The Wanderers

Tim Pears Bloomsbury €20.50 Goodness, Tim Pears writes beautifully. The second instalment of his West Country Trilogy, set in southwest England in the early years of the last century, is a slow-burner of a yarn. Leo and Lottie, the young principals, have been separated by circumstances. Farmhand Leo is having to live off the land and consort with gypsies and horse dealers; upper-class Lottie is travelling by carriage to the derby and starting to take a keen interest in natural sciences. But the descriptions of rural life, executed with painterly exactness, are a constant delight. The prose really sings.

Max Davidson