The only family member who shares his Apple interest and is side by side learning with his father, is son, Robert. James and Sadie Goodenough have settled where their wagon got stuck – in the muddy, stagnant swamps of northwest Ohio. It is, for the most part, Robert’s story; in California his knowledge of trees finds him employment with William Lobb, an English seed agent and one of a handful of real historical characters to appear.

This tenet of the American dream too is interrogated, when he can go no further west, and must turn back around ("All of this running made no difference"). Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. James and his wife Sadie are constantly at loggerheads over the production of this essential fruit and the achievement of this seemingly impossible target. A unique and compelling story that looks at broken family, and the ties that bind them coupled with fine historical detail with descriptions of new towns and brutal lives that are vividly and quite brilliantly portrayed.The entrepreneurial American Pioneer is discovering an income stream amid the country's newly discovered natural magnificence – the groves of wondrous trees are the new cash-cow, now that the Goldrush is running dry, and once again, Chevalier seems to be drawing our eye to the corruption in the original ideals of American progress – the pioneer spirit asserting itself over a natural world that might remain beautiful, if simply left alone. I really enjoyed the author’s notes at the end which tells more of the real people who inhabit the pages of this novel and add to the story.

James and Sadie Goodenough have settled where their wagon got stuck - in the muddy, stagnant swamps of northwest Ohio. Even though I had a difficult time with the dark parts of the story , I felt a connection to Robert and was glad that I didn't give up on him before seeing the good man that he becomes and the hope that seemed impossible. It was here that I saw glimpses of some lovely writing as Robert forges his way west , carrying with him the burden of his past and well as his love of trees . I liked the fact "The Last Runaway" was set in the US (where Tracy originates from) but found it very slight, although I enjoyed the details of quilting.Life there is harsh, tempered only by the apples they grow for eating and for the cider that dulls their pain. Her latest novel, A SINGLE THREAD, tells the story of an English woman between the Wars who forges an independent life in Winchester. In this rich, powerful story, Tracy Chevalier is at her imaginative best, bringing to life the urge to wrestle with our roots, however deep and tangled they may be.

James is obsessed with his apple trees and wants nothing more than to see his orchard thrive; Sadie wants nothing more than for the orchard to fail. Robert is an oddly passive character; he falls into jobs, lodgings and relationships largely as a result of other people’s choices. Mark Bramhall, Hillary Huber, Kirby Heyborne, and Cassandra Morris just nailed their parts beautifully. The desperate struggle of the early settlers was convincingly portrayed, and the wide sweep of frontier history, incorporating ranches, the gold rush and the constant movement across the vast, largely empty continent was very illuminating. A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland.

Whether is is Mary Anning, discovering fossils on the beach in the early 1800s (Remarkable Creatures, 2010), or Griet the young Dutch girl who became the model for the artist Vermeer (Girl With A Pearl Earring, 2001), this author's writing always captivates me. Life is harsh in the swamp, and as fever picks off their children, husband and wife take solace in separate comforts.