"Overcome with grief at her husband’s death, Lady Franklin, an eligible young widow, unburdens herself to Leadbitter – a gallant, hard-bitten ex-soldier who has invested his savings in the car he drives for hire – as he takes her on a series of journeys. He in turn beguiles her with stories of his non-existent wife and children, drawing her out of her self-absorption and weaving a dream-life with Lady Franklin at its heart. Half-hoping to make his dream come true, Leadbitter takes a bold, not to say reckless, step which costs him dearly, and brings these characters’ tangled story to a dramatic and unexpected conclusion. With the same quality and beauty of writing found in The Go-Between, The Hireling’s nuanced portrayal of post-war England holds a poignant narrative on loneliness and redemption."
"Richard Mardick is an elderly man with a secret that he has kept since his youth. He recounts his memories to his young protégé and secretary so that his story can be preserved. Faced with illness, the teenage Richard was sent to live with different relatives while being trained as a farmer. Lonely and stifled by family life, he then met a girl and his life changed… with shattering significance for his future. Haunting and subtle, L.P. Hartley’s The Brickfield is a beautifully crafted companion to The Go-Between, exploring childhood and adolescence through the eyes of an adult."
"‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ Haunting, moving, evocative, The Go-Between is L.P. Hartley’s heartbreaking novel about social constraints and childhood innocence. During the long hot summer of 1900, young Leo Colston is invited to stay for a month at a lordly, aristocratic manor in Norfolk. There he falls in love with his friend’s older sister, who commissions him to ferry secret messages to the local farmer, her lover. His naiveté sustains their affair, until ultimately leading to an event that will change their lives irrevocably."
