Over the Hill

This book tells the story of modern day pioneering. It chronicles a family’s move to rural Ireland in the last decade of the twentieth century, and describes their struggle to begin with nothing and build a home on the side of a valley in the hills of County Clare, using a mixture of stones gathered from the fields and concrete.

The family were determined to grow their own food and live as self-sufficiently as was practical, despite the poor soil. It also shows the attitudes of the time, and the generosity, hospitality, and sense of community of their Irish neighbours.

All of life is here and the book is sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic, and always inspiring.

Christine was born in Liverpool, the youngest of three children. Her father died when she was eleven but her mother remarried an American, and the family emigrated when Christine was sixteen. After eight years, one of which was spent at the University of Berkeley, California, Christine returned to England, and two years later she married her childhood sweetheart. In 1995, the couple moved to the Irish Republic with their younger daughter, Tina, and settled in the rural west of the country.