The Land

The Land by Phil Ryan

Then. A hidden and remote valley, in a place not dissimilar to the wilds of Exmoor. 1967.

A father, his daughter, his son, a hired hand. A farm. It is June 1967 and in Europe the Cold War reaches fever pitch, whilst up on out of the way High View Farm, life goes on unchanged. One week a vicious storm sweeps across the tiny valley washing away the small road that leads across the moors and to the outside world. The Ministry of Defence suddenly choose to appropriate the land for chemical warfare tests. And quickly abandon it. Leaving it fenced in and cut off. But right in the furthest corner lies the tiny farm hidden in the valley. No-one discovers them. The father a ferverently religious man takes this all as a sign from God. He believes the world a wicked place. Then to his horror his daughter falls pregnant but dies in childbirth bearing him two grandsons. The father of her children is unknown. The hired hand disappears.

The brother vanishes. The father now raises his two grandsons alone, cutting them off from all outside contact with the world. The remote farm will support them. The Land is fertile. Grandfather knows best. The Lord knows best. The die is cast. So begins the story of The Land.

Now. A hidden and remote valley, in a place not dissimilar to the wilds of Exmoor. Present day. The Land. 2010. July 28^th. 9.00am.

12 year old Brixton born JD is on the run from the police and social services after escaping from a vehicle taking him to his fourth care unit. The van crashes beside a remote motorway. He stumbles across country stealing both food and weather proof clothing from a small campsite. Onwards he hikes mile after mile. Crawling under a wire fence at night he doesn’t see the Ministry of Defence Keep Out signs. Days pass. Lost out on the vast moorlands he eventually stumbles into a small sheltered valley. And enters The Land.  Exhausted and sick from his ordeal he collapses. He is found by the twin brothers. He is a new thing to them. They have seen no-one else for over forty years. Grandfather is long dead. They nurse JD back to health and so begins the second story of The Land. A twelve year old street wise boy on the run. His father long vanished. He thinks his mother is still in prison not knowing she is out and searching for him. The authorities searching as well. A lost boy. An anguished mother. Two men cut off from the modern world for their entire lives. Lost souls all. Four lives. Two worlds colliding. The Land. Hope grows in the strangest places.

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