Back in 2001 the BBC made a 10 hour tv drama from this book. It was remarkable. Trance like and strange to begin with, filled with silence and dance, as I recall, then emerging into a state of the nation piece, telling the story of a man and his family over decades as strikes, riots, love, loss, madness and much more played out under an English sky. No logic or understanding as to why the series disappeared. Never repeated so far as I know. Released on VHS back in the day just as VHS turned to DVD. It was lost and never found. I'd like to say I have good news and I just found it, under the stairs, beneath the sole of a well loved boot, but no. It's gone. Until some momentary act of will storms it from its hiding and we can all enjoy it again. In the meantime we have the book it was based on. Almost 600 powerful pages sweeping back the pages of time to reveal multitudes. It's not perfect, but I enjoy a messy book. It sometimes doesn't feel sharp enough and the language sometimes seems a tad prosaic, but hey what a tale, what characters, what a rich tapestry with multiple tragic endings. Too many really. The omelette may have been over-egged. But we don't care. No one does. Great stuff and well worth a read. And while you are ploughing though it perhaps someone will find the lost master of the telly show and bring it back for us all.
