Of love and slaughter - Angela Huth

George Elkin has loyally trained as a solicitor in order to follow in his father's footsteps and run the family firm. But when his father dies, George resolves to follow his heart instead, taking on the West Country farm he grew up in. With the help of sibling neighbours, his childhood friends Prodge and Nell, George is sure he can adapt to a rural lifestyle. Nell holds feelings for George which she has kept hidden since their childhood and has long had the hope that their friendship would develop into something stronger. But then Lily, a woman George knew in his Oxford days, comes to stay and changes all of their lives and it seems that Nell's hopes will forever remain unfulfilled. All the while, the rural community is facing a threat to its very existence: BSE, foot and mouth, government proposals on hunting - each crisis straining farmers and their livelihoods to breaking point. And George and Prodge are faced with the awful knowledge that their future is out of their hands ...