Wintering

With the exquisite magic of Laurie Lee, Wintering captures the fragile moment between innocence and maturity in an entrancing story about growing up - a father's and a son's. This work is suitable for readers of Margaret Forster, Bertie, May & Mrs Fish, Melvyn Bragg, and J.L. Carr. The pitch-perfect period and place detail, evoking a world of Dinky toys and Dansette record players, also has nostalgic appeal for a silver readership. Arriving at harvest-time in a sleepy rural village on the outskirts of Wells, the Palmer family are making a fresh start - with a new job for recently bankrupt Jim, and a new kind of life for Margaret and the children, Billy and Sarah. At first, this smaller, slower world seems to offer few distractions, but even before winter has arrived, the open fields, cobbled streets, and steamy coffee shops begin to yield opportunities - especially for Jim with his eye for easy money and a pretty face. In such a small town, however, nothing goes unobserved, either by the locals or by Billy, who is himself experiencing some changes, dreaming of adventures but about to start dreaming of girls.