A quest into the nature of love and greed, oppression and freedom, courage and corruption – and finally into the nature of grace and the power of the spirit… Despite their differences the moles of Duncton Wood are members of the same once-proud system. I also admire Horwood in that his villains and dark events are truly evil, with no shying back from descriptions of truly monstrous actions and feelings by his characters, while his light events are truly light! Chris from Rochdale The Duncton novels were the first 'adult' books I read, back when I was a ten year old child. Prior to its completion, Duncton Tales, originally conceived as a stand-alone sequel, had evolved into the first volume of a second trilogy. Bracken was born on an April night in a warm dark burrow deep in the historic system of Duncton Wood, six moleyears after Rebecca.

Secondly, for all you avid Horwood fans out there, begging for just a bit more, I have this: The Wolves of Time is another of Horwood's epic stories and definitely a must-read for anyone who enjoyed the Duncton Chronicles. They were shipped from England, where they were published; the pages all brown and yellow, obviously original paperback releases.Moledays, moleyears, molemonths, molefeet, molemiles, molethises, molethats, whatchamamoles, and whoozitmoles.

In 2007, he collaborated with historian Helen Rappaport to produce Dark Hearts of Chicago, a historical mystery and thriller set in nineteenth-century Chicago. I know I cried my eyes out often while working my way through the biggest book I’d ever read, and I read it again back sometime in the 90’s. The themes that I felt were contained in it, other than the overriding theme of love, was the comfort that can be gained from faith when faced with a society that is deteriorating around you.The characters are lovable, you will really care what happens to them and the world they inhabit underground is well developed to the point of fascinating.

Love, laughter, trauma, death, betrayal, redemption, and faith crafted so lovingly into the tale that they are at once jarring and enriching one you step back and equivocation mole to humanity. He has finally accepted who he is, not a fighting mole, but a gentle, spiritual and caring mole, a lover of sun and with a hatred of fighting. Actually, one of the major flaws that I did find in this book was not so much that it was too long but rather that it contained two distinct stories and thus it could have worked much better, and been much more interesting, if Horwood has divided it into two books. However, he didn’t just take over but he also destroyed the religion of the moles as well by preventing them from worshiping at the stone and killing anybody who knew the sacred chants.The book raises questions about faith, religion and tradition as well as the battle between good and evil. It's popular enough in the UK though that I found all the rest in paperback at the WH Smith at Heathrow airport! He has a rare gift for bringing you down to a moles-eye view of the world, although time was difficult for me to follow.

In the west side of the system lives a group of moles, the Westsiders, known for their tough, agressive nature (which is possibly due to the Pasture moles further west). THE DUNCTON CHRONICLES This series of six novels was published over thirteen years, starting with Duncton Wood in 1980. The writing is a pleasure to read and the author is not afraid to face the 'realities' of life for a small country mammal like a mole, with beloved characters being killed off with little emotion but a great deal of effectiveness.Similarly, either the writing is strong to convey the drama, suspense, and emotional impact or it isn't. I do think that both Duncton trilogies are very much written for adults, but that's not to say the children of today can learn a lot from the books' themes. But along comes a hero: a young mole named Bracken who leaves to find himself and a way to win his fight against the evil of Rune and Mandrake while winning the paw of his love, Rebecca, Mandrakes daughter. I never once wanted to skim through any of the descriptive passages, and I really enjoyed the anthropomorphism (now that didn't touch-type quickly) - moles doing the things that moles do, but also interacting like humans in community.