The Siege of Trencher's Farm
First edition
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| Author | Gordon Williams |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Horror, crime |
| Set in | Cornwall |
| Publisher | Secker & Warburg |
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Publication date
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1969 |
| Pages | 225 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 682893422 |
The Siege of Trencher's Farm (1969) is Psychological Horror-Thriller a novel by Scottish author Gordon Williams and first published by Secker & Warburg. The novel was adapted into the film Straw Dogs (starring Dustin Hoffman) by Sam Peckinpah in 1971, and again in 2011, under the same name. It was republished by Titan Books in 2011 with the same title as the films, Straw Dogs, to coincide with the release of the 2011 film.
George Magruder, an American professor of English from Philadelphia, moves with his British wife Louise and their eight-year-old daughter Karen to Trencher's Farm in the town of Dando, Cornwall, England, so that George can finish a book he is writing about the (fictitious) 18th century diarist Branksheer, "a complete man". George and Louise are having marital troubles, causing Louise to become frustrated, and though he wants to George has difficulty in relating to the locals at the pub, The Inn. The locals tell Louise the story of Soldier’s Field, in which locals who together killed a rapist escaped justice as none of them would talk.
In the climax of the book, child killer Henry Niles is being transported back to prison when his ambulance hits ice and crashes. Niles sees blood and flees, worried that he will be blamed, and George accidentally hits him in a snow drift with his car and takes him back to the farm, not knowing who he is. At the same time, a mentally disabled child, Janice Heddon, runs away from a Christmas party. George realises who Niles is and phones for the doctor and police, but the town is cut off to the police by the weather. The doctor was already attending to Janice's mother, and when the locals find out Janice is missing and that the child killer Niles is at Trencher's Farm, Janice's father Tom and his friends knock out the doctor and form an armed vigilante mob to break in. A community leader Bill arrives, but is accidentally killed by the mob. Tom reminds the locals of Soldier's Field, leading them to believe that if they all attack together none will be blamed. George has to fight them off and protect his family, changing from ordered and civilized into enraged and animalistic.
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