Chloe Hadjimatheou

But they didn't seem keen, so he left them alone.

When they got back to Cornwall, they began discussing going into business with Bill.

While on the surface everything looked fine, underneath tensions were building.

Because despite what they were telling others, the couple hadn't made any cider since they took over the farm.

Bill told me that there's an 800-year cider-making tradition at Hay that he didn't want broken.

So each autumn, he'd go down to the farm himself and make a small amount of cider.

He didn't want to pressure Moth because he was concerned about his health.

But in October 2021, soon after the couple had returned from walking 1,000 miles from Scotland to Cornwall, Bill thought it might be a good opportunity to raise the subject.

He keeps detailed diaries and at the time he made a note of the date, the 21st of October 2021, and how they were all sitting around at Hay when he tentatively broached the subject of cider making.

Afterwards, Bill was heading home and he passed by Ruth's place.

And he said, I've had this dreadful news.

And Bill was really upset by that.

Bill told me he'd been close to tears.

He hugged Moth and told him not to give the farm a second thought.

it had been an incredibly profound and moving scene hearing Moth say that he didn't have long to live and that it stayed with him for a long time afterwards.

Soon after that, Bill suggested to Rainer and Moth that he could bring people in for the harvest and to make the cider, but Rainer told him that Moth's pride was hurt by that and so Bill dropped it immediately.

Things carried on into the spring pretty much as before.

Ruth doesn't notice any change in Moth, but then she doesn't know much about his condition.

It's incredibly rare and she has no idea what a man dying of CBD looks like, so she keeps these thoughts to herself.

And then, finally, Rainer's long-awaited third book, Landlines, is published in the summer of 2022.