Synopsis
This audiobook includes exclusive vocal performances of the Mari Llwyd, an old midwinter tradition in Wales.
Moving and chilling, The Hill in the Dark Grove is a story about a lost way of life and the terrifying lengths we go to to protect what we know.
'Richard Elfyn reads exceptionally well . . . he blends the novel’s deep commitment to its setting - both material reality and the rhythms and changes experienced throughout the calendar year that forms its timeframe - with a lively, intriguing interest in the folklore and fantasy underpinning the characters’ lives' - Financial Times
Carwyn and Rhian – the last in a long line of sheep farmers – are living out a brutal year on their hillside farm, deep in the mountains of North Wales.
When Carwyn discovers a buried prehistoric ruin in one of the fields on their land, his curiosity quickly descends into obsession. His wife, Rhian, meanwhile, is confronted with the growing realization that the man with whom she shares her life and home is becoming a frightening stranger.
As the harsh winter closes in, Rhian finds herself alone with her increasingly unrecognizable husband, and the mountains, and the looming megalithic stones.
'Eerie. Dangerous. I loved it' - Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground
'Evocative, tender, terrifying . . . Superb' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies
'A not-to-be-missed novel' - Sunday Times
'Do not read this creepy tale in an isolated cottage' - The Times
'Powerful, inventive and gripping to the very end' - Ian McGuire, author of The North Water
'A hypnotic tale of twisted folklore that won’t let go' - Scott Preston, author of The Borrowed Hills
'Vibrates with unease' - Anthony Shapland, author of A Room Above a Shop
Details
08 January 2026
9781035069460Reviews
Witty, tender, ultimately terrifying. Evocative and deftly done; The Hill in the Dark Grove is a book of echoes, haunted by the sheer vastness of time and landscape, and how they enact upon us and the stories we tell. A celebration of love’s persistence, a summoning of ancient lore, a superb debut
Gracefully and lovingly rendered with the heft of folklore, land and history, The Hill in the Dark Grove evokes, in dazzling detail, the tribulations of everyday life and the grandeur of ancestry. Higginson takes us on a soul-stirring quest to unearth the past in order to anchor the present before it flitters away. A truly bewitching experience!
Richard Elfyn reads exceptionally well . . . he blends the novel’s deep commitment to its setting - both material reality and the rhythms and changes experienced throughout the calendar year that forms its timeframe - with a lively, intriguing interest in the folklore and fantasy underpinning the characters’ lives
'Liam Higginson is a new talent in Welsh storytelling; atmospheric, chilling and incredibly touching, The Hill in the Dark Grove holds the reader in its arms, and shows us how our stories, our objects and memories, are shaped and held by the land'
