Plucking at the sighing harp of time

William Trevor is the voice of a civilised Anglo-Ireland capable of apologising for ancient privileges and extensive estates while discreetly lamenting their departure. Laying out and constantly refolding a finely observed landscape (County Cork) of water, rock and sand, of religious divide and class deference, Trevor conveys the baffled rage of Fenian fire-bombers and the sighing flight of their victims to relatives in Wiltshire. Deft touches of irony abound; the upright Gault clan, we are told, have gambled away much of their land to the neighbouring O’Reillys at the card table. The Gaults are yet one more Protestant ‘big house family’ about to leave their rural home because of an incident during the Troubles – low-born intruders carrying cans of petrol and an answering shot from Captain Everard Gault which wounded one of them. Young Lucy, understanding little or nothing of why her parents have decided to leave her beloved Lahardane, stages a carefully planned protest which ends disastrously.