Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,23 Jun 2026,14 mins

Available for 29 days

There are more changes in store for the family, as the children grow up. Eugene makes an extraordinary discovery; Liam faces the consequences of his dream; and Enda takes a huge decision. Inspired by Maggie O’Farrell’s own family history, this spellbinding story follows a family’s struggle for survival in aftermath of the Great Hunger. On a windswept peninsula in the west of Ireland in 1865, Tomás and his son Liam are working for the Ordnance Survey to map the whole country. The landscape is scarred by deserted villages, entire populations lost to famine. Land is the story of their family’s life, in the years and decades that follow. The bestselling author of Hamnet returns with her tenth novel, a soaring history set in Ireland. Read by Brian Gleeson, best known for his roles in Bad Sisters, Love/Hate, Peaky Blinders and Under Salt Marsh. Music: Veil of Mist by Caroline Dale Reader: Brian Gleeson. Abridger: Sara Davies Production Co-ordinator: Alison Crawford Mixed by Caitlin Gazeley Producers: Fay Lomas and Mary Ward-Lowery

Programme Website
More episodes