"Thoroughly enjoyable first novel... Sparkling and witty, a treat"--
Bookseller"Miranda France has minutely drawn a farming community, and a broken woman, with excellent skill. She is superb at plucking comedy from tragedy, as well as exhibiting a wry authorial narrative that must owe more than a little to Jane Austen. She manages to square this lightness of tone with a subtle tale full of secrecy, betrayal and fear that keeps you clinging on right to the very end"--
The List"...the choreography of village life is beautifully rendered, the shifting inner lives of the characters are subtle and believable and the fresh, sometimes subversive observation is a delight."--
The Sunday Times"Miranda France writes skillfully and with a wry touch... Hill Farm turns out to be a pleasure to read, tempting the reader to wolf it down in one sitting."--
Sunday Herald"A convincing depiction of the way in which ordinary lives can be nudged towards quiet tragedy."--
Literary Review "An arresting writer... France's account of village life conveys a genuine, smoldering anger, and she clearly knows what it feels like to be suffocated by the English countryside. Adultery, arson and assault- all come bursting out as expedient and increasingly desperate means of bucking bronca."--
The Guardian "Hill Farm reads like The Archers written by Tolstoy... This debut novel from a well-known travel scribe twists coming-of-age drama with Karenina-esque sensual discovery, and perfectly captures the more Gothic aspects of country life."--
Daily Mail"With an incredible confidence for a debut novelist, Miranda France changes tack from rural romance to murder mystery...[she] writes with such assurance and humour that she carries us along... through the subtle underpinning of her characterisation."--
Spectator "Pyromaniac labourers, feuding pensioners and adulterous housewives blot the landscape in Miranda France's entertaining novel, a sort of homage to
Cold Comfort Farm, with a dash of Jilly Cooper and The Archers thrown in."--
Financial Times "France writes superbly about the reality of living in the countryside - and the pitch-black ending chills the blood."--
Saga Magazine"It's impossible to avoid comparisons with Stella Gibbons...But Miranda France's debut novel is set in modern-day Sussex and she has drawn on her farming roots to a paint a picture of bucolic pastures."--
Sussex Life"Immensely clever unearthing of rural life and love."--
Sainsbury's Magazine
