Heinemann acquires 'captivating' On the Red Hill

William Heinemann has acquired On the Red Hill by Mike Parker, a memoir “of love, acceptance, finding home and the redemptive power of nature”.

Tom Avery did the deal for world rights through Julian Alexander at LAW Agency and said Parker’s book was one of “one of the most captivating works of non-fiction we’ve had the good fortune to consider”.

In 2011 Parker and his partner Peredur (Preds) inherited a remote 18th-century farmhouse in the Welsh hills, a whitewashed “house from the children’s stories”. It was left to them by their friends Reg and George, a couple for over 60 years before they died within a few weeks of each other, aged 94 and 84 respectively.

On the Red Hill tells the story of Rhiw Goch, the Red Hill, but also the story of a community and of “the voices that are often muted in studies of rural life”.

Using four individuals, the four elements and the four seasons for its structure, the book is described as a celebration too of “the ebb and flow of seasons, of an ever-changing landscape, of decades-long relationships, and of the family (both beloved and infuriating) that you find when you least expect it”.

Avery said: “On the Red Hill is a moving and multi-faceted memoir, and one of the most captivating works of non-fiction we’ve had the good fortune to consider. It is a hymn to a magical corner of the world, and a vivid rendering of four lives, and of one home. It is a future classic, we believe, and a book that we are very proud to be publishing at William Heinemann.”

On the Red Hill will be published by William Heinemann in 2019, and by Windmill Books in 2020.