Running for the Hills: A Family Story - Tapa dura

'Horatio Clare sucks thick honey from his past. A tender, eloquent book about love, the power of the land and the price to paid for living out one's dreams' -- Sarah Dunant 'The joy in Running for the Hills lies in its seemingly effortless richness and precision... It is a prose equivalent of a collection of poems by Ted Hughes - or Wordsworth. ... If this heartening, raw, tender, radiant first book has a lesson,... it is that women will manage better than men, and that their closer bond with nature may be our redemption.' -- John Carey, Sunday Times 'Touching, funny and extremely well-written' -- Telegraph Enchanting ... magical ... so beautifully written that you almost hold your breath' -- Daily Mail 'Beautifully written memoir... As Clare's own memory kicks in, the book evolves into a lyrical recollection of a happy childhood, and a loving testimony to his mother, written with a sure-footed delicacy that announces the arrival of a major talent' -- Marie Clare 'It is the prose equivalent of a collection of poems by Ted Hughes -- or Wordsworth' -- The Sunday Times 20060305 'This charming book...outlines the process of scarification with an impressive honesty and delicacy' - Rebecca Loncraine -- Independent 20060412 'A salutary memoir about his life on a remote Welsh hill-farm' -- Daily Mail 20060530 'A very charming and beautiful book which gets better and better with each turn of the page.' -- Accent 20060501 'The classic Great Escape ... strikingly told' -- Matthew Bell, TLS 20060505 'An assured and compelling first book ... A moving exploration of the slow triumph of adversity over optimism' -- Rose Tremain, The Sunday Telegraph 20060505

One summer's day in the late 1960s two young Londoners fell in love with a hill farm in South Wales. But they had almost no money, no idea about sheep, and their marriage was uncertain from the start. Their new home was a mile up the wild mountain, one end dug into its damp flank. It was ancient, cold and unbelievably primitive, with a view like a prospect of Africa. On a fair day it was paradise. But it was a working farm, cut off from the world and condemned - they found out, after they bought it - as 'unfit for human habitation'. This is the story of a passionate adventure; it is also the biography of a relationship, a portrait of an extraordinary way of life and an account of a bewitching childhood. From memory, conversations and the diaries of his now-separated parents, Horatio Clare reconstructs their relationship with each other and their mountain farm, and tells the story of his astonishing upbringing. At the fore is his mother, a wilful romantic, who chooses to make a life on the mountain single-handedly, and to raise her children there. Running for the Hills is a vivid memoir of love and struggle in a remote and magical place.