This is such a well written book, I really enjoyed it once I got into it.
The story of Miss White, a woman who lived in the author's village 80 years ago, a pioneer who realised her ambition to become a farmer during the Second World War, and how she worked to become accepted within this community. Nicola Chester, too, dreamed of becoming a farmer but working with horses was the only path open to her. Was it easier for women to become farmers in the 1940s than it is now? Moving between Nicola's own attempts to work outdoors and Miss White's desire to farm a generation earlier, Nicola explores the parallels between their lives - and the differences. Miss White buys a derelict farm and begins to renovate and modernize it. As ghost (barn) owls flit between these two worlds, Nicola draws connections with farming and rural life in both times, from the role of women in rural communities in the modern day to Miss White's experience in the 1940s.
The difference between the wildlife on the farmland then and now is quite frightening. Nicola is fighting to help preserve the few birds that remain, fighting against Big Business - which is what most farms are now. Living as a tenant in a farm cottage neighbouring the farm where Miss White farmed during the war Nicola finds all the information Miss White left in the record office and finds the stone that marks her burial in the churchyard.
This sounds like a fascinating read and it in my list now.
ReplyDeleteOh Sue that sounds so interesting, going to request it from the library. Thank goodness we still have one, it has shrunk in size though. The original one was knocked down, flats built on the site😡 They put the new one in the bank that closed, that’s progress? Thanks for sharing your books. June
ReplyDeleteVery interesting books. Can I point out not all farms are "Big Business" aiming at eliminating the environment. Most are generational farms but the big ones hit the headlines. Each generation tend to preserve or develope a particular area such as woodlands, ponds or wildlife usually as they start to let the younger generation run more of the farm. All farmers are also the first to be pursued for any detrimental work. Any changes to the land are scrutinised by DEFRA before anywork or just not allowd eg Farmers are not allowed to cut hedges from March to September but the public can including horse owners,no matter how big their area is The Big Farms just have more money to get round these rules. Su
ReplyDelete.
That sounds like an interesting read. We don't often hear about women in agriculture, other than farmers' wives.
ReplyDeleteI read Copsford a couple of years ago and was amazed by the weight of plants he was collecting from the countryside long before the advent of modern herbicides. The range probably wasn't that different to today, but the volume was staggering.
Looks like a good read
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
Something vanished! In your intro on my feed you say interesting things about women wanting to farm, but that's not in the post! I was interested in seeing what you were saying but it's gone! Something about horses.
ReplyDeleteThat's a mystery - the post here is as I wrote it
DeleteHere's a weird thing. I came back in and now the post is complete! Evidently my feed cut off a lot of the opening on my first pass.. All good now. I would have done better to wait and try again. Too impatient.
DeleteI never would have wanted to be a farmer. Sounds like such an exhausting life!
ReplyDeleteSadly, I suspect, traditional farming has vanished.
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds outstanding. Lucky find.
Then and now - two different worlds.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds an interesting read, but I agree about the wildlife. I can remember seeing Water Voles regularly, swimming even in a polluted stream across Weston Common. Now a rarity. Peewits too - common as Sparrows, and a delight to see in the ploughed fields. I can remember beautiful Elm trees before Dutch Elm disease decimated them. I am fortunate here as there is a big one on the field margin at the end of my trackway, and lots of young trees in the hedgerows hereabouts. Seems DED didn't reach this far.
ReplyDeleteSadly, gone are the days when farmers like our friends Bryan and Mary, who farmed in Yorkshire in the 1960s/70s, would walk the fields and mark the nests of ground-nesting birds before cutting for hay.