O, The Brave Music

‘I want to stay just as we are for ever and ever. Just like this; you and me and the moor, and nobody else.’
Ruan Ashley looks back on her childhood in a coming-of-age novel set before the First World War. Ruan is an intelligent and imaginative child, who gradually comes to understand the nuances of the adult world around her as she moves from the Manse, under the strict rule of her father, to Cobbetts, her mother’s ancestral home, and back to the moor above the town where she was born. Her life is shaped by tragedy, but also the warmth of enduring friendships, particularly with David, who shares her love of the wild expanse and colours of the moor.