Highway Cottage weaves the story of a strange homecoming. A young poet travels to the heart of the English countryside - back to the West Country village where he grew up. Descending into the valley where the small riverside community still resides, he finds himself within a dreamlike landscape, peopled by uncanny figures: drone operators and hunters; half-familiar friends; local historians, and braying councillors trying desperately to oust a community of Travellers. Hovering between reality and folklore, the locale is at once idyllic and in decay; the visitor is both unsettled and soothed by it. Slowly, we start to sense that both villagers and poet might be under threat - not just from the future, but from the past. This book-length sequence of poems represents a ground-breaking artistic achievement by acclaimed poet Ralf Webb. Blending the eerie musicality of children's rhymes with echoes of traditional balladry and free verse, Webb has built a collection which swells to an extraordinary chorus. With great clarity and affection, but not a trace of sentimentality, he conjures a precise vision of a rural community, surfacing the deep and urgent tensions - personal, political, and environmental - that run through Britain today. The result is a unique portrait of contemporary country life, enchanting and unnerving in equal measure.
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