A Mile of River

Judith Allnatt

It is 1976 and England is suffocating. The long, dry spring has given way to a summer of severe drought, with standpipes in the streets and a rallying cry to "save water, share a bath!"

For the farmers, life has become a living hell – a daily struggle to make ends meet. The fields are tinder dry, the earth is dusty and scorched and the rivers are drying up to a trickle.

Jess and Tom live on a remote farm in the English countryside with their increasingly difficult and brutal father, Henry. Their mother, Sylvie, walked out years before and Jess is struggling with the role of mother figure to Tom, as well as skivvy and hired hand for her father.

Jess just wants to be a normal teenager, to go to dances and kiss boys, to take her exams and dream of a future far away from milking cows and ploughing fields. Daydreaming about her mother's return, Jess discovers Sylvie's old diary and begins to uncover the shocking truth about her disappearance.

As the drought grips ever tighter, as the water level of the river begins to drop, the menace in the air builds until it reaches boiling point, with a confrontation between Jess and her father that has devastating consequences.

Judith Allnatt lives in Northamptonshire with her husband and children. She is a teacher, a published poet and an acclaimed short story writer, who was recently featured on BBC Radio 4's One to Watch – a showcase of talented, up-and-coming writers.

You can download the first 5 chapters of the book below - don't forget to tell us what you think: the best reviews will be read out on air.

Giovanna Dunmall

Set in the scorching heat of the summer of 1976, A Mile of River charts the story of a family in freefall. Seventeen-year old Jess is struggling to lead a regular teenage life (study for her exams, go to the school dance, have a boyfriend) while almost single-handedly raising her nine-year-old brother and helping out on the farm at all hours of the day. Things (literally) reach boiling point one night and Jess decides to confront her irascible father about her mother's mysterious departure several years earlier.

Fire and water play a major role in this tale. The river at the bottom of the family farm evaporates to an all-time dangerous low and the blazing heat and crippling drought make fires a common occurrence. As the sky continues to withhold water, the morbid pride and secrecy of Jess's father become unbearably oppressive.

So much about this book is compelling. For one, this book is set in the 70s, an era we rarely visit in contemporary fiction. For another we get detailed insight into rural life, the financial hardship of running a small farm and the wider theme of attachment to land and a way of life being eroded by forces outside farmers' control (weather and tragedy, to mention but two).

In the midst of this is the lyrical and burgeoning relationship between mother and daughter, brought together posthumously by Jess's discovery of her mother's "bird book". This is a finely-weaved coming-of-age tale that intertwines past and present into a lyrical and mesmerising web of anger, melancholy and redemption (for some of the characters).

Julie Lee, Shepshed, Leics
Incredible read, a very sad story but hard to put down