The Wolf Pit: A Moorland Romance

In 1966 Will Cohu’s grandparents moved to Bramble Carr, a remote cottage on the Yorkshire moors. The summers and winters he spent there were full of freedom and light; only after childhood ended was he aware of the price the adults had paid for life in this most romantic of settings. Navigating family tensions and the trials of growing up, Will describes the close-knit community of North Yorkshire and his family’s place within it; shepherd Frank Raw probing the head-high snowdrifts at Fryup Dale for signs of his flock; Bob Robinson, patrician doctor and obsessive antiquarian; John Kenney, pub landlord and hoarder of military memorabilia; Will’s glamorous RAF parents; and, at the centre of the story, his beloved but enigmatic grandparents, talented children of the old working classes, searching for a home in a changing world. The Wolf Pit depicts a rural England that is passionate, funny and frightening; an idyll shot through with drink and disappointment that also offers the space in which we might make sense of what life throws at us. The story moves from children’s sledging adventures at Bramble Carr to the emptiness of the Australian outback, where Will’s uncle Robert slips from the embrace of his brother into lonely self-destruction. Exquisitely written, and flecked with sharp wit and tender insight, The Wolf Pit is an enquiring love letter from Will Cohu to his family, and a moving account of our struggle against the elements without and within.