Before I Go

Synopsis

A year on a Cutteslowe estate, watched over by Shep Meadows: ninety-seven years old, four foot twelve, and quite unable to make himself understood.

Shep Meadows is ninety-seven, four foot twelve, and unintelligible to almost everyone on his Oxford estate. He has lived in the same Cutteslowe house since 1932, surrounded by four generations of his sprawling family. Every morning he walks. He watches. He eavesdrops. He sees more than anyone.

Earlier this year his beloved great-niece Angel died in circumstances no one has explained. Goaded by his nephew Filbert’s casual remark that God has perhaps forgotten him, Shep resolves to tell what happened – and to do so he must tell us about all the others in whose lives the child once nestled, his little bird.

Across twelve months of comedy, grief and slow revelation, Shep gives us his estate in full: Grandma, Lulu and Elvis, Josie home from the army, the Earl of Cutteslowe, Jules at the Community Centre. A wise and tender state-of-the-nation novel told from four feet twelve off the ground.

Praise for Previous Work

‘(On The Horseman) A novel that is as moving and profound as it is evocative of the landscape and period.’ —Observer

‘(On The Wanderers) Goodness, Tim Pears writes beautifully … The descriptions of rural life, executed with painterly exactness, are a constant delight. The prose really sings.’ —Mail on Sunday

‘(On The Wanderers) Pears takes his place alongside Flora Thompson and Ronald Blythe – even Hardy – as one who teaches us the real nature of country as it used to be.’’ —Melissa Katsoulis, The Times

‘(On The Redeemed) His prose is luminous … Pears’ fiction has been likened to Thomas Hardy’s, and the comparison is apposite … powerful, vivid and humane.’ —Hannah Beckerman, Observer

‘(On the West Country Trilogy) A gorgeously hypnotic paean to rural England … peppered with moments of awestruck wonder at the natural world.’ —Melissa Harrison, The Guardian