Hay Days by Fred Archer

Hay Days by Fred Archer

This final book from Fred Archer, written just before he died, recreates the hard times and the joys of the year 1924 on Bredon Hill where he farmed. After the sacrifices of the First World War, the villagers gradually come to terms with the loss of their young men, only to find themselves facing the anxiety of the Depression, and the tragedy of foot-and-mouth disease. As grain and stock prices tumble, they have to find other ways of making a living, and so the land begins to reak of sprouts, as farmers turn to market gardening on the rich black soil. But against this bleak background, we are surrounded by the characters Fred met as boy. Fred Chandler the cowman, who sang hymns to his herd as they munched their bait from the manger. Walt, one of the last real ploughmen, whose faithful horses were his world and granted them regular treats of cattle cake. Sam, who somehow created an orchard on the land and sold blood red wallflowers in the markets of the north. And Fred recalls his own first days as a farmer's boy, straight from school, desperately trying not to plough a 'furrow as crooked as a dog's hind leg'! Alongside the text are his own interesting recollections of how he first came to writing, and a biographical introduction written by a Worcestershire journalist who knew him well.

Fred Archer is a well loved raconteur of country life. Now in his eighties, he has written over twenty books, many of them recreating the tenor and character of farming life during the first half of the twentieth century. The Tibblestone Hundred, was published by Sutton Publishing in 1996, Hawthorn Farm in April 1998.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780750927949
ISBN 10	0750927941
Title	Hay Days
Author	Fred Archer
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	The History Press Ltd
Year published	2001-09-20
Number of pages	160
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.