviewer declaring this "A masterpiece" and it Stuff happens, yes, and there is a nice little quiver in the reader's bosom when events from earlier in the book are referred to later, frequently in a distorted form as if authentically passed along by word of mouth, but none of it really has any bearing on what follows. This combined with an occasionally painful patch of phonetic dialogue the end of the s is marked by twenty-eight pages of picturesque rural gibberish with but a single period for punctuation makes it something of an up-hill climb for the reader. It is an impressive exercise, but I'm not sure it's an enriching one. As I say, I'm slightly low-brow in my expectations. One might point out that there is a good depiction of the futility of human ambition, of the ephemerality of human works, and of the paradox of "progress" things get worse because things get better , and that's all true. If that's the sort of thing that you're looking for in a book, and you don't mind the substitution for plot by slices of life, you'll rate this book higher than I. What stars I've given it are mainly for the workmanship; the different voices also give an impression of authenticity to each era, and I do appreciate that. Sadly, despite having looked forward to reading this one I had to give up on it. For those that know me well, they know that I don't give up on books easily and it did take a while to come to this decision. I started the book on the 8th May and by 17th May, I'd only managed to read around a pages. It was as if reading it was a chore and reading should never be a chore in my opinion. When I was in the mood to read or had the time, it wasn't the first book that I picked up and when I did pick i Sadly, despite having looked forward to reading this one I had to give up on it. When I was in the mood to read or had the time, it wasn't the first book that I picked up and when I did pick it up, it was with some reluctance. It's not that it was badly written as it was far from that. I found it well written but it didn't grab me. I'm not a huge fan of short stories and this was basically a series of short stories set over several centuries featuring one fictitious village know as Ulverton, which did have certain variations on the name. If I'd got on with it better this would have been more. View all 4 comments. Jan 31, Leslie rated it it was amazing Shelves: 20th-century- fiction , , short-fiction , favourites. Loved this. It's impressive simply in terms of sheer narrative skill. Each chapter is distinct in form and voice, moving from to , including short story, stream of consciousness, diary entries, epistolary fiction, courtroom depositions, descriptions and annotations for a supposed book of photographs, a transcript for a television documentary. Names and stories weave in and out of individual chapters, with every chapter forcing the reader to rethink earlier stories and implications. And Loved this. And through it all a shifting, wonderfully complex sense of the relationships between place and time, present and history. A masterclass in narrative technique and control of form. Sep 19, Sonja Trbojevic rated it it was amazing. These 12 stories, set in the fictional town of Ulverton, span over 3 centuries of English history, from to An interesting and challenging read, with the final tale taking the reader back to the first one, it is a book to remember. The tales written in dialect reminded me of some of Alan Garner's work. Shelves: s. Ten or so carefully interlocking stories over several centuries of an English village. Difficult going in places, possibly a tiny bit too clever for its own good in others, and one that I think needs at least two reads to fully grasp. It had also been recommended by the excellent Backlisted podcast. That each of the narratives adopts a fashionable literary style of the time - from the epistolary novel to modern drama; from bawdy to murder mystery - indicates how impressive a piece of work this is. Thorpe is unashamedly ambitious and unapologetically creative - the chapters are meticulously constructed and the links that unite them are laid like clues in an elaborate puzzle. But there's no getting around the fact that it's a slog - inevitably in some chapters more than others. Just as Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow are not for skim reading when distracted by ITV's coverage of the England football team, nor is this - and sadly, a couple of the sections are simply unreadable. Thankfully, there is still enough here for it to be a very interesting book indeed but be warned if you don't fancy 4o pages of agricultural techniques explained or a level of dialect that would make Irvine Welsh blush. Inventive, but as if by numbers: multiple perspectives over several centuries, in multiple formats - diaries, letters, court transcripts, book extracts, stream of consciousness, snippets of pub conversation, photo captions, film scripts - with only the smallest nods to past sections throughout, meaning an excellent memory is vital to spot the narrative connections. But the point here isn't narrative because there isn't much of a one, beyond the vague narratives of each section, most of which end Inventive, but as if by numbers: multiple perspectives over several centuries, in multiple formats - diaries, letters, court transcripts, book extracts, stream of consciousness, snippets of pub conversation, photo captions, film scripts - with only the smallest nods to past sections throughout, meaning an excellent memory is vital to spot the narrative connections. But the point here isn't narrative because there isn't much of a one, beyond the vague narratives of each section, most of which end in disappointment for the subject - it's the nature of history and memory, how different people and eras have different priorities, how there's always a clash between the desire to maintain tradition and progress even if that tradition is barely understood, and the benefits of that progress aren't clear. This makes it, in many ways, both a deeply melancholy and a deeply pessimistic book. And also means it perfectly captures elements of the attitudes of rural southern England in the late 20th century - and probably still today. In some ways it feels quite Brexity, in fact - or, at least, that it helps explain Brexity attitudes. Amazing that this is Thorpe's first novel -- even though I struggled with it a bit, it's a considerable achievement -- three centuries in twelve chapters, each written in a style appropriate to the time and narrator. Inevitably thoughts turn to David Mitchell. But I have to say I found Cloud Atlas more compelling, the links between sections drawn tighter to create a narrative. Some reviewers have mentioned Alan Garner too , and yes the sense of place, the use of dialect, the description of tradi Amazing that this is Thorpe's first novel -- even though I struggled with it a bit, it's a considerable achievement -- three centuries in twelve chapters, each written in a style appropriate to the time and narrator. Some reviewers have mentioned Alan Garner too , and yes the sense of place, the use of dialect, the description of traditional crafts are all there. Despite all this I found some parts a struggle. I gave up altogether on Stitches -- and I say that as someone who immoderately loves Riddley Walker. Somehow Russell Hoban managed to give the reader enough hooks to follow the dialect, but there's none of that here, just a dense mass of text. Too much like hard work, at a time when I wanted to read to relax. I did enjoy the earlier parts though. I'm giving it three stars to reflect the fact that I only moderately enjoyed it; I can still acknowledge Thorpe's great skill. Aug 26, Patricia Woodward rated it liked it. This book is definitely not an easy read before bed. With each chapter, apart from the first, I had to ask myself what is this chapter about and how does it relate to the whole. I enjoy that sort of analysis, some would hate it. He writes: "I had just then encountered James Joyce's famous boast to Samuel Beckett — 'I have discovered that I can do anything with language that I want' — and it seemed to me that Thorpe could do anything with English that he wanted. Ulverton is the story — haunting and crystalline — of an English village down the centuries, as told by various of its inhabitants from a shepherd in the time of Cromwell to a property developer in the time of Thatcher. It's a book of voices, though such a neat summary doesn't begin to capture its uncanniness. So wholly do these voices belong to their speakers that it feels, often, as though Thorpe has somehow raised the dead; this, you think, is how automatic writing might read, if it ever made sense. I picked up the story that eventually became Ulverton 's first chapter in my family's village in Derbyshire, and I typed it out, not a word changed. It was almost as if the shepherd was dictating it to me. At first, I put it away. I didn't know what to do with it; it was the time of Amis, of the urban. But then on a walk one day, I had a revelation: the idea that my book's hero would be the place. It came up to me from the earth, it really did. The energy was coming up through my legs. Thanks to the huge and somewhat unexpected popularity of Macfarlane, Richard Mabey, Mark Cocker and others, Ulverton seems, now, to make better sense than ever. But as Thorpe has hinted, it was a far less fashionable proposition in Salman Rushdie and Antonia Byatt are reputed to have disliked its pastoral theme so intensely, they refused to allow Thorpe's name to be included in Granta 's Best of Young British Novelists, for which they were both judges. Why, then, did it strike such a chord with readers? Most British people have relatively recent origins as farmers or farm labourers; the shift to the city is quite recent. It's muscle memory. Nostalgia is a derided term, but I think nostalgia for the rural past is more than sentimentality. It's deep in the soul. I don't disguise the reality of life in the country at all. Thorpe's career is surely one of the great literary mysteries of the age. In the years since Ulverton , he has published a further nine novels; Flight , a thriller about a messed-up freight pilot, came out earlier this year. They are inevitably superb — my favourite is Between Each Breath , an extraordinarily clever and beautifully written tale of music, marriage and Estonia — and always well- reviewed, and yet you look for his name in vain on Booker and bestseller lists alike. To me, this is as baffling as it is unfair, and I wonder how he accounts for it. He's certainly right about this.

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