Book description
By the author of Konstantin…
“A superb book from the border, bright, full of truth, romantic and
real… an honourable successor to Bruce Chatwin's On the Black Hill,
springing from the same ground.” Horatio Clare, author of Running for
the Hills
Set in the Welsh Borders in 1980, The Claude Glass charts an unlikely
friendship between two neighbours; Robin, the seven-year-old son of
English hippie sheep farmers, and Andrew, a child so neglected by his
impoverished parents that he is left almost mute, seeking solace among
the farm dogs.
Exploring his parentís semi-derelict farmhouse, Andrew finds an antique
convex mirror - a Claude Glass - and, gazing into it, the two boys see
their wild, rural landscape strangely ordered. But this comforting
vision proves fragile as tensions and sexual jealousy rock the adult
world around them.
Written with a lyricism and freshness that echoes the early work of
Esther Freud or Bruce Chatwin, The Claude Glass draws you into the lives
of its startling characters and their tarnished romance with nature.
Tom Bullough grew up in a hill farm in Radnorshire - the setting of
The Claude Glass - and now lives in the Cambrian mountains. He has
written three novels; his first, A, was published by Sort Of Books in
2002 and is latest, Konstantin, is published by Penguin in March 2012.
He studied at London University and has worked as a music promoter in
Zimbabwe and a firewood deliveryman in Wales.
