The Borrowed Hills

As foot and mouth disease spreads across the hills of Cumbria, emptying the valleys of sheep and filling the skies with smoke, Steve Elliman and William Herne, two neighbouring farmers, join forces to reverse their fortunes by rustling livestock from the south. With the struggles of the land never far away, Steve’s only distraction is his growing fascination with William’s wife, Helen. When their mountain home comes under the sway of a ruthless outsider, it is left to Steve to save himself and what’s left of their farming community, in a savage conflict that threatens an ancient way of life.

A reimagining of the American Western for the fells of northern England, Scott Preston’s thrilling debut tells of men and women battered by circumstance, struggling to make lives for themselves in an unyielding land. Lyrical, cinematic, visceral and steeped in local folklore, The Borrowed Hills is an epic tale of a forgotten Britain.