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As the film adaptation of Starve Acre is released we speak to Andrew Michael Hurley about the origins and evolving life of his much loved novel. 

Set in the seventies, in the deceptive and unforgiving northern landscapes that fill Andrew’s work, Starve Acre is the story of a family with a bitter inheritance. Sudden tragedy leads to costly obsession and primeval forces are unearthed in an unnerving and sinister return, truly fertile ground for cinema.

Directed by Daniel Kokotaljo (who many of you will know from his fantastic feature debut Apostasy) and starring Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark it is the perfect night out as the seasons change and the darkness draws in.

Starve Acre is published by John Murray

'Genuinely and brilliantly disturbing.' Roddy Doyle

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On this episode we catch up with Rachelle Atalla to hear more about her latest novel The Salt Flats. A tale of many threads, it centres around Martha and Finn a couple who have come to find  themselves at the end of their relationship. In a bid to save what’s left between them they travel to a mysterious retreat on the Bolivian salt flats as part of a group of privileged tourists. 

There, they undergo a series of ceremonies to unlock the fears that separate them. But as each hallucinogenic episode unfolds the group fragments, falling deeper into themselves rather than closing the gap between them.

The Salt Flats is a story of shared guilt and sublimation that asks us to think again about who we share the world with and what it is we are running from. 

‘The Salt Flats is gripping, compulsive and deeply human. Rachelle Atalla is one of the few writers whose novels I can’t put down.’ Heather Parry 

‘Immersive, intelligent and tender.’ Kirsty Logan

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On this episode we meet Mateo García Elizondo to hear more about his debut novel Last Date in El Zapotal. First published in Mexico in 2019 it won the City of Barcelona Literature Award that year but has had to wait until 2024 to be published in English by Charco Press. 

At first glance Last Date is the story of a man who’s given up on life. Already almost a ghost, he arrives in El Zapotal with enough heroin to see him through his final days of longing and despair. But as the hallucinations build and the line between life and death blurs we find something else altogether. Beneath the sadness is the unshakeable presence of the past and all the desire for life it once held. As Mateo’s translator Robin Myers writes in El Zapotal a dream surfaces. 'A dream of love, the dream for love, the dream of what it would mean for love to be enough.'

Last Date in El Zapotal is published by Charco Press 

www.charcopress.com

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On this episode we meet the wonderful Evie Wyld to find out more about her latest novel, The Echoes. As with Evie’s previous books, The Echoes is bold in its use of time and space, spanning generations and moving from one side of the world to the other.

It’s a book filled with thrilling misdirections - so no spoilers here friends.

We can tell you that - The Echoes is deeply moving, very funny  and provocative throughout. It is a book that draws so much from the reader. A beautiful reminder of the true scale and weirdness of our lives, the mysteries that are withheld from us as we live and above all else a book that urges us to love.

If you’ve been enjoying the pod please leave us a small review to help others find us. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a future episode.

'To be able to lose means you are still living'. 

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On this episode we speak to Ella Frears about her incredible fictional memoir Good Lord. Taking the form of a single 30,000 word email it is a genre-defying, stream of consciousness address directed toward Ava, an unsuspecting estate agent. 

Ella’s writing is both fearless and full of energy, ranging widely across the common spaces of our lives to take in the wild precarity of the housing market, endemic violence towards women in the UK today and much more. Good Lord is provocative, disconcerting and very, very funny. It poses searching questions about expectation, what we allow and what we all really know. 

‘All the hot women I know have Ella Frears on their bedside tables’  Sheena Patel

‘A witty, indignant and poignant look at the way our desire for a place to call home has been misshapen and distorted by the morbid pathologies of the market.’ Keiran Goddard

Good Lord is published by Rough Trade

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On this episode we sit down with Noreen Masud to hear more about her incredible memoir A Flat Place. Shortlisted this year for both the Women’s Prize for Non Fiction and the Jhalak Prize, it is an exploration of both the flat landscapes Noreen loves and ‘the flat place’ she identifies within herself.

Taking in the Fens, the Orkneys, Morecombe Bay and more Noreen writes on the contradictions of these places, their stark beauty, immediacy and evasive nature. And through them she finds a way to explore the symptoms of childhood trauma buried deep within her. 

A Flat Place is a moving and frank account of colonial legacy, neglect and forced movement.  It is provocative and purposefully inconclusive. Preti Taneja's description of it as both revealing and refusing in the best ways is perfect. 

In our wide ranging interview Noreen discusses de-romanticising nature writing, writing as a call to action and her ongoing work with Fossil Free Books.

 A Flat Place is published by Penguin.

‘Noreen Masud fathoms the depths of flat landscapes, and their curious abilities to archive and to erase, to unsettle and to console.’   Robert Macfarlane

Music featured on this episode 
The Kimba Unit - Two Voices 
Ian Hawgood Upward Eyes  

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On this episode we’re joined by Katie Hale to discuss her upcoming novel The Edge of Solitude. Set on a lone ship that's slowly drifting toward the heart of the Antarctic,  it's a book which asks us to consider the risks of the planet’s future being left in the hands of a few insanely wealthy individuals.  

The Edge of Solitude is a story of ambition, principle and above all fallibility that foregrounds our current climate emergency in the near future. A time of hubris  and disappearance.

The book came from a trip which Katie took to Antarctica in March 2020 and maps the complicated legacy and geopolitics of the region. 

FAQ: What is the Field Ramble theme tune? 
Y Gwydd by Huw Marc Bennett

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On this episode we meet Lara Haworth to discuss her wonderful new novel Monumenta. It tells the story of Olha Pavic whose house has been requisitioned by Belgrade city council. They aim to bulldoze it and build a monument to an unspecified massacre in its place. 

Three architects pay Olga a visit in turn pitching their ideas for the monument that will replace her family home. The novel is in turns searching and surreal, but always a tender portrayal of a family moving through the flood of a nation’s history. 

Monumenta explores ideas of a contested past and loss and is part of a wider European project.

Monumenta is published by Canongate on July 4th

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To mark the publication of its paperback edition, this episode is a discussion with Octavia Bright around her wonderful memoir, This Ragged Grace. Published last year, many of you will already know it as an unsparing yet hopeful navigation of unravelling and recovery. It is a deeply human piece of work that asks us to consider the value of ambivalence and the acceptance we can offer ourselves. A book that remains long after  reading with much to say about the cycle we're bound in.

'To love is to welcome the spectre of loss, to grieve is to summon the spirit of love.'

'Deep and beautiful'                        Deborah Levy
'Smart and tender and honest'  Emilie Pine

Big thanks to The Kimba Unit for the use of their song Two Voices.

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Two wonderful books on this episode. First up we hear from Elizabeth O' Connor about her incredible debut novel Whalefall. Set on a remote island off the coast of Wales in the run up to World War Two it is a story that maps the tension between home and the hope that exists in a young heart for a life of their own. We loved this book, the island is as wild & windswept as you'd want and the themes of imposition and the violence of 'progress' felt so timely. Do look it out, it's brilliant.

Kevin Barry needs little introduction. Booker long-listed author of Irish number 1 best seller Night Boat to Tangiers, The Heart in Winter is his fourth novel and is as much fun as you'd expect. Set in 1891, Butte Montana it follows the thunderbolt love affair of Tom Rourke and Polly Gillespie. If stolen horses, psychedelics, badlands, and a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen are your thing (and they are ours) then you're going to love this.

Whalefall is published by Picador and is available now

The Heart in Winter is published by Canongate on June 6th

Huge thanks to Huw Marc Bennett, Ian Hawgood & Nathan Salzburg for their use of their incredible music. 

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