TIM PEARS

A beautiful love story with an incredible sense of place The Times A powerful novel about destiny home and surviving in a world in flux Britain AD 72 Quintus long exiled from his people has travelled great odysseys in the retinue of a powerful Roman Though a citizen of nowhere is a man of reason fluent in many languages Olwen imperious tribal royalty is rooted in her native land a volatile warrior fiercely attached to the natural world Given away by her father as part of a peace treaty Olwen flees during the night taking Quintus with her Hunted by an army the two make their way across the country living off the land heading for the western shore

May 1944: High above the mountains of occupied Slovenia an aeroplane drops three British parachutists - brash MP Major Jack Farwell, radio operator Sid Dixon, and young academic Lieutenant Tom Freedman. Greeted upon arrival by a group of Partisans, the men are led off into the countryside.

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.

Brought up in the Anglo-Welsh borders by an affectionate but alcoholic and feckless mother, Owen Ithells sense of self is rooted in his long, vivid visits to his grandparents small farm in the hills.

Brought up in the Anglo-Welsh borders by an affectionate but alcoholic and feckless mother, Owen Ithell's sense of self is rooted in his long, vivid visits to his grandparents' small farm in the hills. There he is deeply impressed by his grandfather's primitive, cruel relationship with his animals and the land. As an adult he moves away from the country of his childhood to an English city where he builds a new life, working as a gardener.

The novel starts out with John, co-owner of a very successful potato company in England, driving out to see his brother (and business partner) to tell him about two fatalities that occured in an experiment to give people vaccines administered by genetically altered potatoes. John is frightened to what these deaths are going to mean to his company and he can''t quite get himself to take the exit he''s supposed to. Almost all of this shot novel takes place on that Monday in John''s car as he thinks to himself about his life and what is going to happen now.

Ezra and Sheena Pepin live in Blenheim Orchard in North Oxford with their three children: fourteen-year-old Blaise entering the storm-world of adolescence, Hector, eleven and precociously clever, and sweet Louie, three years old and the family tyrant. Ezra, a benignly disaffected employee at Isis Water, has abandoned his calling as an anthropologist; Sheena has inadvertently found hers running a travel company. They are like everyone else: over-worked, worried about the children, trying to steer their marriage on an even keel. But change comes knocking at the Pepins'' door. Ezra is asked to head a bold new campaign at his workplace that could jump-start his stagnant career; Sheena, in the meantime, decides to move the family to Brazil; and Blaise - restless and curious - takes her first, heady steps into the adult world of sex and desire. The Pepin family will never be quite the same again. Perceptive, thought-provoking, utterly compelling, "Blenheim Orchard" is human drama at its most powerful. It is also an acute portrait of the times we live in. Tim Pears is a skilled, observant and deeply humane writer - and he is writing at the top of his form.

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, Jonny 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 Rosemarys thirteen-year-old grandson, Theo, who observes how from these innocent beginnings age-old fissures open up in the relationships of those around him. Looking back at this Christmas gathering from his own middle-age - a narrator at once nostalgic and naive - Theo Cannon remembers his imperious grandmother Rosemary, alpha-male uncle Jonny, abominable twin cousins Xan and Baz; he recalls his love for his grandfather Leonard and the burgeoning feelings for his cousin Holly. And he asks himself the question: if a single family cannot solve the problem of what it bequeaths to future generations, then what chance does a whole society have of leaving the world intact?

Brought up in the Anglo-Welsh borders by an affectionate but alcoholic and feckless mother, Owen Ithells sense of self is rooted in his long, vivid visits to his grandparents small farm in the hills. As an adult he moves to an English city where he builds a new life, working as a gardener. He meets Mel, they have children. He believes he has found happiness - and love - of a sort.But a tragic accident changes the course of his life and the lives of those he loves is changed forever. Owen is haunted by suicidal thoughts. In his despair, he resolves to reconnect with both his past and the natural world, and with his children he embarks on a long, fateful journey, walking to the Welsh borders of his childhood.Powerful, richly evocative and perfectly poised between the hope of redemption and the threat of irrevocable tragedy, Landedis Tim Pears most assured and beguiling novel to date.

It begins at the stroke of midnight on the first day of 1997. As the year turns, a group of disparate individuals from different backgrounds, from all corners of the country, are about to embark on separate journeys which will converge over the course of the next twelve months: among them, Rebecca - mother-to-be, Sam - amnesiac, Roderick - Conservative MP, Jack - lorry driver, Martha - cat burglar, Ben - paraplegic child, Solo - his abandoned father.At the end of that year, their lives will have changed irrevocably, some for better, some for worse, but changed nonetheless. They cannot know what will happen to them, but there is an inevitability in their shared destiny that will prove impossible to withstand...A Revolution of the Sun tells the story of one momentous year through the eyes of the people who lived it. It is not only their stories, but also the anatomy of a nation in flux. Ambitious, powerful, irresistible, it is the work of a writer at the peak of his powers and once again demonstrates Pears to be a great contemporary novelist.

A beautiful love story with an incredible sense of place - The TimesCompact and engrossing . . . a pleasure of a novel - Daily MailBritain, AD 72. Quintus, a slave long exiled from his people, has travelled to far-flung places under the command of a powerful Roman. Though a citizen of nowhere, he is a man of reason, fluent in many languages. Olwen, a volatile warrior, is rooted in her native land.Given away by her father as part of a peace treaty, Olwen flees during the night, taking Quintus with her. Hunted by an army, the two make their way across the country, living off the land, heading for the western shore . . .Pears is a master at making you see again landscapes that have long vanished . . . He has an unusual gift for creating characters you want to spend time with - Guardian

In a small town in the middle of England, the aftermath of the Second World War brings change. For ambitious industrialist Charles Freeman, it offers new opportunities and marriage to Mary. He buys the big house on the hill and nails his aspirations to the future.In quick succession, three sons and a daughter bring life to the big house and, with it, the seeds of family joy and tragedy. As the children grow and struggle with the hazards of adulthood, Charles business expands in direct proportion to his girth and becomes a symbol of the towns fortunes as Britain claws its way back from the grey austerity of wartime Britain. As times change, so do the familys fortunes. Their stories create a generous epic, an extraordinarily rich and plangent hymn to the transformation of middle England over the past fifty years. At its heart is a diverse and persuasive cast of loveable and odious characters attempting to contend with the restrictions of their generation. This is the story of our lives.

May 1944: High above the mountains of occupied Slovenia an aeroplane drops three British parachutists brash MP Major Jack Farwell, radio operator Sid Dixon, and young academic Lieutenant Tom Freedman.Greeted upon arrival by a group of Partisans, the men are led off into the countryside. Despite the distant crackle of gunfire, the war feels a long way off for Tom. The Partisans, too, are not what he was expecting courageous, kind, and alluring, especially Jovan, their commander, and the hauntingly beautiful Marija. As the enemys net begins to tighten, they find evidence of massacres, of a dark and terrible band of men pursuing them. As they stumble their way towards a final, tragic battle, so the relationships within the group begin to fray, with Tom finding himself forced to face up to his deepest, most secret desires.