The Hardest Winter by Carole Hamilton is a beautifully and realistically drawn novella, showing the hardships of farming life in Scotland today.

Fiona and Drew live and work on a Scottish cattle farm. Beauty contrasts with the never ending chores and muck.

Fiona is suffocated by the monotony of the endless tasks both in the farmhouse and outside. The continual preparation of meals, cleaning, feeding calves and helping with farm chores leaves her exhausted.

At other times she is exhilarated by the magic of the changing seasons and landscape. Often she feels trapped in the repetitive, isolated environment that doesn't offer much scope for interaction with others. When she gets the chance to escape the mundane, her melancholy lifts.

Birth and death infiltrate her life till the harshest of winters with painful circumstances arrive. With this adversity there is always hope of a new future just as winter will always turn to spring.

The ritual of the farming year, ploughing, planting and harvesting are linked to love, loss and new life. Fiona's life is caught in this exquisite and intricate web.