Clinging to the Crags

Home – the most evocative word in any language. This memoir captures a home but goodness, you don’t know whether to be envious or appalled! There’s certainly a flash of the Mitfords – many sisters, irascible father – yet beyond the strangeness, there’s a yearning for a way of life that could never, perhaps should never, be repeated.

‘I know you and this place. You’re like a hefted sheep. If you come in, you’ll never leave.’ At heart, this memoir is about not leaving home. Except when a father believes in male primogeniture and you’re a daughter, the threat of expulsion hangs like the sword of Damocles. Funny, poignant, sharp and sweet, this memoir is what the author has salvaged after the sword dropped. You'll sometimes wish you'd been there, and sometimes be pretty glad you weren’t.