The Giant on the Skyline

Faced with the sudden prospect of uprooting her young children to move to the US, while her eldest flies the nest to university, the acclaimed memoirist and nature writer considers what home means, and what ties us to the places we love.

What is it that makes a home? What is a home without the roots that tie you to a place? What is a home when a family is split?

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. Forced to leave the home she loves and consider these questions, Clover sets out to explore the place where she lives, walk the Ridgeway, understand a little of the history of her landscape, and work out why it is that it is so hard for her to go.

In doing so she paints a beautifully layered portrait of family, community, and belonging in a landscape that has drawn people to it for generation after generation.

The Giant on the Skyline delves into these themes, offering readers a poignant exploration of what it means to find where we truly belong.