If you like farming (especially sheep farming), hunting and romantic stories, you’ll like this novel. It follows the fortunes of the Delaney brothers – horsey, flamboyant Barry and steady, hard-working Darren – from their native Tipperary to England and back, as they make their way in the world, mature and fall in love. The coming-of-age story features university students and lots of drinking and debauchery. Hunts in Ireland and England are presented as time-honoured rituals. A love of farming, which has “dignity and satisfaction and self-respect”, and a pervading sadness at its erosion in Ireland and imminent disappearance in England are present. There is also much light-heartedness present and although some of the humour is a bit forced and the writing a bit clichéd at times, the plot and characterisation hold attention throughout.
