The Divided Wood

by Keith Walton

“The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

A ruined splendour, a white wasteland … what has happened in the great wood?

When his overbearing magnate father dies, Geoffrey believes that he has inherited everything and can at last come into his own. But the old man’s will contains a shock: he has left the estate’s ancient wood, Geoffrey’s secret place, to be “divided equally” between his son and Rolf, a mysterious stranger.

Geoffrey and Rolf meet, divide the wood, and build a fence between them. Each seeks in his half of the wood to realise his deepest dreams: Geoffrey creates at first a realm of solitude, then of culture, finally of spirituality; while Rolf begins from primitive simplicity, evolving his realm into successive expressions of his personality. Different worlds.

But, although separate, their individual paths lead them ineluctably to their interlocked destinies in the ancient wood.

In this tale, told with style and erudition, we share in the making of new worlds, while registering the deep undercurrents of generational and sibling rivalry.

 

Price: Free on request

84 pages
Paperback