A Review By Keith Smith

Leonard and Rosemary Cannon summon their middle-aged offspring, along with partners and children, to the family home in the Welsh Marches for the Christmas holiday. As the gathered family settle in to their first Christmas together for some years, the grown siblings – Rodney, Johnny and Gwen – are surprised when they are invited to each put stickers on the furniture and items they wish to inherit from their parents. “Disputed Land” is narrated by Leonard and Rosemary’s thirteen-year-old grandson, Theo, who observes how from these innocent beginnings age-old fissures open up in the relationships of those around him.

I took this on our Cornish holiday and read it in a couple of days. Not only did I enjoy it, but it was thought-provoking too. It’s actually had one or two mixed reviews, but I can’t understand this at all as I think it’s a marvellous piece of writing, and Tim has a great reputation and has been likened to Balzac. At its heart is the question of whether and how anything worthwhile can be passed on from one generation to another both within a family and in the world as a whole. It is full of lyricism for the kind of life which you can just about imagine surviving in the Shropshire countryside which Tim loves so well and where a lot of his writing is set. It is also about the values of our current times and whether in embracing them we arfe losing something rather greater. We are! But although there is a touch of room for optimism, the overall mood is sombre and nostalgic. Do read it. You should buy the hardback (very reasonably priced for a signed copy) for the cover alone…