'Leaving this place which is our home feels like a strange kind of destruction to me'.

When Clover Stroud is faced with packing up her house and family, in order to join her husband in America, she is torn. Confused as to why she feels so aggrieved, Stroud explores what it means to inhabit a place, and how her relationship with home had become utterly entangled with her sense of being, 'I am certain the Ridgeway holds vibrations of my soul that I've not experienced in other places, and so it knows things about me, and is sympathetic even, to who I am'. Through probing how this sense of place resonates with her sense of self: mother, wife, bereaved, she is finally able to enunciate her reticence and move forward.

'The Giant on the Skyline' is labeled as a memoir but its prosaic, lyrical style, underscored with profound introspection and search for understanding, presents as something bigger. In some ways, for me, it reads almost like a fable. Her ability to weave together historical facts, personal memories, vignettes of daily mundanity, and mystical realism, results in a heartfelt story that can resonate at countless points for many.

'Look up, and the night sky is unchanged...the stars and the night you see now are the same as they have ever been...and so the ancient lives on with us in the present'.

I loved this! Beautifully written.

Forced to make a decision about a move to America Clover is torn between staying on the Ridgeway or moving.
She loves the countryside and the history of the area and cannot imagine life without it. She traces the roots of the countryside, the people who lived before and how they shaped it.
Can she really leave it all behind?

This is the first book I've read by Clover Stroud. This was an genuine telling of her connection with her land and community, and the inner turmoil she experienced with faced with uplifting her life and some members of her family to another part of the world. It gave the reader good insights to that part of the English countryside and its history. Generally well written, and heartfelt memoir, albeit somewhat verbose at parts. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Giant on the Skyline is a touching memoir about finding home; in this instance leaving the UK and moving to America for her husband's job. The author beautifully captures the emotions of leaving behind not just a place, but a piece of yourself and your family's history. I can resonate with that as I moved my family from one hemisphere to another many years ago and it takes time to work out where you belong - if you belong.
A moving and heartfelt memoir.

Very lyrical and self examining, a love tribute to the South Downs, gentle and descriptive. I found myself wanting a bit more action but fully acknowledge the beautiful writing.

Published 9 May 2024. I've never read any Clover Stroud before - and even though I don't usually rea memoirs this piqued my interest. Set in Wiltshire with the Ridgeway, the White Horse and Avebury as characters, this is the author's exploration of the meaning of home. Her husband, Pete, spends a lot of time working in America and he wants Clover to move out their with the children - a request that sends her into almost freefall. In this book she describes beautifully the landscape, the seasons. She gives a real sense of community, what it is like to live in a place where everyone knows you, where everyone looks out for you. She writes movingly of her connection to the landscape where her parents and sister are buried and you can real feel for her dilemma, how can she leave this landscape that means so much to her. Her two eldest children, Jimmy and Dolly are getting ready to start university so to uproot the family will mean leaving two of them in the UK, of separating them. Her writing is gorgeous and this is a deep dive into what home means. I also loved the intimate moments that she shares with the reader - those family moments - the car ride with Jimmy to university and her feelings as she settled him in brought back memories of when we took our son to his university many years ago. I loved meeting the people around her and walking with her on her many excursions to the Ridgeway. As for the giant man - well, I'll leave it to you. A super read full of family, love and landscape. Rounded up to 5*

Clover's eldest children are leaving home for university. Her husband Pete's work is in America.
The only way for Clover and the younger children to live with him is to uproot, leave their rural life near the ancient Ridgeway in Oxfordshire and move to Washington DC.

This book is full of precise and exacting descriptions of life. This is a wonderfully written piece of craft that produces vivid picture of everyday living. I did feel, however, that it got a bit bogged down in minutiae of life which slowed the pace of the story.

I've never read anything by this author before, but I liked the description of the book - an exploration of the meaning of home, which suggested to also be an exploration of the landscape around the ridgeway in Wiltshire. I also liked the fact that Clover Stroud is a journalist and that a previous book had been nominated for the Wainwright prize. I thought this indicated the writing would be good. I was not wrong.

This book beautifully explores the place where the author lives. Not just the house and it's immediate setting, but the wider landscape around there, including the white chalk horse on the hillside. Clover is grappling with the decision to uproot her family to move to America, where her husband is working. Initially it is unthinkable - not just because of uprooting the three small children but also because of leaving the older children behind as they start university.

There is so much in this book that resonated with me. The connections to people who have passed away but remain in the landscape around us. Relationships with other people in the community, not least close friends and the connections we have to our family pets. It was so emotional at times.

I loved every part of this book - especially towards the end, the connection with Hari and the short pilgrimage with the druid around the hillside connecting with the chalk stream springs.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good memoir and or nature writing.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Being familiar with the Ridgeway and the area Stroud lives it was interesting to read another person's exploration of the area. I wasn't 100% sold on the balance of the book as I'd have liked more about the area etc and slightly less about the family. It wasn't until the end that I clicked about the almost magical realism device she'd been using throughout and then it all came together a little better for me.

I have read and loved all of Clover's previous books, and have also enjoyed following her on Instagram for a few years. Nobody else writes about the way life feels in quite the same way as Clover; her style is raw, honest, open and heartfelt. I was therefore very excited to read her new book and it didn't disappoint. In this book, Clover is reflecting on her life in rural Wiltshire living near the Ridgeway and White Horse Hill; although I am not familiar with the area, I could picture it through her beautiful writing and her lyrical descriptions of the various places that she has grown to love over the years. Her passion for these landscapes and the people who have shaped them, shines through on every page. I think this was my favourite of all her books so far. Highly recommended.
My grateful thanks to NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Doubleday and Clover Stroud for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Giant on the Skyline by Clover Stroud is a memoir about her decision to uproot and move to join her husband and an exploration of what home is.

I'm unapologetically a huge fan of Stroud's writing and was delighted to get this as a proof. For me, The Giant on the Skyline is her best writing yet. She is very much a writer who wears her heart on her sleeve and whatever she writes, it feels like she is reaching to express her authentic self through her words. Here I think she succeeds far more powerfully than in her previous books. A memoir of the time she spent deciding whether or not to move to Washington to join Pete, her husband, who works out there, this is a deeply felt exploration of what home is and whether you can uproot yourself geographically whilst still maintaining a sense of self and home. This is a love letter both to her husband and to the land she has made her home in. It's a psychogeographic exploration in the most heartfelt, personal way rather than as an academic exercise, which some psychogeographic works can easily become. It's a beautiful piece of work, drenched in colour, saturated in emotion and full of heart and soul.