The winter of 1962-1963 has slid into folklore. Known as the 'Big Freeze', I am too young to remember it but I have heard of the stories of isolation, frozen pipes and food shortages from my parents and their peers. Was the snow really twenty feet deep outside their front doors? It may well have been.

This novel tells the story of two couples who went through this dreadful winter, in the rural outskirts of Bristol. A country GP and his wife live in a country cottage while their neighbours have taken over an old farm and are trying to build it up. Both of the women are pregnant and become friends, even though they are very different.

Winter is generally a time of reflection and transition before the regrowth of spring, and this is shown nationally with remnants of the Second World War still visible and raw in the collective memory. The world is about to change as the sixties begins, with social class, women's roles and attitudes starting to evolve. There is even reference to music which, as we are all aware, The Beatles and their contemporaries had already planted their roots.

For the couples, this isolation gives them plenty of time to reflect. The thoughts of the four of them is explored. The new farmer thinks about silage and whether the bull would find Jersey cows, with their pretty faces and long eyelashes, more attractive than the cows he has available. Similarly, the GP thinks about spontaneous activities with other women. With the arrival of the babies they know that their lives are going to change, but there are issues from the past and loneliness to deal with too.

Miller creates four distinct and detailed characters and ties them in to the landscape in a simple yet complex manner. Harsh and somewhat depressing at times, - connections to the war, mental asylum and a children's school for the blind - this book is skillfully rounded and compelling. Demonstrating an understanding of the psychology of people, intimately portraying the warmth of some and the subtle unpleasantness of others, the author is a great observer of humanity. A wonderful study of life and change.

The Land in Winter is the story of two couples: Eric and Irene, and Bill and Rita. The author deftly interrogates each character, exploring their hopes and fears, and uncovering the fractures in their relationships that threaten to split wide open. Set in a remote part of the West Country, there’s a real feeling of isolation not just physical but also emotional.

Bill is the epitome of a good man struggling against the odds. His father wanted him to join the family business but Bill’s determined to strike out on his own and make a success of his dairy farm. But it’s hard work involving long hours out of the house and every day seems to throw up a new problem, such as a recalcitrant bull. Bill starts to realise that doing things the way they’ve always been done is not going to work; he needs to think differently, to take a leap of faith in himself.

It’s no wonder that Bill’s wife Rita, already in a fragile mental state, is struggling with the hours she spends alone in their draughty farmhouse and the drudgery of the chores that need doing. And her fears about her pregnancy are becoming overwhelming. It’s all very different from her former untamed lifestyle even if that has come with consequences. I thought Rita the most deftly drawn character in the book. There’s a real sense of constrained wildness about her you feel will be released at some point.

Irene, the wife of Eric the local doctor, is also concerned at the prospect of motherhood, although for different reasons. Despite Irene’s efforts to make a comfortable home her marriage to Eric has become stale. Sometimes she wonders how much she really knows him, or he her. She and Rita find themselves thrown together because of the proximity of their two houses and gradually they form a bond through visits to the local cinema and the sharing of Rolos.

Eric has his own problems but they are entirely of his own making and I found him a largely unsympathetic figure. Having said that, there are glimpses of the compassionate man he might have been.

The author is particularly good at the minituae of domestic life. There’s humour in the book, notably the Boxing Day party Eric and Irene host for their neighbours which could give Mike Leigh’s play ‘Abigail’s Party’ a run for its money when it comes to social pretension and awkward moments. Cheese sticks and Acker Bilk on the record player anyone?

As the weather turns colder and the feeling of isolation intensifies so does the sense of foreboding. A crisis is coming and for many it will be life-changing.

The legacy of war is an element in both the previous books I’ve read by Andrew Miller. In Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, Captain John Lacroix is haunted by an atrocity he witnessed during the Napoleonic War, whilst in The Slowworm’s Song a man dreads his daughter learning about an incident when he was a young soldier in Northern Ireland. The Land in Winter has links to war too, in this case the Second World War. For instance the now disused Anderson shelter in the garden of Bill’s family home has become a place of retreat for Bill’s father. And the psychological impact of things that once seen firsthand can never be unseen becomes apparent in the final chapters.

Although things do happen, some of them quite dramatic, The Land in Winter is essentially a beautifully crafted, character-led novel.

The Land in Winter is a taut exploration of four individuals, comprising of two couples, who are recently edged into each others orbits, living adjacently in rural England. Miller explores how unlikely friendships are formed as a result of proximity and extreme conditions, with all four struggling to adjust to their relatively new lives. All four are conflicted, remembering their past lives in stark contrast to their current predicaments.
Constrained by nature, etiquette, gender and increasingly inclement weather, Miller deftly and quietly unweaves private longings, hopes and expectations through beautiful narration.

In many ways, nothing happens, but four lives are implicitly altered. A gentle but rewarding read that conjures up the austerity and possibility of the 1960s.

This is a story more of atmosphere than of events. It opens with a suicide in a mental asylum, which had less of an impact on the story than I would have expected of such a dramatic opening. It is the winter of 1962/63, an unusually cold one with extended snow and bad weather, and just before "sexual intercourse began in nineteen sixty-three" if you believe Philip Larkin.

There's been plenty of that going on though - the story, such as it is, focuses on two young couples who live across a field from one another, with both wives expecting their first child within a few weeks of each other. Eric is a doctor, the son of a Birmingham railroad worker who has married upwards in the form of upper middle class Londoner Irene. Bill has bought the farm opposite Eric and Irene's cottage in an attempt to escape his Eastern European immigrant father's dubious slum landlord business; his wife Rita has a colourful past as a dancer in a Bristol nightclub. Eric is having an affair with the bored wife of a wealthy local businessman while Bill has grand schemes but needs to decide whether he wants to ask his father to bankroll him in his new venture.

As the snow arrives and settles, snowing communities in and disrupting travel and communication systems, we are left with the inner lives of the main characters, revealed elliptically as Rita and Irene become friends, a Christmas party worthy of Pinter or Albee unfolds, and lives implode.

The shadow of WWII still looms large in the shape of persistent antisemitism, characters who are Jewish refugees and remnants of disused airfields and hangars. Society properly feels on the cusp of change as the worlds of good time girl Rita and properly-brought-up Irene collide; Eric's affair with the rich businessman's wife has a whiff of Lady Chatterley about it (the infamous obscenity trial had taken place only two years previously).

It's a very well constructed novel, one to be read slowly and savoured for its atmosphere. I found it perhaps a bit slow to get going, and I could have wished for a bit more of a narrative resolution, but there is much to be enjoyed here.

A miniaturist exploration of trauma, history and desperation

In the unrelenting winter of 1962, two neighbouring rural households—a doctor and his pregnant wife, a son of an emigre playing at farms and his aspirational wife, also pregnant—become intertwined as the secrets they keep and the lies that they tell throw their lives into all kinds of chaos and disruption.

Although ostensibly a historical novel, this is not a mannerist book that apes its time, but instead looks at the present through a lens of history, as the best historical novels do. The NHS at its early best, the environment forcing Britain to shelter in place, the expectations put upon women: none of these things are any less pertinent now than they were in the novel's milieu.

This was a difficult read for me. I felt that the microscopic detail of each of the main characters, and of so many background ones, created an opaque web that never gelled together. The distinction between the minutiae of the rural scenes against the expressionistic city ones negated the characters' reactions to the places where they thought they didn't belong, and the huge geography of the novel, from London to Bristol and the West Country, added nothing to the story. Ultimately, I can admire the skill and craft but it wasn't a book that I could easily recommend to another reader.

This subtle book is set in the cold winter 1962-1963 and revolves around two sets of neighbours. There's the self important GP, Eric, who lives in a centrally heated home with his wife Irene . The second couple are Bill , who is trying out farming and has grand schemes and his wife Rita, who has a more interesting history (linked to the night life of Bristol)
Irene and Rita establish an easy friendship which is warm and mutually supportive.
Interlinked is the story of a nearby asylum for the mentally ill . Eric gets involved with the case of one patient in particular but Rita also has links to the institution.

As the harsh winter sets in the bonds are tested and the true nature of the characters are gradually revealed. The depiction of Eric is particularly well written and a "slow burner" . The weather is its own character in a Hardy-esque way as it precipitates some situations which lead to certain actions by the characters which may otherwise not have happened.
A skilfully understated book which wears its period detail lightly.
Lots of intriguing layers to each character .

A beautifully constructed novel, focussing on two couples in the dead of a cold, dark winter. At times claustrophobic, sometimes threatening, the atmosphere will pull you in, even though at times very little happens. The ending is shocking, and then a little weird, which certainly leaves an impression. The work of a great writer, this is a rewarding and compulsive novel.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

The joy of Mr Miller's writing is the time he takes to allow readers to really get to know his characters and, particularly in this book, how their present environment and past histories have shaped them.
Having lived through the winter of 62/63 (but in a town) there were some very well written memories here that I havent thought about in years - thank you!
Thank you to netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for an advance copy of this book.

This is a slow and gentle story about people who are examining their own lives and their relationships against the backdrop of a cold and long winter. in a landscape that is relatively alien to them. The story unwinds gradually as we get to know more about how the characters deal with their situations and their feelings. Don't expect action and suspense, just a wonderful reflection on human nature.

A beautiful, deep, tragic, complicated book. The transition between characters was flawless. The Land in Winter was set during war times and was a snapshot of a short few months in winter. Miller focused on two couples who lived next door to each other at the same stage of life. He explored the complexity of love, marriage, pregnancy, class, mental health and familial relationships.
I really enjoyed The Land in Winter and the deepest thoughts and worries of the 4 different characters.

Set during the bitter cold winter of 1962/1963 this is the story of two very different couples in a small rural town. Their lives intersect when the pregnant wives become friends. The characters are very well drawn and there is a strong sense of time and place, the shadow of WW2 still lurking. I loved the strong writing and the lingering unhappiness in the characters and landscape.

Many thanks to Andrew Miller, Netgalley, and the publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, for an ARC of this novel, which is published today. A Land in Winter revolves around the lives of two couples living in rural Somerset over the winter of 1962-63, one of the coldest on record (at one point, the sea froze for a mile out from the shore off Kent).

The two couples are quite different. Eric is a doctor and Irene, his wife, from the upper-middle class. Rita is working class and her father is known to be a patient in the local asylum; Bill, her husband, comes from a Jewish background – his father has tried hard to remove all traces of his identity, however. Bill has rejected his father's plans for him to be a lawyer and work as part of the family business, and he's trying to make a go of it as a farmer. Irene and Rita become friends, bonding over the early months of their pregnancies, which draws the couples into each other's orbit.

One of the elements of the book that I really admired was the way in which the author signals that the book is set 60 years ago – it's done very subtly and yet very clearly. For instance, everyone smokes all the time, everyone drinks all the time, houses are lit by coal, and yet, the mentions of cigarettes and alcohol and smokey fuel read very naturally in the text, and not as if they've been shoe-horned in. Similarly, the aftermath of the second world war is brought in very gently and nonetheless reminds you that it was always present for people living in the sixties. I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to think of WW2 as a totally separate period of history from the sixties – and yet as the book makes clear, the characters who are twenty-something in the narrative were children during the war and would clearly remember it.

In the author's acknowledgments, he thanks his agent for allowing him to "keep it weird", and there are aspects of this story that are quite unexpected. Very little seems to happen for the first sixty pages. After that, plotlines start to move more swiftly and I found myself gripped. The ending was very surprising – I don't think anyone would be able to predict it – and I think I would have preferred something more conclusive. Overall, however, I thought this was a great book. I'd recommend it to people who like books with strongly-drawn characters and sense of place, and plots that keep you guessing and don't tie together neatly.

I loved the simple opening chapters introducing the main characters. As they began to interact and reveal their backgrounds it became more complex, more intriguing. The novel was well paced, starting gently, gaining intensity, and culminating in some shocking scenes..

The author alternates between a clear, straightforward style and a deeper way of revealing his characters. I prefer the simplicity over the deeper introspection.

I remember the winter of '62 but was only a child so it was interesting to be reminded of how deeply disruptive it was.

It’s a difficult book for me to review because it simply wasn’t my kind of book. It’s a very slow burn and I think hard to read. The characters are perfectly developed so I think if that’s your go to book you will love it… I didn’t but can appreciate its skill.

An evocative and charming account of the coldest winter on record of 1962, and the events that happen between a country doctor and his wife, and their neighbour farmers, in a small west country village and beyond. The characters are realised in great and subtle detail, their histories shared and revealed slowly and deliberately through the book.

This is such a realistic book that you are lulled into a sense of the domestic, with infidelities and problematic family relationships scattered throughout. But as the story builds it becomes much stranger and more illuminating, and the way Miller presents this is just wonderful.

A thoroughly enjoyable and compelling book.

Another brilliant yarn from Andrew Miller.
With insights into pregnancy and the life of doctors just after the second world war.
A snapshot of how life was really like back then, I guess.
I loved the characters, I loved the description of the deep snow drifts.
It had just the correct amount of weirdness, and unusual characteristics of the main people, I would recommend it both to people who lived in and around the time that the book was set, and to anybody born later that wants to know what life was like back then.
An esay read. Fantastic I loved it.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

In the darkness of an old asylum, a young man unscrews the lid from a bottle of sleeping pills.
In the nearby village, two couples begin their day. Local doctor, Eric Parry, mulling secrets, sets out on his rounds, while his pregnant wife sleeps on in the warmth of their cottage.
Across the field, in a farmhouse impossible to heat, funny, troubled Rita Simmons is also asleep, her head full of images of a past life her husband prefers to ignore. He's been up for hours, tending to the needs of the small dairy farm he bought, a place where he hoped to create a new version of himself, a project that's already faltering.

I loved this book from the start. It’s such a pleasure to read. So well written and involving with three dimensional characters. Great to feel part of the characters lives. Superb descriptions paint pictures on the page.

Such a beautifully written book, telling of two couples in the terrible winter of 1962/63, and how they cope with both challenging weather and challenging domestic circumstances. Miller never takes the direct route, and there are fascinating diversions as he explores the changing landscape, both physical and emotional. Beautiful sense of place, evocative and atmospheric. The ending is perhaps a little abrupt but carries with it its own sense of mystery that is lingering in my head.

Set against the backdrop of the coldest winter in living memory, the novel takes place in the countryside during 1962-63, a time when the relentless cold brings life to a near standstill. The story follows the intertwined lives of two neighbouring couples—Bill and Rita, Eric and Irene—whose circumstances and personalities couldn’t be more different. Bill, a smallholding farmer, and Eric, a country GP, share little in common, and their wariness of each other creates an underlying tension that runs throughout the narrative. Yet, despite the disconnection between the men, a delicate bond forms between their wives. Rita and Irene, coming from vastly different backgrounds, find themselves united by the shared experience of pregnancy, and their friendship becomes a subtle but meaningful thread in the fabric of the story.

The writing is evocative, painting a vivid picture of the frozen landscape and the quiet, often lonely, lives of the characters. The prose has a measured, almost lyrical quality, allowing readers to become completely immersed in the world the author has created. Every moment feels deliberate, with the slow pace of the narrative reflecting both the icy stillness of the countryside and the emotional isolation of the characters themselves. This balance between the external environment and the internal lives of the characters is one of the novel’s strengths. The cold, barren landscape becomes almost a character in its own right, reinforcing the disconnection and loneliness felt by those within it.

However, while the novel’s beautifully detailed world and complex character studies make for an absorbing read, I found the ending somewhat underwhelming. It left me wanting more, not because of any lack in the writing itself, but because the story seemed to end just as I was deeply invested. I longed to see the characters' journeys continue, to know what might happen beyond the final pages. In that sense, the conclusion felt too abrupt, a minor disappointment in an otherwise richly crafted novel.

For readers who appreciate a slower pace and nuanced character development, this book will likely resonate. The author excels at capturing the subtle dynamics of rural life and the quiet struggles of individuals dealing with personal and social isolation. Though it didn’t leave me fully satisfied in the end, it’s a beautifully written novel that offers a profound exploration of relationships, isolation, and the shared human experience. If you're drawn to works that weave together evocative prose with complex emotional landscapes, this is one you’ll want to savour.

http://thesecretbookreview.co.uk

Andrew Miller’s "The Land in Winter" is a beautiful and moving novel. Set in a snowy, cold countryside, the story follows several characters dealing with loss and looking for a fresh start. Miller’s writing makes you feel like you're right there in the freezing landscape, which almost feels like a character itself.
The book is all about how people cope with isolation and how even in the toughest times, they can find unexpected friendships. The story moves at a calm pace, letting you really connect with the characters and the setting.
"The Land in Winter" is a touching and well-written book that stays with you long after you finish it. If you enjoy deep, emotional stories with vivid settings, this is a book you’ll want to read.