Pollard (novel)


Pollard is the debut novel of Laura Beatty, first published in hardback in 2008 by Chatto & Windus and the following year in paperback by Vintage Books. This was her first novel though she had previously written biographies. It won the Authors' Club First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize

Plot introduction

The novel concerns Anne, a teenager who leaves her chaotic home life and finds sanctuary in the nearby woods where she makes a new life for herself, foraging and hunting for food and building a house...

Inspiration

The author lives in Salcey Forest in Northamptonshire, one of the few remaining medieval hunting forests in England and which provided the inspiration for the novel, including a tree-top walkway and survival courses.