Buy the book
If you want to read The Land Beyond The Green Fields you can buy it from Amazon UK.
You can also buy a copy of the book at all good book shops and Melvich shop and Post Office
Thomas cannot live with his terrible secret. As he heads away from all that he knows and all that he loves he has the word BETRAYAL engraved upon his every thought.
How could his mother do this to him? His beliefs force him on to seek a land he is assured does not exist this side of death. That decision sets in motion a series of events that allows evil to encompass what is left behind, allows those whom he loves to be cruelly tested.
His is a learning journey that brings love and hate, despair and joy in equal measure, mixed with adventures beyond his imagination, shared by a traveling companion whose loyalty is all that matters in this quest. His troubled mother and his autocratic mentor wait at home with the news that will free him from all anxiety.
Will those who follow in his footsteps find him? Will he make it back home to a hero's welcome, or spring the trap that is set to destroy him? Read on and find out…
The Author
Joan Campbell is well known throughout the Highlands of Scotland and beyond for her work in tourism. She also writes a monthly column for the Scottish Provincial Press publication, The Northern Times, as well as articles on tourism when time permits.
Living in the north of Scotland with husband Hugh, having their son Neil and his partner Katrina live close by, Joan considers herself privileged to have grandchildren Shane and Fallon to entertain with intriguing stories of feline behaviour. With her lifelong love of all animals - cats, horses and rabbits in particular, it is little wonder she penned a nail-biting adventure that brings into the picture all three of her favourites, characterised by animals she knew.
The first draft of this story was inspired by the single word, “Hybrid” given by Magnus Magnuson when he corrected a contestant on Master Mind. The images that filled her thoughts crept into her dreams and soon the outline of The Land Beyond The Green Fields had taken hold. The draft progressed from a portable typewriter, encouraged by the only person who knew of its existence, through to a word processor and more encouragement by a select few, then finally onto the computer where it lay, waiting for her growing demands in tourism to allow time to get the story into print.
Reviews
This is a book on many levels - and that is why it appeals across the age range. For a first novel it is a brilliant debut. I am not a cat lover, but I loved this book. It has a friendliness that wraps the reader in the warmest of metaphorical blankets only to take him on a journey that is essentially about the struggle of good and bad, inner peace, integration and of self identity.
It is equally a book that can be read simply as a joyous children's story.
Joan Campbell understands cats and people and anthropomorphism - a real cat-trick! Hence she has pulled-off a difficult but stunning triumph.
ANYONE who happens to live in a cat’s house will be fully aware of what intelligent, haughty, manipulative and independent creatures our furry friends can be.
Few will have looked as far behind this feline façade as Joan Campbell, of The Sheiling, Melvich who, in her first novel, The Land Beyond the Green Fields, explores a cat-centred world in which our near purr-fect companions display character traits and belief systems, not to mention vocabularies, worthy of the most sensitive, civilised and articulate of human beings.
Of course, as in the human world, there are many who let the side down and, as well as the more genteel and fair minded amongst the mousing brigade, there are also those less deserving of approbation whose motives and whose actions would not stand up to scrutiny.
In the background is the Big Cat, the fount of all wisdom, and for cats who keep their noses clean the prospect, some day, of The Land Beyond the Green Fields. Cats in general, as we all know, are pretty good at keeping most of their bits clean, so there should be some hope for all cats but, as in the human world, self-doubt, envy, dishonesty and uncertainty creep in and, when family relationships falter, bad things start to happen to body and soul.
Thomas, hero of the novel, is thus afflicted, fearing that due to the outrageous behaviour of Massie, his mother, he may not be a true cat at all but instead a sterile hybrid between his undoubtedly feline mother and, horror of horrors, a dog! This idea is central to the novel and, curiously, came to Joan serendipitously about 20 years ago while watching an episode of Mastermind on TV. Magnus Magnusson corrected a contestant with the single word, “hybrid” and, in that moment, the idea was born. What would be the worst possible creature to be hybridised with from the feline point of view? A dog surely! And so the idea grew. Does Thomas survive to have his worst fears confirmed? You will have to read the book to discover his fate but, certainly, he passes through a great many adventures on the road to self-discovery.
Though largely a work of fantasy, The Land Beyond the Green Fields is set in a recognisable world reflecting Joan’s own background in the far north and peopled with human characters, some clearly drawn from life, together with others from among our “fellow mortals” like mice, dogs, rabbits and foxes, all of whom to greater or lesser degrees have been conferred anthropomorphic characteristics.
Does it pass the one true test of fantasy, that it engenders the suspension of disbelief? The answer is yes, though there may the occasional moment when this falters, as in the cats’ Elysian myth that at one time cats, rabbits and dogs all played happily together and consumed grass on the green fields. (But perhaps my view has been coloured by real life experience of a black and white pet rabbit of my own which played happily for some time with a black and white cat and a black and white dog but which eventually expired in distressing circumstances for my sisters and myself but also, and much more so, for it.)
The Land Beyond the Green Fields has been many years in gestation and is clearly a labour of love. It is available from local outlets or via the internet bookseller Amazon.
At the moment it is the only book in Joan’s unique style but that is set to change as another volume is currently being considered by an Edinburgh publisher and there are two others on the stocks. These, though, are not continuations of the wonderful world of the cat but reflect a lifetime in the tourist industry, containing numerous anecdotes of interest to those pursuing the trade as well as humorous interludes to amuse the more general reader. Though factual, they are, in Joan’s words, much lighter material than her novel which, with its deadly undercurrents and terrible secrets, makes harrowing reading at times and which she felt she had to get out of the way before moving on to something more malleable.
The Land Beyond the Green Fields won’t be every cat’s dish of milk but its many well constructed vignettes from a wonderful world of the imagination make reading it well worthwhile.
The Land Beyond the Green Fields, by Joan Campbell. Published by Authorhouse at £14.99 (paperback 313pp). ISBN 978-1-4343-2267-8.
Contact Information
Please use the form below to contact me with any feedback or questions you may have about me or this publication.