The main protagonist of Devil's Day is not John, the grammar school,educated upwardly mobile son of the farming community. Or Kat his bemused wife. Or even The Gaffer, family patriarch steeped in tradition and folklore.

It is the harsh quixotic landscape in which this bleak tale is set. There are no manicured handkerchief Cotswolds fields here. No pretty sheep. Just the unremitting cycle of life and death conjured unsentimentally.

I loved this book , ultimately it reads as an uplifting tribute to the uncompromising British land and those who care for it.

Devil’s day is a wonderfully eerie tale set on the lancs / Yorkshire border, bringing the traditions and superstitions of a small farming community to vivid and compelling life. Like the Loney before it, Hurley combines an isolated community, an outsider and folklore to create a realistic world with an otherworldly underpinning- a glimpse behind the veil as it were. Thoroughly recommended,

Every year there a number of books published which go on to win rave reviews and literary prizes- but which I find essentially unreadable and not enjoyable. I always wonder with these books what it is that I am not getting that other people are. For me, this is one of those books.

There is no denying the writing is beautiful- the author paints a descriptive and evocative picture of a wild and moody landscape. Like his previous book, the Loney, Hurley does a fine job of creating a creepy sense of unease right from the start. As another reviewer pointed out, there is no doubt Hurley can turn a phrase. The problem I had was that all the phrases put together still came across as a rambling, jumbled tale- jumping between the protagonist’s present day and back, without necessarily providing any guideposts as to which time frame we were now in or how it all hung together. I found it hard to keep track of who was who in the cast of characters or what their connection was to each other. The aforesaid evoking of landscape went on sometimes for pages and pages, without anything actually happening.

I plodded gamely on, because I reckoned at some point all the sinister hints might amount to something. But I’m not quite sure where it ended up or what it was saying along the way. After the tiresome slow burn throughout, the ending felt rushed and to be honest I am still not quite sure what it was all about.

For years, the old man they called the Gaffer would perform rituals and redraw property lines to keep the village and its sheep safe from the devil. Now the Gaffer is dead and his grandson John has returned home, bringing his wife Katherine with him. Many villagers want the old ways, especially the redrawing of the property lines, to stop. After all, the whole story about the devil is just a myth, right? This book has a great premise and some Hurley has a way with words, but I had a hard time caring about the characters, they just didn’t come across as sympathetic or believable