Peculiar Ground

A Novel

By: Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Narrated by: full cast

The Costa Award-winning author of The Pike makes her literary fiction debut with an extraordinary historical novel in the spirit of Wolf Hall and Atonement - a great English country house novel, spanning three centuries, that explores surprisingly timely themes of immigration and exclusion.

It is the 17th century, and a wall is being raised around Wychwood, transforming the great house and its park into a private realm of ornamental lakes, grandiose gardens, and majestic avenues designed by Mr. Norris, a visionary landscaper. In this enclosed world everyone has something to hide after decades of civil war. Dissenters shelter in the woods, lovers rendezvous in secret enclaves, and outsiders - migrants fleeing the plague - find no mercy.

Three centuries later, far away in Berlin, another wall is raised, while at Wychwood, an erotic entanglement over one sticky, languorous weekend in 1961 is overshadowed by news of historic change. Young Nell, whose father manages the estate, grows up amid dramatic upheavals as the great house is invaded: a pop festival by the lake, a television crew in the dining room, a Great Storm brewing. In 1989, as the Cold War peters out, a threat from a different kind of conflict reaches Wychwood's walls.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett conjures an intricately structured, captivating story that explores the lives of game keepers and witches, agitators and aristocrats; the exuberance of young love and the pathos of aging; and the way those who try to wall others out risk finding themselves walled in. With poignancy and grace, she illuminates a place where past and present are inextricably linked by stories, legends, and history - and by one patch of peculiar ground.

The full list of narrators includes Juanita McMahon, Lieghton Pugh, Adjoa Andoh, Peter Noble, Jake Curran, Rachel Atkins, Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Anna Bentinck, and Maggie Ollershaw.

©2018 Lucy Hughes-Hallett (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Unlike anything I've read. With its broad scope and its intimacy and exactness, it cuts through the apparatus of life to the vivid moment. Haunting and huge, and funny and sensuous. It's wonderful." (Tessa Hadley)

Overlong and Disappointing

Both as historical fiction and contemporary novel, this book is oddly narcissistic. And one fails to invest in the characters.

Disappointed

This family saga went from fascinating to tedious. the 17th century story line and characters were unique and compulsive listening. I even “relistened” to those sections several Times because it was so enjoyable. However, the next two generations couldn’t match the vitality of the earlier time or characters.

Enthralling! Great Novel/Challenging Audio

I knew I would love this novel from the synopsis. I am always drawn to historical novels, particularly those revolving around a great house. This was no exception. Ms. Hughes-Hallett is an extraordinary storyteller and her use of walls as a metaphor is timely and ageless. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. MY ONLY CAVEAT: Relying just on the audiobook will cause the listener great consternation! There are so many characters in different time frames, I was compelled to pick up the novel in book form. Lo and behold the author provides a list of the dozens of characters and their places in the story. Without this guide as a reference and an audiobooks inability to flip back an forth to revisit characters, I fear the listener will be lost.

Do not purchase

Do not waste your time. I am at the 5th chapter it has jumped all over
the place in time and characters.