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On the Black Hill (Vintage classics)by: Bruce Chatwin
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Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: Bruce Chatwin's fascination with nomads and wanderlust represents itself in reverse in On the Black Hill, a tale of two brothers (identical twins) who never go anywhere. They stay in the farmhouse on the English-Welsh border where they were born, tilling the rough soil and sleeping in the same bed, touched only occasionally by the advance of the 20th century. Smacking of a Welsh Ethan Frome, Chatwin evokes the lonely tragedies of farm life, and above all the vibrant land of Wales. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Touching, unexpectedChatwin captures the peculiarity of Welsh rural life with both a lightness and an insightfulness that is truly remarkable for someone who was not raised in this strange world. Perhaps it is his particular skill as a travel writer that he makes the very ordinary lives of his characters extraordinary to outsiders. As a Welshman myself, I was deeply moved by the way in which he captured a world that has now, largely, disappeared. Rating: - On the Black HillAlthough a dark and somewhat miserable story.If you are at all intersted in life as it was years ago,and this is how it was.You will enjoy this.A good read.After reading the book we got the DVD and enjoyed that too. Rating: - Blue remembered hillsI found out about this book the first time I went to Hay-on-Wye, as the setting is the Black Mountains in the Welsh Borders. It is the only Chatwin novel I have read, but from the excellent biography by Nicholas Shakespeare I gathered that this is only one of many of his stories which are set in one of the remote parts of the world which he visited. The main theme is the symbiotic, sometimes love-hate, relationship of twin brothers Lewis and Benjamin, hill farmers who live from about 1900 to 1980, ... Read More Rating: - Darkness and LightBruce Chatwin's exploration of the lives of the people from the herefodshire/welsh border reveals his great and sympathetic understanding of this very special region. Through focussing on the Jones family, one comes to understand the rawness, savagery and beauty within the hard dark lifes (occaisonally punctuated with moments of bright sunshine and hope) that faced ordinary people in the countryside at this time. The development of the two Jones twins Benjamin and Lewis lets the reader see and feel ... Read More Rating:  - A simple but deep bookAt first I didn't think this book would be of much interest as it revolves around the lives of two brothers who live on a farm in Wales. Doesn't sound like the most riveting of plots and I actually wondered how the author could spin out a book on such a simple idea. But as you realise when you read the book the world comes to them it tells the story of how they are buffeted by the ups and downs of the Twentieth Century. And it is so cleverly written that after a few pages ... Read More Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display
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