‘Figure in a Landscape’

 

 

 

ISBN 0-7472-5296-3
Headline Review
Published 1996

Available from Amazon

In her cottage on a remote Scottish island, Harriet Falmer has almost forgotten that solitude is not the normal human state. Conscious of the burden of guilt that drove her here, she lives from day to day, working in her garden, fishing, exploring the hills – herself as much a part of the landscape as the curlews and the deer.

Apart from occasional trips to a distant village, her contact with the outside world is limited, and contact with her one-time husband and her lost son take place only in her imagination.

Harriet is dismayed when zoologist Jos Allen sets up camp nearby, his purpose a study of seal behaviour patterns. In a rage she tries to sabotage his work, but he won’t easily be dislodged: it is Harriet herself who is forced to move to a bizarre new dwelling when a storm destroys her cottage.

Her new haven, and the changes that have come, start a healing process that brings a sense of purpose to Harriet’s life.

Extraordinary impact … we shall hear more of Ann Lingard – Birmingham Post

A simple but powerful story – Chapman