''Pollard'' is the

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

of Laura Beatty, first published in hardback in 2008 by Chatto & Windus and the following year in paperback by

Vintage Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random ...

. This was her first novel though she had previously written biographies. It won the Authors' Club First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the

Ondaatje Prize The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...

Plot introduction

The novel concerns Anne, a teenager who leaves her chaotic home life and finds sanctuary in the nearby woods where she makes a new life for herself, foraging and hunting for food and building a house...

Inspiration

The author lives in

Salcey Forest Salcey Forest is a fragment of a former medieval hunting forest east of the village of Hartwell, between Northampton and Newport Pagnell in Northamptonshire. It is managed by Forestry England and to promote biodiversity, and is also commercially ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, one of the few remaining medieval hunting forests in England and which provided the inspiration for the novel, including a tree-top walkway and survival courses.

Reception

* Justine Jordan in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' praises that 'Beatty has a wonderful ear for voice, especially the voices of children, and the characters she constructs through Anne's skewed perception are funny and heartbreaking by turns; but what is really impressive is how she weaves her human comedy with the most powerful

nature writing Nature writing is nonfiction or fiction prose or poetry about the natural environment. Nature writing encompasses a wide variety of works, ranging from those that place primary emphasis on natural history facts (such as field guides) to those in w ...

.' Exploring 'questions of ownership and access, wilderness and desecration. Beatty's forest is both a modern, managed location and a magical place encircling its hundreds of years of history. Anne's hut, must look like a witch's lair . In Pollard, Beatty beautifully conveys the loneliness and the ecstasy of an unknowable character, and the charged, complex presence of the natural world around us. Both are too often only in our peripheral vision; she looks at them directly. This novel heralds an exceptional talent.' *

Olivia Laing Olivia Laing (born 14 April 1977) is a British writer, novelist and cultural critic. She is the author of four works of non-fiction, ''To the River'', ''The Trip to Echo Spring,'' '' The Lonely City'', and ''Everybody'', as well as an essay colle ...

in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' states 'If there is a moral in this fierce and wonderful book, it is that we, the humans, are the ones who will lose out if we continue to desecrate the complex, subtle world we have inherited. But the title suggests a rather more hopeful viewpoint. A pollard is not a natural tree, but one that has been worked by humans, altering its shape. As a symbol, the pollard suggests that something positive and unexpected can arise from our interactions with the wild. Perhaps Anne represents a way of being that remains within our grasp. If that is true, then despite its readability, Pollard is the precise opposite of escapist literature, because it gives the reader back the world.'Copse and robbers
in ''The Observer'' Retrieved 28/10/2020.

References

External links

Review
by

Frank Cottrell Boyce Frank Cottrell-Boyce (born 23 September 1959)"COTTRELL-BOYCE, Frank", ''Who's Who 2010'', A & C Black, 2010; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2009 ; online edn, Nov 200 Retrieved 2010-05-16. is an English people, English screenwriter, ...

Plot introduction

Inspiration

Reception

References

External links

See also