As Far as the Eye Can See

Description

A Non-Fiction Narrative of the Last Family to Live in Barmoor Castle - a family autobiography in novel form Herein, Simon Sitwell explores his family’s collective story, shifting his point of view among its members. The Patriarch, General Sitwell, a survivor of the most famous battles of Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, dies in retirement, leaving his eldest son, spiteful, unprepared, and with limited abilities, in charge of the family heritage. This is a very different Sitwell family. Its members relate to each other only in their ancestral home, Barmoor Castle, where their worlds overlap. Military medals define the men; and politics and spiritualism the women. The General served at Khartoum, Gallipoli, the Transvaal, in the 2nd Afghan War, and on India’s north-west frontier. His younger son, Simon, won the Distinguished Flying Cross in WW2, but when dealing with his mother, an aesthete novelist, and his weak, resentful older brother, Simon is at a loss. The treasures of generations, the campaign medals themselves, are in danger as the estate diminishes. Barmoor, originally set on the bare moor, grew over time into a border castle with its owners mining, defending, and enjoying the flourishing land as far as the eye could see in every direction. With the family identity threatened and the medals, paintings, and all else beyond compare about to be lost, Simon steps in as protector.