SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE
AUTHOR'S CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2025 LONGLISTED FOR THE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2025
'Viscerally vivid . . . a sucker-punch of a novel edged with knife-sharp black humour and shot
through with moments of startling beauty . . . half Tarantino and half pitch-black northern
realism' Guardian 'A tremendously exciting novel . . . A brilliantly realized voice: Steve's
every utterance is the product of where he comes from . . . as blunt and brutal as the fells he
works among' Times Literary Supplement 'A spiky precisely focused novel with flavour
intensity and oodles of character' The Times 'Preston's debut arrives like a punch to the
gut . . . This is an elemental tale shaded in tones of heroism machismo moral intensity and
mythmaking. It's also a love song to the landscape . . . Gritty gripping and fearlessly
committed' Kirkus 'Exhilarating and so eccentric and epic it feels like a Coen brothers
film. A brilliant new modern voice . . . so unique so dark and so bleak and yet it rises to
breathtaking heights of poetry' Russel T Davies 'Taught intelligent and beautifully told' M.
J. Hyland 'A startlingly original addition to the literature of northern England' Ian McGuire
'A powerful evocation of a landscape and a way of life' Joseph Kanon With foot and mouth
disease spreading across the hills of Cumbria emptying the valleys of sheep and filling the
skies with smoke two neighbouring shepherds lose everything and put aside their rivalry to
join forces. They set their sights on a wealthy farm in the south with its flock of
prize-winning animals. So begins the dark tale of Steve Elliman and William Herne. Their
sheep rustling leads to more and more difficult decisions and Steve's only distraction is his
growing fascination with William's enigmatic and independent wife Helen. As their home comes
under the sway of a lawless outsider it is left to Steve to save himself and Helen in a savage
conflict that threatens an ancient way of life. Lyrical cinematic and steeping in folklore
Scott Preston creates an uncompromising vision of farmers lost in brutal devotion to their
flocks the aching love affairs that men and women use to sustain themselves and the painful
consequences of a breathtaking heist gone bad. The Borrowed Hills is a thrilling adventure that
reimagines the American Western for the fells of northern England.
