Of course the reviewers are immediately drawn to Trump and Brexit parallels – although I could not help sadly reflect on the level of overlap with the leader of a major left wing party – anti-Zionist, anti-European, distrusting of big business and international finance, and owner of an allotment. Edith Mather vermisst ihre Schwester Mary, die gerade jung geheiratet hat und nun ihrem Ehemann gehorchen muss. Obwohl Mary mit Mann und Baby nicht weit von der elterlichen Farm lebt, ist es im ländlichen Suffolk der 30er Jahre nicht üblich, dass eine verheiratete Frau alltags spontan einen Besuch macht. Als landlose Bauern, die ihre Farm vom Großgrundbesitzer gepachtet haben, sind drei Generationen Mathers erfahrene Landwirte, deren tägliches Leben sich allein um „unser Land“ dreht, um den Betrieb, die Arbeitspferde und das sichere Einbringen der Getreideernte. Marys Heirat hat der Familie verdeutlicht, an welch dünnem Faden das Funktionieren des Betriebes hängt; denn Mary fehlt nicht nur Edith und Mutter Ada als Vertraute, sondern als Arbeitskraft auf dem Hof. Mehr als 10 Jahre nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg befindet sich England mitten in einer Wirtschaftkrise; für die Versorgung des Landes mit Lebensmitteln fehlen besonders in der Landwirtschaft Arbeitskräfte. Spätestens beim Besuch der Großeltern mütterlicherseits muss Edith der Nebenwiderspruch klar sein, dass Haus und Einkommen traditionell allein mit der Arbeitskraft des männlichen Landarbeiters oder Pächters verbunden sind – auch wenn die gesamte Familie den Hof bewirtschaftet. Gingen Haus und Hof verloren, ständen drei Generationen mit leeren Händen da. I would hear Mother calling me in exasperation, but it has always been my habit never to close a book unless I have reached a sentence of seven words exactly in case something dreadful should happen to the farm, or to my family; so I would delay, and often go home to a hiding, because we were expected to work in the fields when we weren’t at school and not to waste time reading books. "

I preferred the company of books to other children, and was frequently chided by my parents after leaving my tasks half-done, distracted by the richer, more vivid world within my head. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. As harvest approaches the pressure on everyone at Wych Farm mounts. Edie’s father isn’t himself – he gets horribly drunk at the summer fair – and Edie is mortified. Meanwhile Edie has her own worries and concerns, one of the boys she grew up with is paying her more attention than she feels comfortable with, she is confused about how she feels and how to deal with the situation.PS For future reference if any of the links above disappear and you want to see the original scans I have copies of them saved). I only have the autumn edition for that year (1967: XXIX, 3). Evidently the discussion began with an enquiry from a Bill Crumly of Oxford, who had 'collected' an example and wanted more information. As the author explains in a closing historical note, a complex set of fragmented groups all drawing from “a murky broth of nationalism, anti-Semitism, nativism, protectionism, anti-immigration sentiment, economic autarky, secessionism, militarism, anti-Europeanism, rural revivalism, nature worship, organicism, landscape mysticism and distrust of big business – particularly international finance”.

I've finally managed to have a look at Judith Barger's Elizabeth Stirling and the Musical Life of Female Organists in Nineteenth-Century England (thanks Google books). It devotes a large section to the song (as Stirling's most well-known) which tells us some things about the origin of the song. From Winnipeg 10, Manitoba, Canada, David Williams writes to say that he too remembers singing the song as a schoolboy, about 1946-7-8 at Bideford Grammar School. There they sang a two-part arrangement from, he thinks, a Curwen score. He sent a copy of the tune as he remembers it.' All among the barley/ Who would not be blithe/ When the ripe and bearded barley/ Is smiling on the side? The core of the book is a brilliant evocation of life on an English farm in the mid 1930s, through the eyes of the narrator Edith, recalling the events of one summer when she was a 14 year old tenant farmer's daughter. The location is not described directly but seems most likely to be Southern Suffolk. I always have a soft spot for books with maps in them, and we get two beautiful maps at the start, one of the village and a larger scale one of the farm. Dave and Toni Arthur pointed to the text in Williams, Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, and added that the song 'is printed with words and tune in vol 5 of the eight volume Franklin Square Collection published by Harper, 1881-91' and that there is a copy in the British Library.You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. Workers rights, women’s rights, political tensions, anti-semitism, historical customs and traditions as well as the introduction of modern working practices and mechanisation are all introduced and thread into the story. ‘Change - we must have it!’ Harrison manages to create a number of threads in the book, and possible triggers for whatever event Edith was referring to in the opening: the threat to the harvest and the suggestion that Edith's father may be in debt; family tensions between Edith's parents and also with the workers on the farm; the inappropriately sexual attention Edith experiences from an older boy; wider political developments and Edith's own, rather fevered, superstitions. But one particularly grabbed my attention as both fascinating and pertinent to the current time. Harrison absolutely captures the last decade of hand, and horse drawn, farming methods, ahead of the mechanisation in agriculture. Young Edith’s (aged 13) adoption and bond with a landrail (corn crake) is a beautiful portrait of the last era of ground nesting birds (before the arrival of tractors).